Henry Burden
Henry Burden (April 22, 1791 – January 19, 1871) was an engineer and businessman who built an industrial complex in Troy, New York called the Burden Iron Works. Burden's horseshoe machine, invented in 1835, was capable of making 60 horseshoes a minute. His rotary concentric squeezer, a machine for working wrought iron, was adopted by iron industries worldwide. His hook-headed spike machine helped fuel the rapid expansion of railroads in the U.S. The Burden Iron Works is now an historical site and museum. Early life Henry Burden was born in Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland, the son of Peter Burden (1752–1829) and Elizabeth Abercrombie (1756–1837). His father was a sheep farmer. He studied engineering at the University of Edinburgh, and returned to the farm making implements and a water wheel to power them. He emigrated in 1819 with a letter of introduction to Stephen Van Rensselaer III, courtesy of the American Minister in London. Career Burden started at the Townsend & Corning Foundry, manufacturers of cast iron plows and other agricultural implements, located in Albany’s south end - near today’s Port of Albany. The next year, he invented an improved plow, which took first premium at three county fairs, and a cultivator,