Jervis, John B(loomfield) (1795-1885)

US engineer and railway developer. He helped survey and build the Erie Canal 1819-25. He built the first railway in the USA, and drew up the specifications for the first locomotive to run in the USA, the ‘Stourbridge Lion’ in 1829, and designed the locomotive ‘Experiment’, which obtained the fastest speeds in the world at the time. He wrote several books including The Question of Labour and Capital 1877.

He was born in Huntington, New York. He worked for several railway companies, including the Delaware & Hudson Company and the Mohawk & Hudson Railway. He was chief engineer for the Chenango (New York) Canal in 1833 and the Croton Aqueduct.