Canvass White - Canal Innovator

Canvass White - Canal Innovator. . , Canvass White's technological innovatics in canal construction and harnessing waterpower for use in manufacturing played a critical role in transforming Cohoes into a major industrial center of the 19th century. He was considered a leader in canal engineering in the United States in the early 19th century., Canvass White was born in Whitestown, New York in 1790. After serving in the War of 18 12, he began working on the Erie Canal, which, at the time, was the largest public works project undertaken in the United States. In 1817, he convinced canal commissioners to send him to England where industrialization and canal building were already well underway. Canvass White returned from his journey with information that would be an invaluable guide in building the Erie Canal. , Canal builders faced a daunting problem of how to construct the canal locks. The stones comprising the locks needed a durable cement to keep them watertight. In 1818, White found a limestone deposit near Chittenango that would form a natural hydraulic cement. He developed and perfected procedures for processing this cement, which was used to seal the outer edges of mortar joints on the stones of the locks. Canvass White established a cement works at Chittenango, which would produce many thousands of bushels of cement annually until the 1840s. Canal commissioners used some 500,000 bushels of White's new cement in constructing the Erie and Champlain Canals., Canvass White and the Cohoes Company , While Canvass White was working in Cohoes on the Erie Canal, he noted the enormous potential for waterpower from the Cohoes Falls. He envisioned a dam above the Falls that would divert water into a series of canals, which could then be used to power turbines in mills. When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, Canvass White directed his attention to this goal. In 1826, he became the first president of the Cohoes Company. In this capacity, he developed the first successful design for the complete and systematic use of the Cohoes Falls' waterpower. In 1830, before he could implement his ideas, White turned over management of the Cohoes Company to his brother, Hugh, due to failing health. Canvass White died at the age of 44.