Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/471

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BUCKLAND
BUCKLEY
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of kindly disposition and gentle manners. He was president of the American temperance union, moderator of the first national Congregational council, and one of the corporate members of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. After two years in private life he was elected, in 1868, to the U. S. senate, and died just before the expiration of his term. Gov. Buckingham contributed liberally to the poor, and for religious and educational purposes; among his gifts was $25,000 to Yale theological school. A bronze statue of Gov. Buckingham was unveiled in the State-house at Hartford, Conn., on 18 June, 1884.


BUCKLAND, Cyrus, inventor, b. in Manchester, Conn., 10 Aug., 1799; d. in Springfield, Mass., 26 Feb., 1891. He turned his attention to mechanical pursuits at the ago of twenty-one, and assisted in building the machinery in a cotton factory at Monson, Mass., and in the first mills erected at Chicopee Falls, Mass. In 1828 he became a pattern-maker in the U. S. armory at Springfield, Mass. He rose to be a designer of machinery and tools for the manufacture of fire-arms, and at different times was employed as inspector in all the different parts of the armory, and also as inspector of cannon. His skill and inventive powers were called into requisition in remodelling old weapons and designing new ones, and in devising labor-saving machinery for producing the arms used in the U. S. service. The machinery in the armory was in a primitive condition when he entered it ; but the improvements suggested by him raised the machinery and appliances to a standard of mechanical attainment far above any private establishment in the country. A set of stocking-machines of his invention, perfected in 1842, comprises thirteen machines for working gun-stocks from the rough state, as they were served out at the mills, to a degree of finish that requires only the smoothing of the outer surface to complete the manufacture. One machine cuts the groove in the stock in which the barrel is inserted; a second profiles the stock; a third cuts the groove for the butt-plate and bores the holes for the screws that fasten it; a fourth cuts on, in a single operation, the three bands that bind together the stock and the barrel; a fifth trims off the surplus wood between the bands; a sixth returns the stock and gives it the final form; a seventh cuts the bed for the guard, with mortise, screw-holes, etc.; and an eightii is a finishing-machine for cutting in the band-springs, boring for band-spring and ramrod-spring, wires, grooving for the ramrod, etc. Buckland invented machines for turning the upper band of the musket; for punching and cutting various parts of the arm; for finishing the cone; for milling screws; for finish-milling and tapping the cone-seat; for checking the comb of the hammer; for boring and turning the barrel; for milling the lock-plate edges; for rifling muskets; and for cutting the thread of the screw on the inside of the barrel and milling the breech-screw. This last invention, perfected in 1857, effected a great improvement in the manufacture of small-arms by producing a perfect interchange of parts, any screw fitting any barrel. The stocking apparatus and other inventions of Mr. Buckland reduced the cost of making muskets fifty per cent. The British government sent over commissioners, who had the gun-stock machines copied in Chicopee, and imported men from the Springfield armory to work them. Continental governments likewise adopted this machinery. Mr. Buckland received no compensation for his valuable inventions beyond his daily wages, but when he retired congress voted him a grant of 110,000. His nervous system broke down under the protracted mental strain, and he retired from the armory. an invalid, in 1859.


BUCKLAND, Ralph Pomeroy, soldier, b. in Levden, Mass., 20 Jan., 1812; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 27 May, 1892. His father removed to Ohio. The son was educated at Kenyon college, but was never graduated, afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He was a delegate to the whig national convention of 1848, served as state senator from 1855 till 1859, and in 1861 was appointed colonel of the 72d Ohio infantry. He commanded the 4th brigade of Sherman's division at the battle of Shiloh, and was made a brigadier-general 29 Nov., 1862. He also commanded a brigade of the 15th army corps at Vicksburg and the district of Memphis during the year 1864. During absence from the field, in 1864, he was elected to congress, and served two terms. He resigned from the army, 9 Jan., 1865, and on 13 March was brevetted major-general of volunteers. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists', convention of 1866, to the Pittsburgh soldiers' convention, and to the republican national convention of 1876. Gen. Buckland was president of the managers of the Ohio soldiers' and sailors' orphans' home from 1867 till 1873, and government director of the Pacific railroad from 1877 till 1880.


BUCKLEY, James Monroe, clergyman, b. in Rah way, N. J., 16 Dec, 1836. He was educated at Pennington, N. J., seminary, and entered the class of 1860 at Wesleyan university, but left during freshman year, to study theology at Exeter, N. H. In 1858 he joined the New Hampshire Methodist Episcopal conference on trial, and was stationed at Dover in that state. After proving his abilities at several small stations, he was transferred to Detroit, Mich., in 1864, and to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1866. He was a member of the general conference in 1872, 1876, and 1880, and in 1881 was a delegate to the Methodist ecumenical conference in London. The same year he was elected editor of the "New York Christian Advocate." Since 1866 he has been constantly assigned to the most important posts, and he is one of the most influential men among the denominational clergy. He received the degree of D. D. from Wesleyan university in 1872, and that of LL. D. from Emory and Henry college, Virginia. He has written "Two Weeks in the Yosemite Valley" (New York, 1873); "Supposed Miracles" (Boston, 1875); "Christians and the Theatre" (1877); "Oats or Wild Oats" (New York, 1885); and "The Land of the Czar and the Nihilist" (Boston, 1886).


BUCKLEY, Samuel Botsford, naturalist, b. in Torrey, Yates co., N. Y., 9 May, 1809; d. in Austin, Tex., 18 Feb., 1884. He "was graduated at Wesleyan university, Middletown, Conn., in 1836, and in 1837-8 made botanical collections in Virginia and Illinois. In 1839-'40 he was principal of Allenton, Ala., academy, and in 1842 travelled extensively through the south, discovering twenty-four new species of plants and a new genus, which was named Buckleya. He also discovered and obtained in Alabama a nearly complete skeleton of a zeuglodon. In 1843 he studied at the college of physicians and surgeons. New York, and in the same year, in an expedition to Florida, he discovered thirteen new species of shells. From 1843 till 1855 he lived on the homestead farm. In 1858 he determined barometrically the height of several mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, and one of them. Mount Buckley, N. C, bears his name. In 1859-'60 he travelled south and west to