JERVIS, John Bloomfield, engineer, born in Huntington. New York, 14 December, 1795; died in Rome, New York, 12 January, 1885. When about three years of age he removed to Rome, New York, where he afterward resided. He assisted in the construction of the Erie canal, and conducted the survey and construction of the Delaware and Hudson canal. He was chief engineer of the Albany and Schenectady and the Schenectady and Saratoga railroads, and for the latter road invented the locomotive truck, the principle of which is still in use on all locomotives. The first locomotive with his improvement was made to order in England in 1832. In 1833 Mr. Jervis was appointed chief engineer of the Chenango canal, and originated on this work the method of providing artificial reservoirs for the supply of its summit with water. In 1835 he was commissioned to make the surveys and estimates on the eastern section of the Erie canal, in view of its proposed enlargement. In 1836 he was the engineer in charge of the construction of the Croton aqueduct, and from 1846 till 1848 he was consulting engineer of the Boston water works. In 1847 he was made chief engineer of the Hudson River railroad, which office he resigned in 1849, but remained connected with the road as consulting engineer till 1850. He was engineer of the Chicago and Rock Island railroad in 1851, and in 1854 its president, and was next engaged on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad till 1866. In 1868 he was made one of the trustees of the Rome merchant-iron mill company upon its organization, and he continued in office till his death. In 1855 he received the Democratic nomination for the place of state engineer, but was defeated. In 1878 Hamilton college conferred on Mr. Jervis the degree of LL.D. He is the author of a "Description of the Croton Aqueduct" (New York, 1842); a "Report on the Hudson River Railroad" (1846); "Railway Property" (1859); "The Construction and Management of Railways" {1861); and "Labor and Capital" (1877).