[George Henry]. Inventor of the Corliss engine. He was born at Easton, NY, on the 2nd of July 1817. At an early age, while conducting a general store, he invented a machine for stitching leather. His most important inventions were the improvements in steam-engines, by which uniformity of motion was secured by the method of connecting the governor with the cut-off. This arrangement also prevented waste of steam, so that many of the earlier Corliss engines were sold for the price of the fuel they would save in a given time, which amounted to as high as $4,000 for one engine in one year. In 1844 he founded the Corliss Steam Engine Company, which grew to be, long before his death, the most extensive steam-engine manufactory in the world. Mr. Corliss was a member of the Rhode Island legislature from 1868 to 1870, Centennial Commissioner in 1872, and was a Republican Presidential elector in 1876. He received numerous high honors for mechanical achievements. He died at Providence, RI, on the 21st of February 1888.
