EADS, edz, JANtEs An ominent American engineer and inventor. lie was born in Lawrenceburgh. Ind.. but removed to Saint Louis in 1833: beeame a clerk on a Mis sissippi steamboat in 1S39: and. engineering by himself. set out to solve some of the problems of navigation on that river. By the outbreak of the Civil War he had achieved fame and a fortune. and was accounted such an authority on everything pertaining to the ,)lis sissipni and its navigation that. soon after the fall of Fort Sumter. he was called to Washing ton to eonsult with President Lincoln and his Cabhwt as to the practicability of maintaining it fleet of light on the 'Western rivers. Later in the year 1861 he obtained the Govern ment contract for the construction of such a fleet, and achieved the remarkable feat of placing in the water. fully equipped. seven ironclad river gunboats, largely of his own lle-igning, in the short space of one hundred (lays. It was with these gunboats, a month before the struggle' between the Merrimac and the Monitor, that the capture of Fort Henry was effected. From 1867 until
I87-1 Eads was engaged in the construction of the steel arch bridge across the Mississippi at Saint Louis. which ranks as one of the finest bridges in the world. After the completion of this work he began studying the problem of deepening the chan nel at the mouth of the INlississippi, and finally persuaded the Government to allow him to under take the enterprise at his own risk. his plan, which provided for the eonstru•tion of jetties. was carried out successfully, and was the crown ing achievement of his career. The latter years of his life were spent in extensive engineering operations both in America ?ad Europe, and the planning of a ship-railway across the 1 of Tehuantepec. In ISS4 he reeeived the' award of the Albert medal conferred by the British Society for the Eneourntement of Arts, Mann factnrcs. and Commerce. he being the first Ameri can to receive the award. Consult How. James B. I:ads I Banton. 191)0). one of the "Riverside Biographies."