This post has nothing to do with Keepa’s usual topic. I’m merely using Keepa as a place to park this information, in hopes that Google might eventually bring the right person here.
Louis James Claude (1825-1893) was a civil engineer, born in England, who was involved with the mechanics of locomotives, steam-driven ships, and similar engines. He obtained several patents in the 1840s. In 1851 he emigrated to the United States, and after short stays in Ohio and Kentucky, settled in Sauk County, Wisconsin. He married Elvira Ward in 1856, and was the father of two children – one of them, Louis Ward Claude, became a noted architect.
I am in possession of the 1843 notebook of Louis James Claude, which records the specifications for numerous engines, some general information on calculating diameters and lengths of various engineered parts, and the estimates of costs of some engines. There are a few sketches (not many) of mechanical parts, with measurements given.
I would like to place this notebook in the archives of some institution that would both preserve it and make it available for study by interested parties. I’ve written to the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, where Louis W. Claude’s (the son’s) papers are archived, but have received no response. Sauk County, Wisconsin has an active local history society that might accept this, and I will donate it there if nothing else turns up – but I would rather place it where it wouldn’t be just a relic of the man, but a potential object of study by historians of engineering.
The item is not for sale. I am interested only in donating it where it can be preserved and used by scholars, whether that be in the United States or in Claude’s native England. I might ask you to pay for shipping if it goes overseas or requires insurance, but otherwise there are no costs involved.
If you represent an appropriate institution, please contact me at AEParshall [at] aol [dot] com.
(Please, Keepa’ninnies, if you have read this far, I mean this only to sit “out there” to be found by the right person. It would not be at all useful to post suggestions like “Why don’t you see if there is a civil engineering school in England?” or other “Why don’t you see if …” suggestions – if you know of such an institution, or have a specific email address to provide, that would be helpful.)
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Search engine helps: Louis J. Claude – Eagle Craig – Wisconsin – Elvira Ward – University of Wisconsin – engineer – patents – Great Britain. Patent Office – Bootle – Lancaster – Liverpool – Mechanics’ Magazine and Journal of Science – Iron – Illustrated Weekly Journal for Iron and Steele – England – Baraboo – Sauk – Lancashire – Cartmel – steam engines – locomotives
Lovely penmanship.
In the last sentence of the second paragraph, do you mean became a noted architect?
Yes, thanks. You want a job as my editor? 🙂 i’ll fix it.
My husband jokes that I should be an editor, I catch typos everywhere. Except in my own writing, of course. Those somehow sneak through.
Now that you have fixed it, you can delete my comment if you don’t want it to distract from the post. Unless that would make me commenter 39,999 instead of 40,000. Then it had better count!
I don’t have any of the useless types of comments that you discouraged above–but I am curious about how this this notebook came into your hands.