Alfred Noble (civil engineer)

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Alfred Noble 1844–1914

Alfred Noble (born August 7, 1844 in Livonia , Michigan , † April 19, 1914 in New York City ) was an American civil engineer . He gained experience building several large bridges and the former Weitzel Locks , the lock systems on the Saint Marys River , and was later chief engineer in the construction of the East River Tunnels for the Pennsylvania Railroad under the river of the same name in New York City. He was also involved in the design of the Galveston Seawall after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and a member of the Nicaragua Canal Board , the first Isthmian Canal Commission of 1899 and the International Board of Consulting Engineers in the construction of the Panama Canal . He was also president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of several other engineering associations in the USA.

Life

Adolescent years

Alfred Noble was born in 1844 to Charles and Lovina (née Douw) Noble in Livonia, near Detroit in Wayne County , Michigan. His ancestors were immigrants from England who settled on the east coast of the Connecticut River in the 17th century . His grandfather, Norton Noble, moved to Michigan in late 1832 and was one of the earliest settlers in Wayne County. Alfred grew up on the family's farm, attended school from the age of four and helped with his three brothers clearing, tilling and harvesting the fields.

After his 18th birthday he volunteered in the 24th Michigan Infantry Regiment and fought as part of the Iron Brigade during the Civil War , including the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg . He served until 1865 and was then a two-year clerk at the Department of Defense in Washington, DC Privately, he used the time as preparation for the studies he began in September 1867 as a sophomore at the University of Michigan . His fellow students included the later judges William R. Day and Rufus Thayer . During his studies Alfred Noble was involved in hydrographic surveys in Michigan as part of the US Lake Survey . In 1870 he graduated as a civil engineer ( civil engineering ).

Canal, bridge and tunnel construction

The Weitzel Locks on the Saint Marys River around 1895

After graduating, he continued his work on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron , including the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie , where he worked under General Gottfried Weitzel US in 1873. Became Assistant Engineer of the United States Army Corps of Engineers . During the next nine years, he played a key role in the design and construction of the Weitzel Locks , a new type of lock system in which , for the first time, to avoid turbulence when filling and emptying the lock chamber, the water was fed in through longitudinal channels in the bottom of the chamber. and was carried away. All other locks built by the Soo Locks were later based on this principle. The Weitzel Locks were converted into the larger MacArthur Locks from 1942 .

After completing the Weitzel Locks , he left the Army Corps in 1882 and turned to bridge construction. Until 1894 he was involved as a resident engineer in various construction projects in several states, including between 1883 and 1886 the construction of the Marent Gulch Trestle in Montana , the St. Louis Bay Bridge in Minnesota and the Washington Bridge in New York. From July 1887 he worked on several bridges under George S. Morison , who among other things had designed the new construction of the Marent Gulch Trestle and with the Cairo Rail Bridge in Illinois and the Frisco Bridge in Tennessee realized further railway bridges at this time. In 1901 he entered into a partnership with Ralph Modjeski to build the Thebes Bridge over the Mississippi River . Modjeski designed the trusses of the over a kilometer long bridge, and Noble was responsible for the access roads, foundations and bridge piers. The bridge opened in January 1905.

Construction of the East River Tunnels between Manhattan and Queens 1904–1909

During the construction of Thebes Bridge in 1904, Noble was hired by then President of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Alexander J. Cassatt and his assistant Samuel Rea to build the first rail link in New York City between New Jersey , Midtown Manhattan and Long Island , with tunnels underneath the Hudson River and the East River . Noble became chief engineer for the East River Division and was responsible for building the East River Tunnels and the foundations of New York Pennsylvania Station . Construction work began in 1904 and the tunnels and the train station were inaugurated in September 1910.

In addition to his projects with Modjeski and the PRR, from November 1901 he was also a member of a team of experts formed by the Texan city of Galveston to develop protective measures on the coast of the city after the devastating Galveston hurricane and, on its recommendation, the 5.6 km long Galveston Seawall was erected, with a height and width of approximately 5 m. Construction was completed in 1904 and extended to over 16 km in 1963.

Consulting activities and engineering associations

Early drafts for the Panama Canal (above) and Nicaragua Canal (below), around 1885

In April 1874, Alfred Noble founded his own engineering office in Chicago and subsequently worked as a consulting engineer alongside his construction projects . Due to his diverse experience in hydraulic engineering , he was appointed to the three-person Nicaragua Canal Board in 1895 by President Grover Cleveland . Together with William Ludlow and Mordecai T. Endicott , a possible route for a Nicaragua Canal was to be worked out. Under President William McKinley , he was appointed to the first Isthmian Canal Commission in 1899 to re-examine a possible canal in Central America, which continued to favor Nicaragua . After the United States took over the second phase of construction of the Panama Canal in the early 20th century, Noble became a member of the International Board of Consulting Engineers in 1905 , this time under President Theodore Roosevelt . The panel was supposed to advise President and Congress on the execution of the canal, and Noble managed to convince both that a canal at sea level without locks is not feasible.

Noble has also served on the United States Deep Waterways Commission and has advised the Government of Canada, the cities of New York and Chicago, and several private companies. In addition, he was an active member of several engineering associations in the United States, such as the Western Society of Engineers , the American Institute of Consulting Engineers , the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers, of which he was president in 1903.

Private life

Alfred Noble married Georgia Speechly of Ann Arbor on May 31, 1871 . Their only son Frederick became a civil engineer like his father. Noble was an avid hiker, camper, and fisherman. He loved spending several weeks in the great outdoors in northern Michigan and southern Canada . He made his last trip at the age of 69 in the summer of 1913. Shortly before his 70th birthday on April 19, 1914, Alfred Noble died in New York City of complications from an operation.

Appreciations

Noble was awarded the John Fritz Medal of the American Association of Engineering Societies for his achievements in 1910 and received the Elliott Cresson Medal, the highest award of the Franklin Institute in 1912 . In 1895 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan and in 1904 from the University of Wisconsin . In 1911 Noble was made an honorary member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great Britain , and in 1913 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In his honor, the American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded the Alfred Noble Prize to young engineers since 1929 for special publications in the field of engineering , and in 1967 the Alfred Noble Library opened in his hometown .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Richard G. Weingardt: Alfred Noble: Special Consultant to Presidents and Governments. In: Leadership and Management in Engineering. Vol. 13, No. 4, 2013, pp. 282-289.
  2. ^ US Lake Survey. Wisconsin Water Library, University of Wisconsin – Madison. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  3. ↑ Ralph Modjeski et al. a .: Memoir of Alfred Noble. In: Trans. American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 79, 1915, pp. 1352-1415, here pp. 1356-1358.
  4. ↑ Ralph Modjeski et al. a .: Memoir of Alfred Noble. In: Trans. American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 79, 1915, pp. 1352-1415, here pp. 1358 f.
  5. ^ Soo Locks History. US Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  6. ^ SD Mason: The History of a High Viaduct. In: Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies. Vol. 8, No. 4, 1889, pp. 173-184, here p. 178.
  7. ↑ Ralph Modjeski et al. a .: Memoir of Alfred Noble. In: Trans. American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 79, 1915, pp. 1352-1415, here pp. 1359-1362.
  8. ↑ Jill Jonnes: Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and its Tunnels. Penguin Books, 2008, pp. 127-138.
  9. ↑ James H. Brace: The East River Division. In: William Couper (ed.): History of the engineering, construction, and equipment of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's New York terminal and approaches ... Isaac H. Blanchard Company, New York 1912, pp. 79-93.
  10. ^ Galveston Seawall and Grade Raising Project. ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  11. ↑ a b Ralph Modjeski u. a .: Memoir of Alfred Noble. In: Trans. American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 79, 1915, pp. 1352-1415, here pp. 1361-1365.
  12. ↑ Ralph Modjeski et al. a .: Memoir of Alfred Noble. In: Trans. American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 79, 1915, pp. 1352-1415, here p. 1364.
  13. ^ Alfred Noble Prize. ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  14. ^ Alfred Noble Library. Livonia Public Library. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Noble, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Livonia , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1914
Place of death New York City