John Fowler (Railway Engineer)

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John Fowler
John Fowler, engraved image from 1868 by Thomas Oldham Barlow after a portrait by Sir John Everett Millais
Tombstone

Sir John Fowler (born July 15, 1817 in Wadsley , † November 10, 1898 in Bournemouth ) was a railway engineer and bridge builder of the Victorian era in England. He worked on the first underground railway in London ( Metropolitan Railway ), was involved in the " Metropolitan Line " in the 1860s and built the Forth Bridge in Scotland.

Life

Fowler was born in Wadsley, Hillsborough, near Sheffield in South Yorkshire , England .

First he worked for the hydraulic engineer Leather, who at that time constructed the large water reservoirs for Sheffield. At the same time he devoted himself to the railway industry and made the preparatory work for the line Stourbridge-Birmingham, which Brunel began to carry out, but he completed. He became engineer and later director of operations for the Stockton and Hartlepool railway, in 1843 chief engineer for the Manchester-Sheffield-Lincolnshire railway complex and, after moving to London, took part in the construction of railways, construction of port facilities, etc. in 1844, he became self-employed. He earned his greatest name through the construction of the underground London railway, which began in 1853, and the construction of the peculiar locomotive for this railway (see below). He also dealt with the construction of his own locomotives system for agricultural and military purposes and used the wire rope as transmission, which he introduced into agriculture and industry. As President of the Institution of Civil Engineers , the youngest in this office, he endeavored from 1865 to better educate engineers. Later he was chief engineer of the railways in Egypt until 1880 and planned a railroad to Sudan. In 1885 he was knighted ( KCMG ) and after the construction of the Forth Bridge he was made a baronet in 1890 . In 1887 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

He died in Bournemouth , Dorset , aged 81 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Bridge building

Together with Sir Benjamin Baker , he designed the Firth of Forth Bridge , a cantilever bridge , and the Millwall Dock facilities in east London as chief engineer . He was consulted when an iron bridge on the London-Brighton railway line collapsed in the so-called Norwood Junction accident in 1891 when a train passed over it. The girder was broken because there was a large internal hole in it that had not been noticed during construction. Since Fowler had designed and built most of the bridges on this line, he advised that many of them should be strengthened or replaced because the locomotives were now heavier compared to when the bridges were built.

Other structures by Fowler are the almost identical Albert Edward Bridge in Coalbrookdale , Shropshire from 1864 and the Victoria Bridge in Upper Arley, Worcestershire from 1861. Both bridges are still in use today as railway bridges over the Severn . He also built:

After Isambard Kingdom Brunel's death in 1859, Fowler was a consulting engineer with the Great Western Railway Company. In his honor, a locomotive class of the Great Western Railway was named "Fowler".

Fowler's Ghost on the Metropolitan Railway line

The locomotive "Fowler's Ghost"

Fowler also designed an experimental fireless locomotive, nicknamed "Fowler's Ghost". It was tried out on the Metropolitan Railway line in the 1860s. It stored energy in heated bricks based on the principle of heat storage , but was unsuccessful. Three technical variants of these locomotives were designed, but only one was built. On normal routes, it should run on coal fire, but use the stored energy in tunnels. The locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company was finally sold in 1865 and Isaac Watt Boulton received some parts.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ brompton.org
personal data
SURNAME Fowler, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fowler, Sir John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British railroad engineer and bridge builder
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Wadsley
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1898
Place of death Bournemouth