William Howard

William Howard (1793–1834) was an American topographical engineer who was one of the first to work for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. When the railroad built its first cars using friction bearings first developed by Ross Winans, Howard made his own design and patented it on November 2, 1828. Early life William Howard was born at the Belvedere mansion in Baltimore, Maryland in 1793 to Peggy (née Chew) and John Eager Howard. He received his degree in medicine from the University of Maryland in 1817. After graduating, in 1819, he traveled with his friend Dr. Jeremias "Jeremiah" Van Rensselaer, the son of the Lieutenant Governor of New York Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, to Italy and hiked Mount Etna and Vesuvius. On July 12, 1819, Howard and his friend became the first Americans to ascend Mount Blanc. In April 1821, Howard published his account in a book called A Narrative of a Journey to the Summit of Mont Blanc, made in July, 1819. Career