History of Pitcher, (Chenango County) New York United States of America

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Oscar Chapman Fox, patent examiner, was born at Pitcher, Chenango county, N.Y., Aug. 23, 1830; son of Daniel and Harriet Amanda (Chapman) Fox; grandson of Hubbard and Luna (Perry) Fox, and of Isaac and Sally (Wooster) Chapman; and a descendant of Daniel and Hannah (Burr) Fox of Cincinnati. His grandfather, Hubbard Fox, served in the first Connecticut Line in the Revolutionary war. In his early life Oscar spent his summers in working in his father's flour- and saw-mills and attended and taught school during the winter months, giving especial attention to physics. He attended New York central college for three years, and from 1856 to 1860 was principal of Nelson academy, Ohio. Returning to the east he raised and became captain of a company in the 76th N.Y. volunteers, serving at Rappahanneck Station, Warrenton Springs and Gainesville, Va. At the last named engagement, Aug. 28, 1862, he was severely wounded through the lungs and was discharged for disability, Dec. 22, 1862, receiving a commission as brevet major. In 1864 he was given a clerical position in the war department at Washington and was a member of the funeral cortege of President Lincoln. In May, 1870, he was appointed a member of the examining corps of the U.S. patent office, and in July, 1873, after successive promotions from competitive examinations, he became principal examiner. He was admitted to the bar in 1876. In that year he conceived the idea of introducing compressed air into the hermetically sealed tube of large refracting or reflecting telescopes as a support for the objective or speculum to prevent flexure from gravity. He also invented a uniform-motion-mechanism for rotary mercurial parabolic reflectors of any possible aperture, for zenith observations. He was elected a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science in 1891; a member of the Microscopical society of Washington, D.C.; of the American microscopical society in 1892, and of various literary and scientific associations.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Pitcher, (Chenango County) New York

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