Benjamin Baker
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Benjamin Baker as a young engineer
Structural engineer
Sir Benjamin Baker, KCB, KCMG, FRS (31 March 1840 - 19 May 1907) was an eminent British civil engineer who worked in mid to late Victorian era. He helped develop the early underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler, but he is best known for his work on the Forth Bridge. He made many other notable contributions to civil engineering, including his work as an expert witness at the public inquiry into the Tay Rail Bridge disaster. Later, he helped design and build the first Aswan dam.
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[edit] Career
He was born in Keyford, which is now part of Frome, Somerset in 1840, and, at the age of 16, Benjamin Baker became an apprentice at Messrs Price and Fox at the Neath Abbey Iron Works. After his apprenticeship he spent two years as an assistant to Mr. W.H. Wilson. Later, he became associated with Sir John Fowler in London. He took part in the construction of the Metropolitan railway (London). He was also a key expert witness in the Tay rail bridge disaster of 1879.
He designed the cylindrical vessel in which Cleopatra's Needle, now standing on the Thames Embankment, London, was brought over from Egypt to England in 1877-1878.
[edit] Bridges
He published a timely book on Long Railway Bridges in the 1870s which advocated the introduction of steel, and showed that much longer spans were possible using this material. The book is remarkably prescient for the way the properties of steel could be exploited in structures.
[edit] Tay bridge disaster
In 1880, he was called as an expert witness to the inquiry into the Tay Rail Bridge disaster. Although he was acting on behalf of Thomas Bouch, the builder of the first railway bridge across the Tay, he performed his role with independence and tenacity. His testimony was against the theory that the bridge was simply blown over by the wind that fateful night. He made a meticulous survey of structures at or near the bridge, and concluded that wind speeds were not excessive on the night of the disaster.
He also said in his statement to the court that he had built over 12 miles of railway viaduct, referring to his design of the elevated railroad in New York in 1868, some of which still survives in Manhattan (unused). By this time he had already made himself an authority on bridge construction, and shortly afterwards he was engaged on the work which made his reputation with the general public: the design and erection of the Forth Bridge in collaboration with Sir John Fowler and William Arrol. It was an almost unique design as a large cantilever bridge, and was built entirely in steel, another unprecedented development in bridge engineering. Stiffness was provided by hollow tubes which were riveted together so as to make sound joints. Baker promoted his design in numerous public lectures, and arranged demonstrations of the stability of the cantilever by using his assistants as stage props.
[edit] Forth bridge
With Sir John Fowler, he designed and engineered the Forth bridge after the Tay bridge collapse. It was a cantilever bridge and Baker gave numerous lectures on the principles which lay behind his design.
[edit] Aswan dam
On the completion of this undertaking in 1890 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG),[1] and in the same year the Royal Society recognized his scientific attainments by electing him one of its fellows. Twelve years later at the formal opening of the Aswan Dam, for which he was consulting engineer, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).[2] He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers between May 1895 and June 1896.[3]
Baker also played a large part in the introduction of the system widely adopted in London of constructing underground railways in deep tubular tunnels built up of cast iron segments, obtained an extremely large professional practice, ranging over almost every branch of civil engineering, and was more or less directly concerned with most of the great engineering achievements of his day. He was also the author of many papers on engineering subjects. He died at Pangbourne, Berkshire and buried in the village of Idbury in Oxfordshire.[4]
In 1872 Baker wrote a series of articles titled, "The Strength of Brickwork." In these articles Baker argued that the tensile strength of cement should not be neglected in calculating the strength of brickwork. He wrote that if the cement was neglected then several structures of his time should have collapsed.
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
Robert Rawlinson President of the Institution of Civil Engineers
May 1895 – June 1896 Succeeded by
John Wolfe-Barry
