William Fletcher Burden (March 14, 1830 – December 7, 1867) was an industrialist born in Troy, New York.
[1] William designed the steam derricks, used for unloading coal, at the Burden Iron Works.
A wire cable stretched between, on which an iron carriage traveled three hundred feet from the dock to the coal heap, carrying a self-dumping bucket with the capacity to hold a ton of coal.
A steam engine hoisted the filled bucket to the cable, along which it traveled to the point where the tilting apparatus overturned its contents upon the pile.
[1] Together, they were the parents of five sons, only three of which survived to adulthood: Burden died in Troy on December 7, 1867, at the age of thirty-seven, and was interred in the family vault in the Albany Rural Cemetery.