Matthias William Baldwin
Matthias William Baldwin (born December 10, 1795 in Elizabethtown , New Jersey , USA ; † September 7, 1866 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA) was an American industrialist .
Baldwin was born in Elizabethtown , New Jersey , the youngest of five children of a wheelwright . After the early death of his father, he learned the trade of goldsmith and silversmith, which he practiced from 1819. In 1825 he gave up his profession to become a partner in a company for engraving and bookbinding tools, of which he became the sole owner in 1827. In the same year he married Sarah C. Baldwin, a distant cousin.
On April 25, 1831, Baldwin's newly founded company, Baldwin Locomotive Works , presented a model railroad in Philadelphia with two cars that could each carry four passengers. The locomotive was heated with local coal instead of the usual coke . This aroused the interest of the local railroad company Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Railroad , which also soon commissioned the first locomotive. This is how the famous Old Ironsides steam locomotive , one of the first successful US steam locomotives , was created in 1832 .
The Baldwin Locomotive Works , which was located in Eddystone from 1912 , became the world's largest steam locomotive manufacturer, which also supplied machines to Europe , Asia and Africa .
literature
- John K. Brown: The Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1915: A Study in American Industrial Practice . Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8018-6812-2
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Baldwin, Matthias William |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American industrialist |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 10, 1795 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Elizabethtown , New Jersey , United States |
DATE OF DEATH | September 7, 1866 |
Place of death | Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States |