BOYDEN, Seth, American inventor: b. Foxboro, Mass.. 17 Nov. 1785; d. Middleville, N. J., 31 March 1870. He was brought up on it farm, and attended a district school. Mechan ically inclined, he spent much time experiment ing in a blacksmith shop. His first invention was a machine for making nails, and in 1809 he undertook to manufacture both nails and files. Soon afterward he invented a machine for split ting leather, and in 1815, he took it to Newark, N. J., where he engaged in the leather busi ness. In 1816 he invented a machine for cut ting brads, and followed this by the invention of patent leather, which he manufactured till 1831. when he began making malleable iron castings, on a system of his own. Another in vention was one for making hat bodies and a process for making Russia sheet iron. In 1835 he turned his attention to steam engines; sub stituted the straight axle for the crank in loco motives; and invented the cut-off now used instead of the throttle valve. In 1849 he went to California, but was unsuccessful, and re turned to New Jersey, where he applied him self to farming, and developed a variety of strawberry previously unequaled in size or qual ity. In 1890, a statue was erected to his
memory in Washington Park, Newark, N. J., where he spent the greater part of his life.
BOY1i, Martin Hans, chemist and genealogist: b. Copenhagen, Den mark, 6 Dec. 1812; d. 1909. He was a graduate from the University of Copenhagen and from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1844. He came to the United States in 1836 and jointly discovered several chemical compounds, as well as perchloric ether in 1841. In 1845 he discovered the first process of refining cotton-seed oil. He was professor of chemistry at the Central High School in Philadelphia, 1845-59, retiring in the year last named. He published 'Pneumatics, or the Physics of Gases' (1856) ; 'Chemistry, or the Physics of Atoms' (1857).