Zalinski, Edmund Louis Gray

American soldier and inventor; born at Kurnich, Prussian Poland, Dec. 13, 1849. In 1853 his parents emigrated to the United States and settled in Seneca Falls, N. Y. He was educated at the public school there and at the Syracuse high school. In 1864 he entered the army as a volunteer, was promoted second lieutenant, Second New York Heavy Artillery, for gallantry at the battle of Hatcher's Run, and served till the close of the war in 1865. Appointed second lieutenant, Fifth United States Artillery, in 1866, in the following year he was promoted first lieutenant. He was professor of military science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1872 to 1876. In 1880 he graduated from the United States Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Va., and from the School of Submarine Mining at Willets Point, N. Y. He became captain in 1887, and in 1889 and 1890 traveled in Europe to study military affairs. He did garrison duty at San Francisco in 1892, and retired from the service in 1894. Since that time he has resided in New York city and in Washington, D. C.

Zalinski invented the pneumatic dynamite torpedogun, an intrenching tool, a ramrod-bayonet, a telescopicsight for artillery, and a system of range- and position-finding for seacoast and artillery firing.

Bibliography:

  * Who's Who in America, 1905;
  * Kipling, The Captive, in Traffics and Discoveries, London, 1904.



A. F. T. H.