Henry W. Jacobs, of Topeka, Kan., assistant superintendent of motive power for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe system, is recognized as one of that great system's most efficient officers. He comes of stanch old German ancestry on both the paternal and maternal sides, and was born in Atchison, Kan., Sept. 28, 1874, to Henry and Teresa (Schmeling) Jacobs, natives of Germany. The father immigrated to America in 1861 and in 1870 located at Atchison, Kan., where, in 1873, he was married to Teresa Schmeling, and they have made that city their home since the date of their marriage. Henry W. Jacobs was reared and educated in Atchison, and at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to learn the machinist's trade. After mastering the trade he worked as a machinist, a moulder, and as a structural iron worker, with the Seaton foundry at Atchison, Kan. He was then a machinist with the United States gun shop at Washington, D. C.; with the United States government marine service, testing engines on trial runs, etc.; an erecting machinist, with the Sprague Electric Company, the R. Hoe & Company, and with Crocker & Wheeler; manager, in 1899, of the Vulcan Engineering Company, engaged in repairs and building of stationary and marine machinery; and in 1900 he took up railway work as erecting machinist for the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Central Branch railway. He served as tool-room foreman on the Burlington railroad; as general shop demonstrator of the Union Pacific railroad, as well as engineer of methods for one of the largest railway systems in the western United States; and in 1906 was made assistant superintendent of motive power of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, the position he now holds.

This is a remarkable record for so young a man to have achieved and would justify the prediction that ere many years he will have attained still greater honors and become especially distinguished in the railway world. On Dec. 5, 1896, he was married to Miss Marie Metta Schutte, of New York City, and this union is blessed with six living children—Elsie, Bertha, Harrington Emerson, Albert, Gertrude, and Stanley.

While Mr. Jacobs has been devoting his time and attention assiduously to his chosen vocation, he has, through observation and practical experience, gleaned a fund of valuable information, pertaining to mechanical engineering and general mechanics, which has justified him in embodying his views, not only in articles which have appeared in various mechanical journals throughout the United States, but also on two books—one entitled "Betterment Briefs," a volume of 262 pages, published in 1909 by John Wiley & Sons, of New York City, and one entitled "Standard Shop Efficiency Schedules," a volume of 614 pages, published in 1910 by Crane & Company, of Topeka. Mr. Jacobs has had some twenty-eight patents granted him by the United States patent office, covering his inventions, the most notable among them being the non-explosive firebox, the railway gasoline track car, and locomotive super-heaters.

Mr. Jacobs is a member of the Topeka Club and of the Elks Club, and keeps in touch with the most advanced thought of the day along his lines of endeavor by holding membership in the following societies and associations: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Geographical Society, the Railway Master Mechanics' Association, the International Railway Fuel Association, the Railway Storekeepers' Association, and the Western Aero Association, of which he is president.