Zachariah Allen (September 15, 1795 – March 17, 1882) was an American textile manufacturer, scientist, lawyer, writer, inventor and civil leader from Providence, Rhode Island. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Brown University, where he graduated in 1813.
Allen became a textile manufacturer and, in 1822, constructed a woolen mill in which he incorporated innovative fire-safety features and his own mechanical improvements. He also built the first hot-air furnace system for the heating of homes. In 1833 he patented his best-known device, the automatic cut-off valve for steam engines.
He founded the Manufacturers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1835, the forerunner of the present day insurance company FM Global.
Allen was also a prolific writer of scientific texts and wrote numerous books and articles during his lifetime.
Early life
Zachariah Allen was born on September 15, 1795, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Zachariah and Anne (Crawford) Allen. His older brother Philip, served Rhode Island as governor (1851–1853) and later as a United States senator (1853–1859). Allen's father died in 1801, when he was only five years old, so he was mostly raised by his mother, and acquired a love of knowledge, particularly science at an early age. He was educated at a school in Medford, Massachusetts, then later at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Allen's mother, Anne, died in 1808, just a year before he entered Brown University, where he graduated in 1813. Allen later served as a trustee of the University from 1826 to 1882. Upon graduation from Brown, he briefly considered a career in medicine, but instead studied law for two years in the office of James Burrill, and was admitted to practice in the Rhode Island Courts in 1815.
In 1817, Allen married Eliza Harriet Arnold, the daughter of Welcome Arnold, a well-known Providence merchant who had participated in the Gaspee Affair in 1772. The Allens had three daughters, Anne Crawford, Mary Arnold (wife of Andrew Robeson Jr.) and Candace.
Manufacturer and inventor
In 1821, Allen devised a system to heat several rooms of a house from a single stove or furnace with a system of heat-conducting pipes. With the advent of the use of anthracite coal for heating in the 1820s, Allen's system of heating was soon adapted elsewhere.
In 1822, he organized and constructed a woolen mill in North Providence on the banks of the Woonasquatucket River and constructed a series of dams to provide power to the machinery. The Allendale Mill was one of the earliest textile mills in the nation to incorporate so-called "slow-burning" construction, which consisted of a system of cast iron columns supporting large beams covered by heavy wooden planking for the floors and roof and shingles set in mortar, in contrast to the traditional system of lighter joists and thinner flooring.
The mill also contained innovative fire-safety features including first use of heavy fire doors, a sprinkler system, rotary fire pump, and copper-riveted hose to be used on a textile mill in North America.
In 1825, he went to Europe to observe woolen manufactures and later wrote The Practical Tourist about his travels there.
Allen patented an "extension roller" for "raising fobrous naps by teasels" to produce a smooth, glossy finish to woolen cloth. This system would be used in textile mills for many years.
He invented the first practical automatic cut-off valve for steam engines, which was patented in 1833. Allen's invention was later proclaimed "one of the greatest inventions ever made in the steam engines" by Stephen Roper in his 1884 Engineer's Handybook.
In 1852, Allen purchased the 1813 Georgiaville Mill in nearby Smithfield, Rhode Island. He rebuilt the existing mill there and increased the sites water power by raising the dam height of the millpond. He later added steam power and enlarged the mill further. He also built additional dwellings, a church, and a school for the increased work force.
Although Allen went bankrupt in Panic of 1857, he continued to manage the Georgiaville Mills which his brother had bought.