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Ephraim Shay

Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (died 1916)

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Born
July 17, 1839
Died
April 19, 1916
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1839

About Ephraim Shay

Ephraim Shay was an American merchant, entrepreneur and self-taught railroad engineer who worked in the state of Michigan. He designed the Shay locomotive and patented the type. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold. Quite a coincidence; on the day I am 22 years old I start on my first expedition to defend my country's honor and flag." Shay served in the Western Theatre of the war, under General William Tecumseh Sherman. In 1880, the first Shay locomotive was shipped to a customer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a center of logging on the Michigan peninsula.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ephraim Shay timeline

  1. In 1880, the first Shay locomotive was shipped to a customer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a center of logging on the Michigan peninsula.
  2. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold.

The world when Ephraim Shay was born

Ephraim Shay was born in 1839. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineFirst Opium War begins between Britain and China
  • Technology milestonePhotography (daguerreotype) announced to the world
  • Notable inventionDaguerreotype camera
  • World population~1.19B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderMartin Van Buren
  • U.S. population16.7M

1839 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ephraim Shay's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18392026
Population16.7M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.