He was first employed upon the State works of Pennsylvania, and his earliest independent work was in 1835–37 as chief of the survey for the Hartford and New Haven Railroad; he was subsequently employed either as chief or consulting engineer upon every railroad running out of New Haven (excepting possibly the Derby road).

From 1839 to 1848 he filled the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Middlebury College, Vt.; this position he resigned to give himself more fully to his engineering labors.

For several years after his return to New Haven his labor was mainly given to the development of his invention for the artificial production of ice economically on a large scale.

He made valuable original investigations in astronomy, mathematics, and physics, and was equally interested in questions of theology and political science, both in their theoretical and practical aspects In connection with the remarkable meteor shower of November 1833, he deserves the credit for first suggesting the correct theory of radiation of meteor tracks from a fixed point among the stars.

On March 2, 1829, Twining married Harriet Amelia Kinsley, of West Point, New York, who died October 12, 1871.