Cohen, Mendes, 1831-1915

Civil and mechanical engineer and railroad executive.

Mendes Cohen was born in Baltimore on May 4, 1831. He received his mechanical training in the works of Ross Winans (1847-1851), the builder of early locomotives. From 1851 to 1855 he worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, chiefly in the Motive Power Department. He worked on the adaptation of wood-burning locomotives to coal-burning and devised the method for handling traffic on the 10% temporary grade over the Kingwood Tunnel.

Thereafter, he served as an operating official on a number of railroads: the Hudson River (1855-1861), the Ohio & Mississippi (1861-1865), the Philadelphia & Reading (1865), and the Pittsburgh & Connellsville (1872-1875). From 1868 to 1871 he was Comptroller and Assistant to the President of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, where he reorganized the firm's finances. He retired to a consulting practice in Baltimore in 1875, where he died on August 13, 1915.

From the description of Report on the economy of a new system of working the engines on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, 1854. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122459318