Frederick Walter Simms

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Frederick Walter Simms

Frederick Walter Simms (born December 24, 1803 in London , † February 27, 1865 ibid) was a British surveyor and civil engineer .

Life

Frederick Walter Simms was born in the Blackfriars district as one of nine children of the instrument maker William Simms (1763-1828) and his wife Sarah; his older brother was the instrument maker William Simms (1793-1860), from 1826 owner of Troughton & Simms . Simms received only a rudimentary school education and was of a rather sickly nature at a young age. He found his first job as a surveyor with the Ordnance Survey in Ireland , where he was soon appointed head of the Computing Department, a not so lucrative position, but which allowed him to gain practical experience in his profession.

In 1830 he returned to England and took the position of Thomas Glanville Taylor (1804-1848) as an assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory . His duties included operating the zenith tube with John Henry Belville , occasionally operating other instruments, and reviewing the printed observations from the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The then astronomer Royal John Pond describes Simms as "very capable and hardworking", but who had also "committed a major irregularity in the accuracy of the chronometer ". In 1835, George Biddell Airy took over as Astronomer Royal. A condition Airy made when he took office was the dismissal of Thomas Taylor as first assistant. Simms, who after Airy "apparently had hoped for the position as first assistant, for which he was quite incompetent", resigned on October 21, 1835.

Together with Richard Tappin Claridge († 1857) he made a trip to Paris in 1836 to research the French way of working with asphalt and to introduce it to England. In the same year he found a job as a resident engineer with the South Eastern Railway Company, for which he constructed the Bletchingley and Saltwood tunnels in the early 1840s and was awarded the Telford Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1842 .

In 1847 Simms got a job with the British East India Company as a consulting engineer. However, Simms could not stand the climate in India and so spent some time relaxing on Mauritius . In India, he led the surveying and mapping of Calcutta as part of the Great Trigonometric Survey and returned to England in the fall of 1851 after his duties had ended. For a short time he worked as an engineer for the East Kent Railway, but had to retire for health reasons and died on February 27, 1865 in London.

Simms was admitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers as a graduate on February 13, 1838 , and a member on February 23, 1841. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Geological Society of London .

Works (selection)

  • A Treatise on the Principal Mathematical Instruments employed in Surveying, Leveling, and Astronomy . Explaining their Construction, Adjustments, and Use. Troughton and Simms, London 1834 (English, google.de - 5th edition 1844 archive.org , 8th edition 1850 archive.org ).
  • A Treatise on the Principal Mathematical Drawing Instruments employed by the Engineer, Architect, and Surveyor . John Weale, London 1837 (English, google.de ).
  • Practical Observations on the Asphaltic Mastic, or, Cement of Seyssel, now extensively employed on the Continent, for Pavements, Roofing & Flooring, for Hydraulic Works, etc. etc. etc. Explaining its Nature and Manipulation, etc. John Weale, London 1837 (English , google.de ).
  • A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Leveling . Showing its Application to Purposes of Civil Engineering, particularly in the Construction of Roads. John Weale, London 1837 (English, archive.org - 5th edition 1870 archive.org ).
  • Public Works of Great Britain . John Weale, London 1838, doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-50154 (English).
  • Report on the Survey of Calcutta . Dated 14th August 1850. JC Sherriff, Military Orphan Press, Calcutta 1851 (English, google.de ).
  • Practical tunneling . With additional Chapters illustrating recent Practice by D. Kinnear Clark . Fourth ed., Revised and Greatly Extended. D. van Nostrand Company, New York 1896 (English, archive.org - 1st edition 1844).

literature

  • Frederick Walter Simms . Obituary. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . Vol. 26, 1865, pp. 120–121 (English, google.de ).
  • Mr. Frederick Walter Simms . Obituary. In: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers . Vol. 25, 1866, pp. 519-522 , doi : 10.1680 / imotp.1866.23208 (English).
  • Edward Irving Carlyle:  Simms, Frederic Walter . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 52:  Shearman - Smirke. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1897, p. 261 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilfrid Airy (Ed.): Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy, KCB, MA, LL.D., DCL, FRS, FRAS, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Astronomer Royal from 1836 to 1881 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1896, pp. 109 (English, archive.org ).
personal data
SURNAME Simms, Frederick Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British land surveyor and civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1865
Place of death London