William Anderson (engineer)

Sir William Anderson (born January 5, 1834 in St. Petersburg , Russian Empire , † December 11, 1898 ) was a British engineer , entrepreneur and philanthropist of the Victorian era .

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He spoke English and Russian as mother tongues. After finishing school in Russia, he studied for three years at King's College in London, then for three years in Manchester with Sir William Fairbairn . In 1854 he became a manager and in 1855 a partner in the Courtney and Stevens company in Dublin, where he a. a. busy with railways and canals. In 1863 he became President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Ireland. He then went to London and built a new factory for Easton and Amos on the Thames, and from then on worked as an entrepreneur. In his further life he took on many offices, promoted school education, was active in the Erith School Board from 1870 and its chairman from 1886. He was also superintendent of the Christian Sunday School and treasurer of the Church Building Fund, lay minister at Arthur Street Mission Church, and later led the children's services.

In his factories he produced, among other things, military technology, e.g. B. Ship cannons for the navies of Great Britain, Russia and America. Anderson built more factories, including a. Sugar mills in Egypt in 1871, a paper mill in Japan in 1874, and a waterworks in Antwerp in 1879. He was active in many technical fields, was a successful developer and exporter of machines. In 1894 he introduced the eight-hour day for his 17,000 workers in his factories. In 1897 he led two government trials against Alfred Nobel and Hiram Maxim for copyrights and patents on explosives, and won both. In 1897 he was raised to the nobility as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath .

Web links

• SIR WILLIAM ANDERSON 1834 - 1898 (PDF file; 44 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knights and Dames: A – BEC at Leigh Rayment's Peerage