ration, he brought out another ship, the "Tiger," one of a fleet of five equipped by merchants for trading, and again visited Manhattan. The "Tiger" was accidentally burned in port, but Block and his crew built a yacht of sixteen tons, named the " Ulirest," with which he explored the neighboring waters. First of all Europeans, he dared the perilous passage of Hell Gate, and, sailing eastward through Long Island sound, discovered the "River of Red Hills" and the "Freshwater," known to us respectively as the Housatonic and the Connecticut. The latter he explored as far as the site of Hartford. Still pushing eastward, he named "Roode Eiland"—the red island, from the color of the clay on parts of the coast. The island had, however, been previously discovered by English navigators. He discovered Block island, which bears his name. He sailed as far north as Nahant. and then, leaving the "Unrest," first of American-built yachts, at Cape Cod to be used in the fur trade, he returned to Holland in one of the ships that accompanied him in the westward voyage.
BLODGET, Lorin, physicist, b. near Jamestown, Chautauqua eo., N. Y., 25 May, 1823. He was educated at Jamestown Academy and at Geneva (now Hobart) College. In November, 1851, he
became assistant at the Smithsonian Institution in charge of researches on climatology, and at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Cleveland in 1853. he
presented seven papers on atmospheric physics.
These early contributions were among the first
ever published in this country on that subject, and
were of value in establishing the science. From
1852 till 1850 he was associated with the engineers
on the Pacific railroad surveys, and directed the
determination of altitudes and gradients by means
of the barometer. The latter part of this period
was spent in the war office, to which he had been
transferred. In 1857 he published "The Climatology of the United States and of the Temperate Latitudes of the North American Continent," which was the most valuable contribution on that subject ever issued in this country. It was extensively circulated, and 500 copies sent to Europe were disposed of in six months. The book was highly complimented by Humboldt. In 1863 he was placed in charge of the financial and statistical reports of the treasury department, and in that capacity published several volumes of official
reports. Prom 1865 till 1877 he was U. S. appraiser-at-large of customs, and during 1874-'5 he was special assistant of the treasury department.
While connected with the government service he wrote reports on finance, revenue, industrial progress, and census of industry. From 1858 till 1865
he was secretary of the Philadelphia Board of Trade, and from 1859 till 1864 the editor of the "North American," published there. His publications include 150 bound volumes and 350 pamphlets, with thousands of editorial articles. The most important of these are probably the accounts of his researches on climatology, and were published by the government. His "Commercial and Financial Resources of the United States" (1864) was circulated to the extent of over 30,000 copies, was reprinted in Nuremberg, Germany, and did much to sustain the credit of the United States in the money markets of the old world. The industrial census of Philadelphia has been taken four times by him, and he has resided in that city since 1857.
BLODGET, Samuel, inventor, b. in Woburn,
Mass., 1 April, 1724; d. in Haverhill, Mass.. 1 Sept., 1807. He participated in the French and Indian war, was a member of the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, and afterward became a judge of the
court of common pleas for the county of Hillsborough, N. H. In 1783, with a machine of his
own invention, he raised a valuable cargo from a
ship sunk near Plymouth, and then went to Europe
for the purpose of engaging in similar enterprises.
He met with discouragement in Spain, and his
proposition in England to raise the "Royal George"
was unsuccessful. On his return to the United States he established a duck factory in 1791, and in 1793 removed to New Hampshire, where he
began the canal that bears his name, around Amoskeag falls in the Merrimack. He expended a large sum of money on this enterprise without
being able to complete the work, and, becoming financially embarrassed, was for a time imprisoned for debt. See "Massachusetts Historical Collections " (new series, vol. iv.).
BLODGETT, Foster, politician, b. in Augusta,
Ga., 15 Jan., 1826; d. in Atlanta, 12 Nov., 1877. He became mayor of Augusta in 1859, and was re-elected in 1860, but was defeated in 1861. During the civil war he was captain of the Blodgett artillery, from Augusta. After the war he joined the republican party and was appointed postmaster of Augusta in 1865, but was removed from that office in 1868, and reinstated in 1869. In 1867 he was made president of the Union Republican Club of Augusta, and during the same year he was again chosen mayor. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, and in 1870 claimed to have been chosen U. S. senator from Georgia, but failed to secure his seat, as the senate decided in favor of the claims of Thomas M. Norwood.
BLOEDE, Marie, author, b. of a noble family in
Silesia, in 1821; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 12 March,
1870. Her brother, Friedrich von Sallet, was a
poet of merit and an intense liberal in his political
views, who died in 1843. His sister shared his
poetical gifts and his liberal sympathies. She
married early, and in opposition to the wishes of
her family, Dr. G. Bloede, and in the revolution of
1848 her husband, foremost in the liberal ranks,
was arrested, tried, and condemned to death, at
Dresden, but escaped to the United States. Her
poems and articles, both in English and German,
attracted attention. Her husband, as the editor of
the “New-Yorker Demokrat,” a daily republican
paper, received assistance from her literary labors.
BLOMMAERT, Samuel, colonial patroon, b. about 1590 ; d. about 1670. He was one of the directors of the Amsterdam chamber, and, in company with Samuel Godyn, a fellow-director, bargained with the natives for a tract of land reaching from Cape Henlopen to the mouth of Delaware river. This was in 1629, three years before the charter of Maryland, and is the oldest deed for land in Delaware. Its water-front nearly coincides with the coast of Kent and Sussex cos. The purchase was ratified in 1630 by Peter Minuit and his council at Fort Amsterdam (New York). A company—including, besides the two original proprietors, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, De Laet, the historian, and David Pietersen De Vries—was formed to colonize the tract, and a ship of eighteen guns was fitted out to bring over the colonists and subsequently defend the coast, with incidental whale-fishing to help defray expenses. A colony of more than thirty souls was planted on Lewes creek, a little north of Cape Henlopen, and its governorship was intrusted to Gillis Hosset. This settlement antedated by several years any in Pennsylvania, and the colony at Lewes practically laid the foundation and defined the singularly limited area of the state of Delaware, the major part of which was
