Graff.j - 452 {April 5, 
Engineer, and an opportunity soon offered for the commencement of his 
practical training as such, under the care of his elder brother, Mr, Samuel 
H. Kneass, assisting in the surveys then making for the Delaware and 
Schuylkill Canal, and later took part in the surveys and construction of 
the Philadelphia and Wilmington Railroad. 
Upon completion of this road, wishing to become grounded in the scien- 
tific part of engineering, he became a student in the Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute, at Troy, New York, whence he graduated, in 1889, as Civil 
Engineer, taking the highest honor. 
Soon after this Mr. Kneass was made assistant engineer and topographer 
on the State survey fora railway between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh ; he 
then became draughtsman in the Naval Bureau of Engineering at Wash- 
ington, and was afterward employed by the British Commission in prepar- 
ing the maps of the northern boundary, between the United States and 
the Provinces; and subsequently, by the Federal Government on the 
general map of the boundary survey. 
At a later date, 1869, he was appointed, jointly with Colonel James Wor- 
rall, a commissioner to settle the boundary between Pennsylvania and 
Delaware. The location of this line permanently and correctly (an are of a 
circle of about twelve miles radius) required great care, for the accom- 
plishment of which Mr. Kneass’s remarkable thoroughness peculiarly 
fitted him. The proposed line was not accepted by the Delaware com- 
mission, 
In 1847, Mr. J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer, selected.Mr. Kneass as 
one of his assistants in conducting the preliminary surveys, which result- 
ed in the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was soon pro- 
moted to the position of Principal Assistant Engineer, and engaged in the 
construction of that part of the road from ‘“ Jack’s Narrows ’’ to Tyrone, 
including nine bridges and Tussy Mountain tunnel, 
Under his supervision, and from his designs, the first shops and engine 
house at Altoona was erected. 
The construction of the road from Altoona to the summit of the Alle- 
ghenies was a work of much difficulty, and called forth engineering 
ability of a very superior order, in the accomplishment of which Mr, Kneass 
proved himself fully capable. We must remember that at that, time none 
but hand-drills were used in rock excavation and tunneling, and no high 
explosives or steam excavators employed. 
In 1858, he resigned to accept the position of associate engineer with 
Mr. Edward Miller, Chief Engineer of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, 
in which capacity he remained two years, leaving to accept the office of 
Chief Engineer and Surveyor of the consolidated City of Philade)phia, to 
which position he was elected by Select and Common Councils, March 29, 
1855, and subsequently re-elected three times, namely, April 12, 1860; 
April 12, 1865, and April 14, 1870, each for a term of five years. 
Mr. Kneass’s services in the Department of Surveys were of great value. 
The City proper and the seven adjoining Districts were, up to 1855, en- 
