Skip to main content
Notice: The Soda House Reading Room will be closed for winter break from December 20 through January 1. We will reopen Tuesday, January 2, 2024. The Library is open for research by appointment only, please visit our research services page for more information.

William M. Henderson papers

Creation: 1847-1893
 Collection
Accession: 2267

Abstract

William M. Henderson (1831-1904) was a mechanical engineer and inventor who spent most of his career in Philadelphia. The papers consist of two items: a scrapbook, which pertains to Henderson's career and inventions, and an atlas of twenty-nine plates of Bessemer and rolling-mill machinery.

Dates

  • Creation: 1847-1893

Creator

Extent

30 item(s)

Biographical Note

William M. Henderson (1831-1904) was a mechanical engineer and inventor who spent most of his career in Philadelphia. Henderson was born April 16, 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Thomas Henderson (1800-1847) and Jessie Murray (1803-1870).

His first recorded employment was as a mechanical engineer for the London & North Western Railway in 1847. By 1857, he had emigrated to America and was working at the Union Works of Baltimore. Here he patented a slide valve and a force pump. There followed a few years builing railroad bridges and similar works in Chile, but by 1865 he had settled in Philadelphia and formed the partnership Brinton & Henderson, pump manufacturers, doing business as the Philadelphia Hydraulic Works. This firm was succeeded by William M. Henderson & Co.

Henderson invented a hydraulic brake for railroads around 1873 and formed a separate company to manufacture it, although it quickly lost out to the Westinghouse air brake. By the late 1870s, Henderson's interest had turned to steel-making, partuclarly in the blowing engines used in the Bessemer process and the engines and other machinery of rolling-mills.

In 1857, Henderson married Rebecca Tagart (1837-1897) in Baltimore, Maryland. They had Jessie Murray (1859-1915), William Claude (1861-1903), Virginia (1867-1952), and Helen Weston (1871-1956). Henderson died May 5, 1904 in Pennsylvania and is buried in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Scope and Contents

The William M. Henderson papers consist of two distinct items: a scrapbook containing items from 1847 to 1893, and an atlas of twenty-nine plates (circa 1879) of Bessemer and rolling-mill machinery, showing installations at a number of important European steel works. The scrapbook contains letters, prospectuses, advertisements, magazine articles and drawings pertaining to Henderson's career and inventions. It also contains a clipping on his son, William Claude Henderson (1861-1903) and an 1876 "Centennial Chorus" by his daughter Jessie M. Henderson (1859-1915). Some letters are in Spanish.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
William M. Henderson papers
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2020: Ashley Williams

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400