Baldwin, William James : 1844-1924

Name: William James Baldwin (St. John)

Occupation : mechanical engineer
Born : June 14, 1844, on shipboard, birth recorded at Waterford, Ireland
Died : May 7, 1924

Parents : Son of Captain John and Glovanna Caterina [San Giovanni] Baldwin

Education: Boston and Charlottetown (St. Dunstan’s) P.E.I., 2 years special training in naval architecture; studied navigation drawing, engineering and physics; married.

Began in mechanical engineering and naval architecture, 1863; special work in naval construction during Civil War; was with Donald McKay, “prince of ship builders”, at East Boston, in the construction of 3 monitors and the conversion of several blockade runners into U.S. cruisers; in the Brazilian service as assistant naval construction, 1866-1867.

Was the first domestic engineer in the high building of New York, the old Tribune Building being among his early works; consulting engineer and designer for the U.S. War College, Washington, DC., U.S. Immigrant Station, New York Harbor, U.S. Soldiers’ Home Tennessee, etc. and consulting engineer for Department of Health, City of New York hospitals and power plants; over 24 years consulting engineer for New York Telephone Company and Empire City Subway Company.
Associate editor Engineering Record 1880-1889; lecturer and professor of thermal engineering Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

Member of Commission American Society of Mechanical Engineers that formulated the standard pipe threads, (known as “The Briggs formula) for U.S.A and Canada, 1886; member of the international commission for the formulation of an international standard for pipes and fittings; member of special committee American Society of Mechanical Engineers for electric screw thread standards.

Honorable member of American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers; member American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Telephone Pioneers of America, life member American Institute of Architects (Brooklyn chapter).

Author : Steam Heating for Buildings, 1881; Hot Water Heating and Fitting, 1887; Baldwin on Heating, 1890; Data for Heating and Ventilation, 1897; An Outline on Ventilating and Warming, 1899; The Ventilation of the School-Room, 1901; contributor to Dictionary of Architecture and Building.

Home : 151 Halsey Street
Office : 5 Court Square, Brooklyn, New York

~  Who's Who in America, Vol. 13, 1924-1925, Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis, Printed by A. N Marquis & Company in Chicago, IL, Page 295 (Necrology page 164).

You can visit the memorial page for William James Baldwin.