Shreve, Henry Miller

Shreve, Henry Miller
born Oct. 21, 1785, Burlington county, N.J., U.S.
died March 6, 1851, St. Louis, Mo.

U.S. inventor and explorer.

He grew up on the western Pennsylvania frontier and began making trading voyages after his father's death in 1799. In the War of 1812 he was skipper of the Enterprise, the second steamboat on the Mississippi, carrying supplies for Andrew Jackson's army. Though it was the first steamboat to reach Louisville, Ky. (1815), the trip convinced Shreve of the need for a new design for river steamers. His design for the Washington
with a flat shallow hull, a steam engine on the main deck, and a second deck
established the Mississippi steamboat type. To clear rivers of debris, he later designed the first snag boat. His camp on the Red River in Louisiana grew into a permanent settlement as Shreveport.

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▪ American engineer
born Oct. 21, 1785, Burlington county, N.J., U.S.
died March 6, 1851, St. Louis, Mo.

      American river captain and pioneer steamboat builder who contributed significantly to developing the potential of the Mississippi River waterway system.

      Shreve's father was a Quaker who nevertheless served as a colonel in the American Revolutionary War and lost all his possessions at the hands of the British. Destitute, the Shreves were forced to emigrate to the western Pennsylvania frontier. When his father died in 1799, Shreve began to make trading voyages by keelboat and barge down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers. In 1807 he inaugurated the fur trade between St. Louis and Philadelphia, by way of Pittsburgh, and in 1810 he began carrying lead from Galena, Ill., near the upper Mississippi. He became a stockholder and skipper of the Enterprise (the second steamboat on the Mississippi), carrying supplies in 1814 for Andrew Jackson's army and taking part himself in the Battle of New Orleans. In May 1815 the Enterprise with Shreve at the helm became the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi and Ohio to Louisville, Ky. Shreve, however, saw the need for an entirely new design for river steamers and had built to his specifications the Washington, with a flat, shallow hull, a high-pressure steam engine on the main deck instead of in the hold, and a second deck. His round trip in the Washington in 1816 from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and back to Louisville definitely established the Mississippi steamboat type.

      In 1827 Shreve was appointed superintendent of western river improvements and designed the first snag boat to remove from the river system the sunken tree trunks that often wrecked steamboats. In the 1830s he undertook the removal of an accumulated underwater obstruction of the Red River known as the Great Raft; his success opened northern Louisiana to development, and his workcamp turned into a permanent settlement as Shreveport.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Henry Miller Shreve — Infobox Engineer image width = 200px caption = Captain Henry Miller Shreve name = PAGENAME nationality = American birth date = October 21, 1785 birth place = death date = March 6, 1851 death place = education = spouse = parents = children =… …   Wikipedia

  • Miller — Miller, Arthur Miller, George A. Miller, Glenn Miller, Henry Miller, índices de * * * (as used in expressions) Mary Boykin Miller Hemingway, Ernest (Miller) Miller, Arthur Miller, George A(rmitage) Miller, (Alton) Glenn Miller, Henry (Valentine)… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Miller — /mil euhr/, n. 1. Arthur, born 1915, U.S. playwright and novelist. 2. Glenn, 1904 44, U.S. dance bandleader and trombonist. 3. Henry, 1891 1980, U.S. novelist. 4. Joaquin /wah keen /, (Cincinnatus Heine Miller), 1841 1913, U.S. poet. 5 …   Universalium

  • henry — /hen ree/, n., pl. henries, henrys. Elect. the SI unit of inductance, formally defined to be the inductance of a closed circuit in which an electromotive force of one volt is produced when the electric current in the circuit varies uniformly at a …   Universalium

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  • Henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * henry …   Enciclopedia Universal

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  • Shreve — can refer to:People* Anita Shreve, author * Henry Miller Shreve (1785 1851), American inventor and steamboat captain * Milton William Shreve (1858 1939), US Congressman from Pennsylvania * Porter Shreve, author * Susan Shreve, novelist * Larry… …   Wikipedia

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