Peter Cooper
| Peter Cooper | |
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| Born |
February 12, 1791 New York City, New York |
| Died | April 4, 1883 (aged 92) New York City, New York |
| Occupation | Industrialist, Inventor, Philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Cooper |
| Children |
Edward Cooper Sarah Amelia Cooper |
| Parent(s) | John Cooper and Margaret Campbell |
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Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 – April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and candidate for President of the United States. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb, and founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan, New York City.
Peter Cooper was born in New York City of Dutch, English and Huguenot descent, the fifth child of John Cooper, a Methodist hatmaker from Newburgh, New York He worked as a coachmaker's apprentice, cabinet maker, hatmaker, brewer and grocer, and was throughout a tinkerer: he developed a cloth-shearing machine which he attempted to sell, as well as an endless chain he intended to be used to pull boats on the Erie Canal, which De Witt Clinton approved of, but which Cooper was unable to sell.
In 1821 Cooper purchased a glue factory on Sunfish Pond for $2,000 in Kips Bay, where he had access to raw materials from the nearby slaughterhouses, and ran it as a successful business for many years, producing a profit of $10,000 (equivalent to roughly $200,000 today) within 2 years, developing new ways to produce glues and cements, gelatin, isinglass and other products, and becoming the city's premier provider to tanners, manufacturers of paints, and dry-goods merchants. The effluent from his successful factory eventually polluted the pond to the extent that in 1839 it had to be drained and refilled.
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