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SLEMMER, ADAM J. 



SOMMERS, CHARLES G. 



the ditch prepared for it. Once in the line of 

 position, the ends were to be opened, and the 

 siphon sunk to its proper place in the hed of 

 the stream. The two tubes were firmly joined 

 at the ends with plate -iron couplings, or col- 

 lars, moved to the surface line over the ditch 

 referred to, and loaded down with pig-iron to 

 sink them. But scarcely had they been sub- 

 merged to the depth of one-half their diam- 

 eter, when the water checked in its current, 

 and, seeking an outlet, boiled up over the upper 

 tube, fell into the interval between the two, and 

 then leaped up again over the lower tube, there- 

 by causing a formidable oscillation and rolling 

 Movement, which shook oif a great part of the 

 iron by which the siphon was being sunk. 

 This iron was raised and the ditch cleaned out 

 by divers, and mean while additional precautions 

 were taken to make the next attempt a success, 

 by constructing a double stockade of piles on 

 the upper side of the siphon, in the manner of 

 those on its lower side, to the end that the 

 siphon, sustained and held in a horizontal po- 

 sition, might more effectually resist the force 

 of the current. The siphon was again loaded 

 with iron, guys were attached to control and 

 regulate its descent, and, at its second trial, it 

 was submerged, without accident or obstruc- 

 tion, to the entire length of the stockades, 

 which to a certain extent served the purpose 

 of slides or runways. Water-gauges placed on 

 different parts of the double tube, and indica- 

 ting by their scales the depth attained, marked, 

 as they sunk, the progress of the immersion. 

 When the index showed the proper depth, the 

 siphon had reached its bed; and thenceforth 

 it has received the sewage which it is destined 

 to bear from bank to bank, and nothing betrays 

 where it lies in the bed of the Seine. 



SLEMMER, Brevet Brigadier-General ADAM 

 J., Lieutenant-Colonel 4th Infantry, an Amer- 

 ican army officer conspicuous for his gallantry 

 and meritorious conduct, born in Montgom- 

 ery County, Pa., about 1828; died at Fort 

 Laramie, Dakota Territory, where he was com- 

 mander, October 7, 1868. He entered West 

 Point in September, 1846, and graduated July, 

 1850, twelfth in his class. He was assigned a 

 position in the 1st Artillery, and, after a short 

 campaign against the Seminole Indians in Flor- 

 ida, was four years on frontier service in Cali- 

 fornia. In 1855, after a short period of garri- 

 son duty at Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, 

 he was appointed assistant professor at West 

 Point, where he remained four years, and then 

 returned to garrison duty at Fort Moultrie and 

 Barrancas Barracks, Fla., till January 10, 1861, 

 when he was transferred to Fort Pickens, 

 which he gallantly held till May 9, 1861, 

 against the attempts to besiege it. He was pro- 

 moted to be major of 16th Infantry May 14, 

 1861, and served in Virginia and the Western 

 Department, being engaged under General 

 Buell in his march from Corinth to Louisville, 

 and back to Nashville. He was made briga- 

 dier-general of volunteers, November 29, 1862, 



and took part in the battle of Stone River, De- 

 cember 31, 1862, where he was severely wound- 

 ed, and received a brevet of lieutenant-colonel 

 in the Regular Army for his gallant conduct. 

 He was disabled by his wound from further 

 active service during the war, but performed 

 some garrison and other duties. On the 8th 

 of February, 1864, he was promoted to be lieu- 

 tenant-colonel of the 4th Infantry, and in March, 

 1865, was brevetted colonel and brigadier-gen- 

 eral for his meritorious services. After being 

 mustered out of the volunteer service in Au- 

 gust, 1865, he was employed in garrison duty 

 at Fort Schuyler and Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., 

 till October 1, 1865 ; was on Board of Exami- 

 nation of Cadetship for promotion in the Army 

 for over a year, and then was assigned to the 

 command of the post of Fort Laramie, D. T., 

 where he died of disease of the heart. 



SMITH, SEBA, an American journalist and 

 author, born at Buckfield, Me., September 14, 

 1792 ; died at " The Willows," Patchogue, L. I., 

 July 29, 1868. He graduated at Bowdoin Col- 

 lege, Maine, in 1818, and subsequently settled 

 in Portland, Me., as a writer for the periodical 

 press. While there he wrote the popular se- 

 ries of humorous political letters under the 

 pseudonyme of "Major Jack Downing," first 

 published collectively in 1833, and which after- 

 ward passed through several editions. In 

 1842 he removed to New York, in which city, 

 or in its neighborhood, he continued to reside 

 until his death. His remaining publications 

 comprise "Powhatan," a metrical romance 

 (1841) ; " New Elements of Geometry " (1850), 

 an ingenious but paradoxical attempt to over- 

 turn the common definitions of geometry, in 

 which he maintained the position that the three 

 dimensions of space length, breadth, and 

 thickness were predicated upon lines, sur- 

 faces, and solids the book excited little at- 

 tention, and has long been out of print ; and 

 " Way Down East, or Portraitures of Yankee 

 Life " (1855). Mr. Smith was the husband of 

 Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes-Smith, whose miscellane- 

 ous writings are familiar to numerous readers. 

 His last illness was protracted and painful. 



SOMMERS, Rev. CHAELES G., D. D., a Bap- 

 tist clergyman and author, born in London in 

 1793 ; died in New York, December 19, 1868. 

 In 1802 he emigrated with his parents to the 

 United States, and was in 1811 employed by 

 John Jacob Astor as his confidential clerk and 

 travelling agent. He made long journeys to 

 Canada and elsewhere in his employer's interest, 

 and while engaged on one of these met with 

 such a change in his religious views that he 

 decided upon entering the Christian ministry. 

 He accordingly stated to Mr. Astor his purpose 

 and his reasons for it, and his employer parted 

 with him kindly though reluctantly. He com- 

 pleted his studies and began his labors as a 

 preacher at the Old Almshouse in the Park, 

 where he was very useful. From thence he 

 was called to the pastorate of the First Baptist 

 Church in Troy, and after several years re- 



