Benjamin Baker

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Benjamin Baker

Sir Benjamin Baker , KCB , KCMG (born March 31, 1840 in Keyford , now part of Frome , Somerset , England , † May 19, 1907 in Bowden Green, Pangbourne , Berkshire , England) was an English civil engineer .

Live and act

After graduating from Cheltenham Grammar School, Baker worked for four years as an apprentice in an ironworks of Price and Fox in South Wales (Neath Abbey Iron Works) from 1856. From 1862 he worked in the office of John Fowler in London, to whom he remained loyal until 1898. Despite the age difference, he was good friends with Fowler. In 1875 he became a partner there.

He was involved in a large number of construction projects during the Victorian era, including various bridge constructions such as the Forth Bridge (built with John Fowler, 1883 to 1890), the urban railway lines in London and New York (1868) and the construction of the London Metro . After the Firth of Tay Bridge collapsed , he was one of the experts. During the construction of the old Aswan High Dam and the Asyut weir (both completed in 1902) he worked as a consulting engineer. He constructed the special ship Cleopatra , on which the Cleopatra's Needle obelisk, which today stands on the banks of the Thames, was brought to London in 1877/78 . In 1867 he was responsible for safety and renovation work for three bridges by Thomas Telford ( Menai Bridge , Buildwas Bridge, Bridge over the Severn).

In addition, Baker was an employee of the Encyclopædia Britannica and one of the first members of the British standards committee Engineering Standards Committee . He has also published many articles on civil engineering topics, most notably in Engineering Magazine . In 1867 he published there essays on bridge construction, Long Span Bridges , which later appeared in German translation, and in which he propagated the use of steel for even larger spans. His Firth of Forth Railway Bridge was one of the first major bridges made entirely of steel. He also described the concept of the cantilever bridge implemented there in his essays from 1867. In 1887, he also published a series of articles in Engineering Magazine on the Firth of Forth Bridge . Baker was an engineer of Watkin's Tower , built in 1891 ; the unfinished tower, which was supposed to be the answer to the Eiffel Tower in London, was demolished as an unfinished stump in 1907.

He also addressed issues of earth pressure and the strength of masonry in his articles in Engineering Magazine .

Baker was unmarried. He died of syncope on May 19, 1907 in Bowden Green, Pangbourne, and was buried in Idbury, near Chipping Norton .

Honors

In 1890 he was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society . In the same year he was awarded the title Knight Commander (KCMG) of the Order of St. Michael and St. George . In 1899 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1902 he was awarded the Bathorden second class (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB) of the Order of the Bath ennobled. In the same year he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Quotes

  • When an engineer has made no mistake in his career, has only a lack of practice back ( If an engineer hasnt had some failures, it is Merely evidence did his practice hasnt been Sufficiently extensive ), Benjamin Baker in 1881 (in connection with Retaining walls)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Baker: The actual lateral pressure of earth work , Online, Edition: Van Nostrand, New York 1881
  2. ↑ shaper RSE Fellows 1783-2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ quoted from RF Scott Failure , Rankine Lecture , Geotechnique Volume 37, 1987, p. 425, which in turn Baker The actual lateral pressure of earth work , Minutes Proc. Institution Civil Engineers 1881, Volume 65, pp. 140-186 cited
personal data
SURNAME Baker, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Keyford , now part of Frome , Somerset , England
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1907
Place of death Bowden Green , Pangbourne , UK