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chapter 2 The University of Experience apart from the east coast, North America was thinly populated in the early nineteenth century, with few roads and little communication existing between the populace in the East and settlers living west of the Allegheny Mountains . To open up the inaccessible, or what some easterners called “worthless,” wilderness required an effective transportation system. The railroad promised to provide that, but first, miles of iron needed to be laid cheaply and rapidly over a rough and seemingly impenetrable landscape. The sixteen-year-old Octave Chanut had read that engineers working for the expanding railroads needed to possess universal knowledge. To become a civil engineer, not a military engineer and not just a surveyor, he had much to learn, but he felt sure that intelligent and earnest work would provide his key to success.1 In due time, Octave hoped to make a name for himself, earn income, and find reward in wealth and status. His first order of business was to find a job. To succeed when calling on a future employer, Octave needed to follow standard etiquette. He gave himself a haircut and dressed as well as his meager means allowed. Before leaving home, his father reminded him to wear his black gloves; however, there was a gaping hole in one of the fingers. Knowing how to sew buttons and mend holes in his socks, the teenager took along needle and thread; he would have plenty of time to fix the glove while he traveled on the steamer upriver to Sing Sing, or modern-day Ossining, New York, to meet with his hoped-for future employer. Apprenticing on the Hudson River Railroad The construction of a railroad to connect New York City with the state capital, Albany, first came under consideration in 1833, but was dropped owing to lack of funding. The citizens of Poughkeepsie, located about halfway between New York and Albany, revived the project in 1846 and hired John B. Jervis as chief engineer. He began construction a year later. 12 Chapter 2 Forty years earlier, Robert Fulton’s steamboat had moved up the Hudson by paddle wheel at a speed of four miles per hour. In September 1848, the steamboat with Octave Chanut onboard traveled a little faster, arriving at Sing Sing in six hours. He headed at once to the headquarters of the Hudson River Railroad and introduced himself to the chief engineer, Jervis. Octave explained that he wanted to become a civil engineer, and asked for employment. Looking at the slender teenager, wearing his best clothes, Jervis did not think that he should hire him, so his reply was simple and discouraging; there were no vacancies. Determined to begin his professional career, Octave then offered to work without pay to prove himself an industrious worker. Jervis knew that he needed good people to reach Poughkeepsie within the next six months, as mandated by the shareholders. Looking at Octave again, he thought he recognized him as the fellow passenger, traveling on the same boat that morning, who had busily repaired his glove. When asked, Octave shyly admitted that he did mend his glove. This provided enough justification for Jervis, who assigned him to Henry Gardner’s survey party with the comment, “Well, I think you are careful and industrious and deserve a trial.” The career of Octave’s first supervisor, Henry A. Gardner,2 was typical for civil engineers learning the trade in the early nineteenth century. Beginning in 1836 as a survey rodman, Gardner gained experience in locating railroads through a country of varying obstacles and moved to New York a decade later to become assistant chief engineer for the Hudson River Railroad under Jervis. When Octave began his “employment,” Gardner’s survey party was working near Poughkeepsie. The party consisted of a corps of axemen who cut away trees and bushes, a transitman who, with his chainmen and flagmen, recorded the distances and angles of the line, and the leveler, who recorded the grade. The chief engineer then finalized the location of the new line. Gardner took a liking to the teenager, who reminded him of his own career beginnings, and he assigned Octave to work with each member in his group. This on-the-job apprenticing provided opportunities to observe and ask questions , but also to participate in hands-on applications and calculations. The mystery of the level, the taking of sights, and the computations were all new experiences to Octave; as a good mentor, Gardner made...

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