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Boyden, Uriah
| (1804-1879), U.S. mechanical engineer, designed an improved Fourneyron-type water turbine (1844), known as the Boyden turbine (in the United States), operating at 75 percent efficiency (originally for Appleton mill in Lowell, Massachusetts), among many other innovations. Retired in 1850 to study pure science, particularly the velocity of sound and light, the compressibility of water, and heat. He left most of his fortune for building observatories on mountain tops. Brother to Seth Boyden, he was born Feb. 17, 1804, Foxborough, Massachusetts, and died Oct. 17, 1879, Boston. |
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