John Porterfield Sparrow

John Porterfield Sparrow

• John Porterfield Sparrow was born circa 1860 in Maine.
• He married Maude Helen Bostwick, daughter of John Robert Bostwick and Helen Campbell Bass, on 16 April 1898 in Manhattan, New York.
• John Porterfield Sparrow and Maude Helen Bostwick appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Manhattan, New York, at 1231 Madison Avenue.
• He was an electrician, according to the 1900 census.
• John Porterfield Sparrow and Maude Helen Bostwick appeared in the US federal census of 15 April 1910 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Other members of the household included John Porterfield Sparrow.
• He was employed as an engineer by an electric company, according to the 1910 census.
• His wife Maude Helen Bostwick became a widow at his death.
• John Porterfield Sparrow died on 18 March 1918 in Kings County, New York.
• John Porterfield Sparrow, for many years a member of the [American Society of Mechanical Engineers], died at his home in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on March 18, 1918. He was born in Portland, Me., on March 17, 1860.
       Mr. Sparrow was an engineer by inheritance and education, his father, John Sparrow, being well known in the engineering field. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Portland, but this was largely supplemented by his father's teachings in physics, chemistry and engineering.
       In 1879, being interested in sugar manufacture, Mr. Sparrow was taken to Europe by his father to study the industry, and while there visited all of the larger engineering works. In 1880 he entered the Portland Company's locomotive and marine-engine works as an apprentice. He served his apprenticeship and became a toolmaker and erector for that coompany, leaving them in 1888 to work for the Sprague Electric Company. During the next two years he acted as superintendent for the Sprague Electric Company, in charge of construction of electric railways in the various parts of the country. In 1890 he went to New Orleans for the New Orleans Electric Company on construction work. In 1892 he joined the construction staff of the Edison General Electric Company and was employed in building lighting and power plants for them and the Canadian General Electric Company until 1895. In 1895 he joined the staff of the construction department of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, and in 1898 became superintendent of construction, having charge of all of the construction, which included the new Waterside Station, at that time the largest and most important construction of its kind which had been attempted. In 1906 he became chief engineer of The New York Edison Company in charge of construction and operation, the position he held at the time of his death.
       Mr. Sparrow became a member of the Society in 1898 and was an active member, serving on various committees. At the time of his death he was Chairman of the Committee on Standardization of Flanges and Pipe Fittings, and had just completed report on the subject. On February 1, 1918, he was appointed Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Power Test Committee. His work along these lines was particularly valuable, as his long experience, trained judgment and personal influence insured the reconciliation of conflicting interests.
       In the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies he was a member of the Committee on Steam Plants from 1906 up to the present time, and was chairman in 1910, 1912 and 1913. In this work his most valuable contributions were those in connection with coal testing and burning. Before the Edison Association he presented a number of papers on boiler-plant problems.
       In the National Electric Light Association he was a member of the Committee on Prime Movers for a number of years, and was a frequent contributor to the Question Box.
       Shortly after the United States entered the war he made a number of tests for the Naval Consulting Board in connection with smoke abatement on ships as a protection against submarines.
       Mr. Sparrow's hobbies were largely of an engineering character. In photography his work as an amateur rivaled many professionals, and he was one of the first to take up color photography. Microscopy, as a result of his early training, was always one of his chief aids and his work on the photomicrography of lamp filaments is well known. In later years he turned to metallography in connection with the ever-present subject of the corrosion of condenser tubes, and assisted in the settling of important questions of heat treatment in the manufacture of this material. His knowledge of physical science was fundamental and he was an adept in the mechanical handling and manipulation which is a necessity in research work of this kind. (ASME Transactions, Vol. 40, 1918.)

• Last Edited: 19 May 2011

• Charts: Descendants of CAMPBELL Archibald & Rebecca Kirk