Thaddeus S . C . Lowe Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe ( August 20 , 1832 - January 16 , 1913 ) , also known as Professor T . S . C . Lowe , was an American Civil War aeronaut , scientist and inventor , mostly self - educated in the fields of chemistry , meteorology , and aeronautics , and the father of military aerial reconnaissance in the United States . By the late 1850s he was well known for his advanced theories in the meteorological sciences as well as his balloon building . Among his aspirations were plans for a transatlantic flight . Lowe ' s scientific endeavors were cut short by the onset of the American Civil War . He recognized his patriotic duty in offering his services as an aeronaut for the purposes of performing aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate troops on behalf of the Union Army . In July 1861 Lowe was appointed Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps by President Abraham Lincoln . Though his work was generally successful , it was not fully appreciated by all members of the military , and disputes over his operations and pay scale forced him to resign in 1863 . Lowe returned to the private sector and continued his scientific exploration of hydrogen gas manufacturing . He invented the water gas process by which large amounts of hydrogen gas could be produced from steam and charcoal . His inventions and patents on this process and ice making machines made him a millionaire . In 1887 he moved to Los Angeles , California , and eventually built a 24 , 000 sq . ft . ( 2 , 230 m ) home in Pasadena . He opened several ice making plants and founded Citizen ' s Bank of Los Angeles . Lowe was introduced to David J . Macpherson , a civil engineer , who had drawn up plans for a scenic mountain railroad . In 1891 they incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad Co . and began the construction of what would become the Mount Lowe Railway into the hills above Altadena . The railway opened on July 4 , 1893 and was met with quick interest and success . Lowe continued construction toward Oak Mountain , renamed Mount Lowe , at an exhaustive rate , both physically and financially . By 1899 Lowe had gone into receivership and eventually lost the railway to Jared S . Torrance . Lowe ' s fortunes had been all but lost , and he lived out his remaining days at his daughter ' s home in Pasadena where he died at age 80 . Early life . Heritage . Thaddeus Lowe was born August 20 , 1832 to Clovis and Alpha Green Lowe in Jefferson Mills , Coos County , New Hampshire . Lowe ’ s grandfather , Levi Lowe , fought in the Revolutionary War , and his father was a drummer boy in the War of 1812 . Both Clovis and Alpha were native New Hampshirites , of pioneer stock and descendants of 17th century Pilgrims . Clovis was a cobbler , but later became a merchant in Jefferson . He dabbled in politics and was even elected to state legislature at one time . His politics and opinion were well respected in the state . Youth . Versions of the life of young Thaddeus vary . He was the second child in a family of five and was named Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine , more than likely after the character Thaddeus Constantine Sobieski ( Tadeusz Kosciuszko ) in an 1803 novel ‘ ’ Thaddeus of Warsaw ’ ’ by Scottish author Jane Porter . It is confused about his life around the age of ten whether his mother had died and Clovis married Mary Randall , or if Lowe was sent away to another farm during which time his mother died and his father remarried . He apparently did work for another farm owned by the Plaisted ’ s , but whether or not he lived there is uncertain . Clovis and Mary had seven more children , but there is a timeline confusion that may indicate she already had children when she married Clovis . What is consistent in the stories of Lowe are accounts of his insatiable appetite for learning . He could not read enough material , and he had questions beyond the answering of his father or teachers . Lowe was also limited in the amount of time he had for school . His farm chores only allowed him the three winter months to attend Common School at Jefferson Hills , two miles away . The school had no books , but like Abraham Lincoln Thad would spend his evenings in front of the fireplace reading books loaned from his teacher ’ s personal library . By age fourteen Thad had ventured out on his own first to Portland , Maine , then back to Boston where he joined his older brother Joseph in the shoe [ parts ] cutting trade . At eighteen Thad became quite ill and returned home . While he was still recuperating when his younger brother invited him to attend a chemistry lecture by one Professor Reginald Dinkelhoff featuring the phenomena of lighter - than - air gases , specifically hydrogen . When the Professor requested a volunteer from the audience , an eager Thaddeus jumped to the fore . Dinkelhoff could see the interest in his eyes and after the show offered to take him on the road with him as an assistant . Lowe did so and after two years upon the professor ’ s retirement bought out the show using the appellation “ Thaddeus Sobieski Counlicourt Lowe , Professor of Chemistry . ” Self - made scientist and aeronaut . The lecture circuit business proved lucrative enough for Lowe to seek out the education he so lacked as a child . He tried studying medicine to fulfill his grandmother ' s wish , but the boredom redirected him to his first interest , aviation with the use of lighter - than - air gases . American balloonists used coke gas to inflate limp silk bags , as opposed to the original French balloons which were cotton weave over rigid frameworks that were stood over fires to collect hot smoke ( hot air ) . By the late 1850s Lowe had become a foremost balloon builder and continued his lucrative business as a showman giving balloon rides to passersby and fairground attendees . In 1855 , at one of his lectures , he was introduced to a pretty Parisian actress , 19 - year - old Leontine Augustine Gaschon . ( Her father was a palace guard of King Louis Phillipe who fled to the U . S . as a political refugee . ) A week later , on February 14 , 1855 , Thaddeus and Leontine wed . Their union would produce ten children , seven girls and three boys . Lowe continued with his scientific endeavors and the dream of owning his own balloon with the wild idea of making a transatlantic flight via the high winds he observed . He pored over the book of John Wise , " A System of Aeronautics " which had specific instructions for the construction of aerostats , the cutting , the sewing , the leak proofing . In 1857 Lowe built and piloted his first balloon in tethered flight at a small farm in Hoboken , New Jersey . Thad ’ s father joined in the balloon making business and had become an accomplished aeronaut himself . In 1858 the Lowes built the larger balloon " Enterprise " and several others . Lowe continued with his scientific endeavors and avocation to make a transatlantic flight via the high winds . In 1859 Lowe began the construction of a mammoth balloon to be named the " City of New York " . Meanwhile he espoused the theory of transatlantic flight to many who had stock market interests in Europe . The recently laid transatlantic cable had failed , and sea travel was undependably slow . He amassed supporters from all corners of the business and scientific communities , in particular one Prof . Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution who wrote : Transatlantic attempts . Lowe ' s latest mammoth balloon , the " City of New York " , was a massive 103 - foot ( 31 . 394 m . ) diameter balloon with an 11 - 1 / 2 ton ( 10 , 432 . 6 kg ) lift capacity ( on coke gas , 22 - 1 / 2 ton [ 20 , 411 . 6 kg . ] on hydrogen ) , which included a 20 - foot ( 6 m . ) diameter , 8 - man canvas covered gondola and a suspended lifeboat named for his wife Leontine . It was prepared for a test flight to be launched at Reservoir Square in New York on November 1 , 1859 . Unfortunately the local gas company was not able to deliver a sufficient supply of gas . Within a week Lowe was invited to Philadelphia by Prof . John C . Cresson of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Sciences , who also happened to be Chairman of the Board of the Point Breeze Gas Works . They promised a sufficient supply of gas . Lowe stored the balloon in Hoboken and waited for spring to do the test flight . Before the test flight the balloon was renamed the " Great Western " , on the advice of newspaperman Horace Greeley , to rival the maiden voyage of the steamship " Great Eastern " in the spring of 1860 . Lowe made the flight successfully on June 28 , 1860 , from Philadelphia to New Jersey , but on his first attempt at a transatlantic launch on September 7 , the " Great Western " was ripped open by a wind . A second attempt on September 29 was halted when the repaired spot on the balloon bulged during inflation . Lowe would need to overhaul the " Great Western " and wait for the next late spring . A second test flight , at the suggestion of Prof . Henry , was made from Cincinnati and was to return him to the eastern seaboard . For this flight he used the smaller balloon " Enterprise " . His flight took off on the early morning of April 19 , 1861 , two days after Virginia had seceded from the Union . The flight misdirected him to Unionville , South Carolina where he was put under house arrest as a Yankee spy . Having established his identity as a man of science , he was allowed to return home where he had received word from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P . Chase to come to Washington with his balloon . The American Civil War permanently ended Lowe ' s attempt at a transatlantic crossing . Participation in the Civil War ( 1861 - 1863 ) . Chief Aeronaut . On the evening of July 11 , 1861 Lowe met President Lincoln and offered to perform a demonstration with the " Enterprise " and a telegraph set from a height some 500 feet ( 152 . 4 m . ) above the White House . In the telegraph message Lowe asserted : Lowe was competing for the position with three other prominent balloonists , John Wise , John LaMountain , and brothers Ezra Allen and James Allen . Wise and LaMountain were old critics of Lowe , but were not able to obtain the assignment so easily . Lowe ' s first outing was at the First Battle of Bull Run , with General Irvin McDowell and the Army of Northeastern Virginia . His performance was impressive , though he had the misfortune of having to land behind enemy lines . Fortunately he was found by members of the 31st New York Volunteers before the enemy could discover him , but after landing , he had twisted his ankle and was not able to walk out with them . They returned to Fort Corcoran to report his position . Eventually his wife Leontine , disguised as an old hag , came to his rescue with a buckboard and canvas covers and was able to extract him and his equipment safely . Word of his exploits got back to the President , who ordered General Winfield Scott to see to Lowe ' s formation of a balloon corps , with Lowe as Chief Aeronaut . It was almost four months before Lowe received orders and provisions to construct four ( eventually seven ) balloons equipped with mobile hydrogen gas generators . At the same time he assembled a band of men whom he would instruct in the methodology of military ballooning . The newly formed Union Army Balloon Corps remained a civilian contract organization , never receiving military commissions , a dangerous position lest any one of the men be captured as spies and summarily executed . Peninsula Campaign . Lowe returned to the Army of the Potomac now under General George McClellan , with his new military balloon the " Eagle " , though his generators were not ready . He performed ascensions over Yorktown , after which the Confederates retreated toward Richmond . Lowe was given use of a converted coal barge , the " George Washington Parke Custis " , onto which he loaded two new balloons and two new hydrogen gas generators , with which Lowe performed the first observations over water thereby making the " GWP Custis " the first ever aircraft carrier . In Lowe ’ s Official Report to the Secretary Of War , he stated : Lowe went on to serve in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 , making observations over Mechanicsville , Virginia , and the ensuing Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks . The picture to the right depicts Lowe ' s ascent in the " Intrepid " over the Battle of Seven Pines , where his observations of the oncoming Confederate Army and the timely manner in which he reported troop movements saved the isolated army of General Samuel P . Heintzelman . Though he had used the hydrogen gas generators ( each balloon camp was assigned two generator units ) , the inflation time was still another hour off . He quickly transferred the gas from the " Constitution " into the " Intrepid " by cutting a hole in the bottom of a camp kettle and connecting the balloons at the valve ends . The process took fifteen minutes , a time savings later valued at " a million dollars a minute . " The muddy bogs around Fair Oaks and the Chickahominy River gave rise to many exotic diseases such as typhoid and malaria . Lowe contracted malaria and was put out of service for more than a month . The unsuccessful Army of the Potomac was ordered to retreat to Washington , and Lowe ' s wagons and mules were commandeered for the withdrawal and eventually returned to the Quartermaster . When Lowe returned to Washington , he was hard pressed to be put back into service . Eventually he was called to Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg , where his services were used . End of the Balloon Corps . The Balloon Corps was reassigned to the Engineers Corps . Lowe had been paid as a colonel ( $ 10 gold per day ) , but in March 1863 , Captain Comstock was put in charge of the newly reassigned air division and cut Lowe ' s pay to $ 6 cash ( $ 3 gold ) . At the same time , a Congressional assessment was being made of the air division and a disparaging third party report , which Lowe refuted in a lengthy response , gave pause to the Union commanders for further use of balloons . In addition , Lowe ' s appointments of personnel independent of the engineer officers had strained his relations with the military . Lowe tendered his resignation in May 1863 and the Allen brothers took charge of the Balloon Corps , but by August , the Corps had ceased to exist . Return to the private sector . Lowe sought to recuperate from the effects of malaria and the fatigue of war . He and Leontine returned to Jefferson , New Hampshire , where he spent time with his family . He had a month ’ s return to Washington in the fall of 1863 to complete his war report to the Secretary , then returned home to buy a farm near Valley Forge , where the farming life allowed him to recompose himself . As the advanced techniques of aerial reconnaissance developed by Lowe became influential around the world , Great Britain , France , even Brazil offered him the position of major - general if he were to organize a balloon corps for them . Having had enough of war , he declined the offer , but he did send them a balloon with equipment including portable generators . He consulted with their military experts and recruited his best aeronauts , the Allen brothers , to assist them . During his Civil War days , Lowe had met Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin , who was at the time acting as a military observer of the war . General McClellan had put all balloon ride - alongs off limits , so Lowe sent von Zeppelin to Poolesville to visit his German assistant aeronaut John Steiner , who could entertain him in his own language . Von Zeppelin returned in the 1870s to interview Lowe on all of his aeronautic techniques . Count von Zeppelin later designed the dirigible aircraft that bore his name . Lowe made a new home in Norristown , Pennsylvania where he continued with his scientific endeavors with hydrogen gas , improving upon and patenting the water gas process by which high volumes of the volatile fuel could be made from passing steam over hot coal . The industry revolutionized home heating and lighting along the eastern seaboard . He held several patents on ice making machines , including his perfected “ Compression Ice Machine ” which would revolutionize the cold storage industry . He even discovered that gas burning through a platinum mantle produced a bright illumination ( as later found in the Coleman lantern ) . He bought an old steamship in which he installed his refrigerating units and began shipping fresh fruit from New York to Galveston , and fresh beef back . This was an historical first where people were able to eat fresh beef that hadn ' t been packed in preservative salts . His steamship venture failed due to his lack of knowledge about shipping , but the industry was picked up by several other countries . Lowe also manufactured products that ran on hydrogen gas . With these and his several patents , Lowe amassed a fortune . For his achievements , Lowe received the coveted Elliott Cresson Medal for the Invention Held to be Most Useful to Mankind . Lowe ' s gas process . In 1873 , Lowe developed and patented the Lowe ' s water gas process which is a modification of the water gas process by which large amounts of hydrogen enriched gas could be generated for residential and commercial use in heating and lighting . Unlike the common coal gas , or coke gas which was used in municipal service , this gas provided a more efficient heating fuel that was also suitable for illumination . The basic water gas reaction is : The Lowe process is a three stage modified water gas process in which ' blue ' water gas is modified by addition of pyrolized oils to render a yellow flame usable for domestic lighting as well as heating . Blue water gas is a term used for water gas produced from clean burning fuels such as anthracite , coke and charcoal and produces a blue flame . The Lowe process is performed in a series of three chambers , the generator , the carburettor and the superheater . The original air blast is used to produce air gas in the generator . The heat of primary combustion heats the coal sufficiently , while the air gas is burned by a second air blast in the other two chambers in which the oil for carburetting is decomposed . These chambers contain a quantity of loose fire brick called “ checker work , ” and the air gas is burned in them during the time the air blast is on the main producer . When the coal and checker work are hot enough , the air blast is shut off and the steam blast is turned on . Heat stored in the checker work pyrolyzes the mixture of water gas and oil , which is led through the chambers while the steam blast is on the producers . The Lowe process is endothermic , and cools the generator and checker work , so the process has to alternate between air blast for heating and steam blast for gas production . The process spurred on the industry of gas manufacturing , and gasification plants were established quickly along the Eastern seaboard of the United States . Similar processes , like the Haber Process , led to the manufacture of ammonia ( NH ) by the combining of nitrogen , found in air , with high volumes of hydrogen . This spurred on the refrigeration industry which long used ammonia as its refrigerant . Prof . Lowe also held several patents on artificial ice making machines , and was able to run successful businesses in cold storage as well as products which operated on hydrogen gas . Retirement in Pasadena , California . In 1887 , Lowe moved to Los Angeles and in 1890 to Pasadena , California , where he built a 24 , 000 square foot ( 2200 m ) mansion . He started a water - gas company , founded the Citizens Bank of Los Angeles , established several ice plants , and bought a Pasadena opera house . Mount Lowe Railway . Early Pasadenans always had a dream of a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains . It was one David J . Macpherson , a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University , who had the general plans for just such a railroad . He was introduced to Prof . Lowe with the idea of joining Macpherson ’ s plans and Lowe ’ s money together in one venture . In 1891 , Lowe and Macpherson incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad ( later the Mount Lowe Railway ) . Unable to obtain all the rights of way to Mt . Wilson , the two men redirected their railway toward Oak Mountain via the Echo promontory . The difference between this and any other scenic mountain railway of its kind was that it was an all - electric traction trolley ( streetcar ) , the only one of its kind to ever exist . Oak Mountain was later renamed Mount Lowe , and to make it official , Andrew McNally , the co - founder of the map printing company Rand McNally who had moved to Altadena , had the name Mt . Lowe printed on all his maps . Lowe opened the first section of the railway on July 4 , 1893 , from the corner of Lake and Calaveras in Altadena to the Rubio Pavilion in the Rubio Canyon , then transferring to a steep long funicular to Echo Mountain . At the top there was a 40 - room chalet . In 1894 , he added an 80 - room hotel , the Echo Mountain House , and the observatory . By 1896 , the upper division was finished into Grand Canyon at Ye Alpine Tavern . Altogether there were some seven miles ( 11 . 265 km ) of track . Lowe lost the venture to receivership in 1899 , which left him impoverished . The MLR became part of Henry Huntington ' s recently formed Pacific Electric Railway ( also known as " Red Car " ) in 1902 . The only part of the railway property that remained Lowe ' s was the observatory on Echo Mountain . It boasted a 16 - inch ( 406 . 4 mm ) reflective telescope from which many astronomical finds were made . It was blown down in a gale in 1928 . The railway fell in stages to the Echo Mountain House fire , a kitchen fire on February 4 , 1900 ; a wind - aided brush fire on Echo Mountain in 1905 , which wiped out everything except the observatory and the astronomer ' s cabin ; a Rubio Canyon flash flood in 1909 that destroyed the Pavilion ; and an electrical fire that razed the Tavern in 1936 . The line was abandoned after the Los Angeles deluge of March 1938 . Death and legacy . Lowe died at his daughter ' s Pasadena , California , home at age 80 after a few years of failing health . Lowe was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena , California , Next to him lies his wife Leontine , who died a year later . Also buried near the Lowe monument are his two sons , Leon and Sobieski , and other family members . Many of the family members returned to the East Coast . A nearby monument has been separately erected for his son Thaddeus and his wife . Thaddeus Lowe ' s granddaughter Pancho Lowe Barnes was also an aviation pioneer . The Mount Lowe Railway was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 6 , 1993 . The mountain itself still bears his name . Lowe is a member of the U . S . Army Military Intelligence Hall of Fame . Lowe Army Heliport at Fort Rucker , Alabama is named in his honor . Thaddeus Lowe in popular culture . Lowe was portrayed by Stuart Whitman in the movie " High Flying Spy " in 1972 , produced by Walt Disney Production