Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Haupt, Herman

HAUPT, Herman, engineer, b. in Philadelphia, 26 March, 1817. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1835, and entered the 2d infantry, but resigned on 30 Sept. following. and was assistant engineer on the public works of Pennsylvania until 1839. He was appointed in 1844 professor of civil engineering and mathematics in Pennsylvania college, Gettysburg, and filled that chair until 1847, when he became principal engineer of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad, of which he was made superintendent in 1849. From 1856 till June, 1861, he was chief engineer of the Hoosac tunnel in Massachusetts. During the civil war he was aide to Gen. Irwin McDowell, with the rank of colonel, and chief of the bureau of U. S. military railways, in charge of construction and operation. In September, 1862, he declined the appointment of brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1875 he acted as general manager of the Piedmont air-line railway from Richmond, Va., to Atlanta, Ga. Since 1875 he has been chief engineer of the Tide-water pipe line company, and he has demonstrated the feasibility of transporting oil in pipes for long distances. He was also for several years general manager of the Northern Pacific railroad. Col. Haupt invented a drilling-engine, which took the highest prize of the Royal polytechnic society of Great Britain. He is the author of “Hints on Bridge-Building” (1840); “General Theory of Bridge-Construction” (New York, 1852); “Plan for Improvement of the Ohio River” (1855); and “Military Bridges” (New York, 1864). — His son, Lewis Muhlenberg, engineer, b. in Gettysburg, Pa., 21 March, 1844, was educated at the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard, and at the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated in 1867. He was lieutenant of engineers in the lake surveys in 1868, and in 1869 engineer officer of the 5th military district, Texas. He resigned in August of that year, and was appointed engineer of Fairmount park, Philadelphia. In April, 1872, he became assistant examiner in the U. S. patent-office, and in September of that year he was chosen assistant professor of civil and mechanical engineering in the University of Pennsylvania, and soon thereafter professor of civil engineering, which chair he still (1887) fills. Prof. Haupt, in April, 1886, patented an automatic system for improving rivers and harbors, and of maintaining channels by an adjustable deflecting shield, suspended by buoys, floats, or barges. He is editor of the “American Engineering Register,” and has published “Engineering Specifications and Contracts” (Philadelphia, 1878); “Working Drawings, and How to Make and Use Them” (Philadelphia, 1881); and “The Topographer — his Methods and Instruments” (Philadelphia, 1884).