James A. Burden
James A. Burden (1833-1906)
1906 Obituary [1]
JAMES A. BURDEN died on September 23 at his home in New York City, at the age of seventy-three. He had been an invalid for some time, and had recently returned from a voyage in Europe, undertaken for the sake of his health.
He was born in Troy, New York, in 1833, and was educated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, on leaving which he became a foreman in the Burden Ironworks, founded by his father, Henry Burden. He was president of the Burden Iron Company at the time of his death. He took an active interest in engineering and metallurgy, and was the author of many inventions, amongst others, machinery for making blooms, a method of fettling puddling furnaces, and an electrical ore separator. For some time he acted as president of the Hudson River Ore and Iron Company. He was also vice-president and a director of the Eastern Steel Company, and a director of the Port Henry Iron Company. He was a member of the Engineers' Club of New York, of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
In 1890, when the members of the Iron and Steel Institute visited America, he was a member of the New York reception committee. On the occasion of the second visit in 1904, he was elected chairman of the New York reception committee. In that capacity he contributed in no small measure to the success which attended the meeting, and entertained the president, and council, and the reception committee at dinner at the Metropolitan Club.
He was the oldest American member of the Iron and Steel Institute, having been elected a member in 1870.