Lowe, Thaddeus (Sobieski Coulincourt) (1832–1913)

US aeronaut and inventor. Heading the Union Army's aeronautic section during the Civil War, he sent the first telegraph message from an airborne balloon in 1861 and was the first American to take a photograph while airborne. He created a device to measure longitude and latitude in 1860 and directed construction of an incline railway at Echo Mountain, California (1891–94), later renamed Mount Lowe. He was also active in manufacturing artificial ice and in improving the manufacture of gas and coke. Lowe was born in Jefferson Mills (now Riverton), New Hampshire.