John Harvard Biles

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Sir John Harvard Biles (born January 6, 1854 in Portsmouth , † October 27, 1933 in Virginia Water ) was a British naval engineer and professor.

Life

Illustration from The Design and Construction of Ships

Born in 1854, Biles is one of the UK's great shipbuilding scientists. The young Biles first completed his apprenticeship as a shipbuilder in the shipyard of his native Portsmouth, before he attended the Royal Naval College from 1872 , first in South Kensington, then in Greenwich. Then Biles worked again at various shipyards, where he gained experience in the transition from iron to mild steel as a shipbuilding material. From 1878 he worked for the design office of the British Admiralty, where he could apply this experience and recognized the value of Froude's model tests for determining the ship's resistance. In 1880, Biles took over as chief designer at the prestigious John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank. In 1891 he took over the chair of shipbuilding at the University of Glasgow , which he held for three decades. Biles wrote the standard work The Design and Construction of Ships and lectured on around 20 works at the Institution of Naval Architects . He worked as an expert, both independently for numerous clients and in numerous committees. For example, he made a significant contribution to the development of the dreadnought battleships and was a member of the commission of inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic . Because of his merits, Biles was knighted in 1913 and made Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1922.

He died on October 27, 1933 at his home in Virginia Water.

Fonts

  • The Strength of Ships, with special Reference to Experiments and Calculations made upon HMS Wolf , Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, Vol.XLVII, London 1905
  • The Design and Construction of Ships , Charles Griffin, London 1908

literature

  • John Harvard Biles , In: Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft (Hrsg.): 100 Years of Shipbuilding Society - Biographies on the History of Shipbuilding , Springer, Berlin, 1999, ISBN 3-540-64150-5 , p. 45.
  • John Harvard Biles , In: Fred M. Walker: Ships and Shipbuilders: Pioneers of Design and Construction , Seaforth Publishing, 2010, ISBN 184832072-8 , pp. 175/176.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Biles, John Harvard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naval engineer and professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Portsmouth
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1933
Place of death Virginia Water