Thomas Willis Pratt
American engineer

Thomas Willis Pratt (1812–1875) was an American engineer. He is best known for his 1844 patent for the Pratt truss, which he designed with his father, Caleb Pratt. Pratt also surveyed the route of the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1844. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1812 and died in 1875.
The public source identifies “Thomas Willis Pratt” as american engineer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Willis and Pratt.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7795207. VIAF identifies the subject as 182173197. The Library of Congress control number is no2011140137. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1812, 1875 and 1844.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Willis Pratt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.