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Peter Cooper
(12 Feb 1791 - 4 Apr 1883)
American inventor, manufacturer and philanthropist who built America's first steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb. He founded The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York.
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Science Quotes by Peter Cooper (3 quotes)
Tom Thumb locomotive
I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that the production of wealth is not the work of any one man, and the acquisition of great fortunes is not possible without the co-operation of multitudes of men.
— Peter Cooper
Address (31 May 1871) to the 12th annual commencement at the Cooper Union, honoring his 80th birthday, in New York City Mission and Tract Society, Annual report of the New York City Mission and Tract Society (1872), 69.
The great object I desire to accomplish by this institution [the Cooper Institute], is to open the avenues of scientific knowledge to the youth of our country, so unfolding the volume of Nature, that the young may see the beauties of creation.
— Peter Cooper
Speech (17 Sep 1853), laying the foundation stone of the Cooper Institute, in New York Times (19 Sep 1853), 3. The article clarifies that although the ceremony was spoken of as the laying of the corner-stone, the basement stories were already completed at that time.
When rich men are thus brought to regard themselves as trustees, and poor men learn to be industrious, economical, temperate, self-denying, and diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, then the deplorable strife between capital and labor, tending to destroy their fundamental, necessary, and irrefragable harmony will cease, and the world will no longer be afflicted with such unnatural industrial conflicts as we have seen during the past century...
— Peter Cooper
Address (31 May 1871) to the 12th annual commencement at the Cooper Union, honoring his 80th birthday, in New York City Mission and Tract Society, Annual report of the New York City Mission and Tract Society (1872), 69.
See also:
- 12 Feb - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Cooper's birth.
- Peter Cooper's Locomotive - Tom Thumb - from Wonders and Curiosities of the Railway (1884)
- 28 Aug - births, deaths and events on date of Tom Thumb locomotive's first run.
- The Cooper Union history.
- Peter Cooper, by Rossiter W. Raymond. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for steam locomotive history.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
