Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr.
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Colonel Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr. was an army officer, marine engineer, and naval architect. He was among the founders of Cox & Stevens in 1905, which became an influential and successful New York design firm.
Stevens was the son of Edwin Augustus Stevens a well known designer and founder of the Stevens Institute of Technology, and nephew of John Cox Stevens, founder of the New York Yacht Club and a driving force in the design of the yact America and the competition for the America's Cup.
His most notable personal achievement was the propeller driven double ended ferry, which is the most typical vehicle ferry in use today. The significance of his design was a shaft which could control propellers at both ends of the craft. Among the advantages was superior braking of the vessels, since paddle wheel propulsion systems could not effectively be reversed to slow the craft. Prior to propeller drives, double ended ferries had less usable width because of side wheel propulsion.
Cox & Stevens began in 1905 as a yacht design and commercial brokerage in New York City. The original principal partners were Daniel H. Cox, Irving Cox, and Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr. The firm continued under various names until the 1970s.
[edit] References
- First Family of Inventors History of the Stevens family
- Cox and Stevens Collection Mystic Seaport Museum
- Hoboken Museum
- The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers, by Lucia Del Sol Knight (Editor), Daniel Bruce MacNaughton (Editor) W. W. Norton & Company 2005
- The Golden Century: Classic Motor Yachts, 1830-1930, by Ross Mactaggart, W. W. Norton & Company 2001
