Lowe, Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt [key], 1832–1913, American aeronaut and inventor, b. Coos co., N.H. He flew (1861) a distance of 900 mi (1,448 km) in a balloon he built himself. Later that year President Lincoln appointed him chief of the corps of aeronautics of the U.S. army. During the Civil War he built up a fleet of observation balloons that served in many engagements. Lowe invented (1865) a machine for making ice, equipped (1868) a steamer with refrigeration for haulage of perishable food, and built regenerative metallic furnaces for gas and petroleum and a coke-oven system for simultaneously producing gas and metallic coke.
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