W. F. Spear

“ In 1888 he was a vice-president of the mechanical science section of the British Association, before which he read two papers, in 1887 on ‘The Improvement of the Access to the Mersey Ports,’ and in 1885 on ‘Some Points for the Consideration of English Engineers with Reference to the Design of Girder Bridges.’ He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical and other societies, and served upon the engineering standards committee as a representative of the crown agents for the colonies. ”

“ Samuelson, whose interest in practical applications of science grew keen, studied for himself the construction of blast-furnaces and resolved to enlarge their cubical capacity at the expense of their height. By 1870 eight furnaces were at work, most of them of greater capacity than any others in the district. ”

“ After education at private schools, and some training at Bristol, he became in 1834 an assistant to John Dixon, recently appointed chief engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. Woods was placed in charge of the section, 15 miles in length, between Liverpool and Newton-le-Willows, including the tunnel, then under construction, between Lime Street and Edge Hill stations; and in 1836 he succeeded Dixon as chief engineer, taking also charge of the mechanical department. The Liverpool and Manchester railway was amalgamated with the Grand Junction railway in 1845. ”

“ Immediately afterwards he built for the Chilian navy the unarmoured protected cruiser Esmeralda (displacement 3000 tons, speed 18 knots per hour) . He thus is responsible for the introduction into the navies of the world of the cruiser class, intermediate between armour-clad men-of-war and the wholly unprotected war vessel. He further designed the twin-screw gunboats of the Staunch class, most of which were built at the Armstrong yard, and numerous similar gunboats for the Chinese navy.
In 1871 Rendel was appointed by the British government a member of the committee on designs of ships of war ”

“ STEPHENSON, GEORGE ROBERT (1819–1905) , civil engineer, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 20 Oct. 1819, was only son of Robert Stephenson, brother of George Stephenson of railway fame [q. v.] . He was thus a first cousin of Robert Stephenson [q. V.] . At the age of twelve he was sent to work with underground viewers and surveyors at the Pendleton collieries, near Manchester, where his father was chief engineer. He was then trained for two years in the colliery workshops and was given charge of one of the engines used for drawing wagons up an incline. ”

“ In 1881 Shelford was appointed engineer of the Hull, Barnsley and West Riding Junction railway, which was designed to connect a new (Alexandra) dock at Hull with the Barnsley and West Riding districts. The Hull and Barnsley railway, which involved much difficult engineering work, was Shelford's most important piece of railway construction at home. ”

“ The business, which was turned into a limited liability company in 1887, helped to convert Banbury from an agricultural town into an industrial centre. Meanwhile Samuelson in 1853 undertook a different sort of venture elsewhere. At the Cleveland Agricultural Show he met John Vaughan, who had discovered in 1851 the seam of Cleveland ironstone, and now convinced Samuelson of the certain future of the Cleveland iron trade. Samuel son erected blast-furnaces at South Bank, near Middlesbrough, within a mile of the works of Bolckow & Vaughan at Eston. ”

“ The ‘Greater Britain’ class of 1891 had still larger cylinders, and in 1897 Webb brought out the ‘Black Prince’ or ‘Diamond Jubilee’ class of compounds, which had two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders, all driving on one axle. He was a strong advocate of compounding, and he satisfied himself that by means of it he obtained, with substantial economy, the greater power called for by the steady increase in the weight of trains. The subject excited much controversy among engineers, and the question of the relative merits of simple and compound locomotives is not yet settled. ”

“ In 1848 Samuelson purchased a small factory of agricultural implements at Banbury, which the death of the founder, James Gardner, brought into the market. Samuelson developed the industry with rare energy, and the works, which in 1872 produced no less than 8000 reaping-machines, rapidly became one of the largest of its kind. ”

“ In 1882 Leader Williams became, jointly with Hamilton N. Fulton, engineer to the provisional committee which was considering the formation of a ship canal to Manchester. Fulton had previously put forward a project for a tidal canal. Each engineer submitted a proposal. The committee adopted Williams's proposal to use the tidal channel of the Mersey as far as practicable, and then to cut a canal with four huge locks for raising ships gradually to the level of Manchester. He was thereupon appointed chief engineer. ”

“ As engineer to the port and docks board he improved the channel between Dublin Bay and the city, designing for the purpose powerful dredging plant. He also rebuilt about 11⁄4 mile of quay-walls, providing deep-water berths for oversea vessels, extended the northern quays to the east, and began the Alexandra basin. In the construction of the northern quays he employed concrete monoliths of the then unprecedented weight of 350 tons, and designed the appliances necessary for handling and setting the huge blocks. ”

“ In Feb. 1850 Shelford went to Marlborough College, leaving at midsummer 1852 to become an engineer. He was first apprenticed to a mechanical engineer in Scotland, but in 1854 he became a pupil of William Gale, waterworks engineer, of Glasgow. During his two years' term of service he attended lectures at Glasgow University. In 1856, being thrown on his own resources by his father's death, he left Glasgow to seek his fortune in London, and in December of that year he entered the office of (Sir) John Fowler [q. v. Suppl. I] as an assistant engineer, remaining in his service until 1860. ”

“ His first work as an engineer was on railway surveys in Spain in 1852–3. In 1854–5 he was resident engineer on the construction of the Boyne Viaduct under James Barton. This viaduct was probably the earliest instance of the use of metal girders of any considerable span in which latticed bars were substituted for a continuous plate web, and the cross sections of the web members as well as of the fiangea were proportioned to the stresses imposed by the rolling load. ”

“ He thoroughly believed in the need among Englishmen of every rank of a strict scientific training. In 1867 he investigated personally and with great thoroughness the conditions of technical education in the chief industrial centres of Europe and made a valuable report (Parl. Papers, 1867) . He was in 1868 chairman of a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the provisions for instruction in theoretical and applied science to the industrial classes ”

“ In 1859, owing to the death of his cousin, he became proprietor of the locomotive-works at Newcastle-on-Tyne, with extensive collieries at Snibston and Tapton. He thereupon gradually relinquished his private practice and personally controlled these works until 1886, when the firm (Robert Stephenson & Co.) was registered as a private limited liability company. Later it was formed into a joint-stock company, of which Stephenson was a director until 1899. ”

“ Samuelson, who was a considerate employer of labour, took part in developing Middlesbrough and the Cleveland district, identifying himself with local institutions and effort. But his home was at Banbury, and he was prominent there in publio affairs. Seeking a parliamentary career, he represented the place and district in parliament for more than thirty years. He was a zealous upholder of liberal principles, was loyal to his party, and a staunch supporter of Gladstone. He was first elected for Banbury by a majority of one vote in Feb. ”

“ Mansergh also carried out sewerage and sewage-disposal for Southport, Burton-on-Trent, Coventry, Derby, and Plymouth, and water-supply works for Lancaster, Stockton, Middlesbrough, and many other places. His consulting practice and parliamentary work reached large dimensions. He appeared more than six hundred times before parliamentary committees, acted for three hundred and sixty municipalities or local authorities, wrote more than two hundred and fifty reports on sewerage and waterworks alone, and gave evidence at about three hundred public inquiries. ”

“ Meanwhile Stoney in 1856 became assistant engineer to the port authority of Dublin; three years later, owing to the ill-health of the chief engineer, George Halpin, junior, he acted as executive engineer, and in 1862 he succeeded Halpin as chief engineer. ”

“ He placed the river Weaver in the front rank of English waterways, deepening and widening it, enlarging the locks, and introducing steam traction; thus practically the whole of the salt traffic from Northwich and Winsford to Liverpool was secured. ”

“ The first Ellis-Tresidder chilled compound plate was tried with success at Shoeburyness in 1891.
Ellis was largely instrumental in moting the success of the Bessemer system Sir Henry Bessemer [q. v. Suppl. I] established works close to the Atlas works and Ellis, adopting at an early stage the new process, at once put up at the Atlas works the first plant in England outside the inventor's own works. ”

“ Stephenson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, and a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. By giving prizes and in other ways he endeavoured to improve the design of the rowing and sailing vessels in use in the Kyles of Bute. ”

“ He was responsible not only for surveys and construction, but also for the design of rolling stock to meet the somewhat special conditions. Other engineering work included a wrought-iron pier, 2400 feet long, built in 1851 on screw piles at Pisco on the coast of Peru, and a quay-wall built at Bilbao in 1877. ”

“ He was resident engineer on the extensive works of Shoreham harbour from 1849 to 1852, and engineer to the contractors for the Admiralty pier at Dover from 1852 to 1855. In 1856 he became engineer to the River Weaver Trust, and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to works for inland navigation. ”

“ Mansergh specialised chiefly in water-works, and in sewerage and sewage-disposal works. In accordance with advice which he had given the corporation of Birmingham in 1871 and repeated in 1890, the corporation obtained powers to construct impounding reservoirs in the valleys of the Elan and Claerwen rivers, and an aqueduct 731⁄2 miles in length to convey the water to Birmingham. ”

“ At home he developed a love of music and a command of modern languages. He was soon apprenticed to Rudolph Zwilchenhart & Co., a Swiss firm of merchants, at Liverpool. There he spent six years. In 1837 he was sent to Warrington by his masters to purchase locomotive engines for export to Prussia. ”

“ On 10 March 1902 he shot himself through the head on the beach at Robb's Jetty, Fremantle. He married in 1875 a daughter of William Ness of Christchurch, New Zealand. She survived him, with seven children. ”

“ In 1884 he brought out the ‘Dreadnought’ class, with larger cylinders, and in 1889 the ‘Teutonic’ class, with cylinders of the same size as the ‘Dreadnoughts’ but larger driving-wheels and simplified low-pressure valve-gear. ”

“ In 1881-2 he designed for the Chilian and Chinese governments a series of 1350-ton unarmoured 16-knot cruisers, carrying comparatively powerful armaments, protection being afforded by light steel decks and by coal-bunkers. ”

“ In the course of his thirty-two years' service O'Callaghan was engaged on the Northern Road in the Central Provinces (including the Kanhan bridge) ; on surveys for the Chanda, Nagpur and Raipur, Nagpur and Chhattisgarh, Sind-Sagor, and Khwaja-Amran railways ”

“ John Brown [q. v. Suppl. I] and William Bragget Atlas engineering works at Sheffield, then a modest establishment covering about three acres and employing about persons. Shortly after the partners took over the works the adoption of armour by the French for warships (1858) led Messrs. ”