William Whitaker Collins

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William Whitaker Collins (born February 11, 1817 in London , † March 15, 1879 in Brompton ) was a British engineer .

Life

William Whitaker Collins was a son of William Young Collins. After completing his training, he joined the company Maudslay and Field , after which he worked on the Thames Tunnel under Sir Marc Isambard Brunel . He then moved to the Rennie company before moving to Belgium, where he worked for the Société d 'Ougrée, before working at Cockerill & Co. in Seraing . After a few years he returned to London, where he was involved in building the docks. In 1847 he started his own business as a civil engineer. A few years later he teamed up with Thomas Russell Crampton . This in turn worked with Sir Charles Fox . In 1852 , the Berlin police chief Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey signed a contract with Fox and Crampton for the construction of the first water pipeline and the first waterworks for Berlin. After founding the Berlin Water Works Company , Collins was busy designing this facility. Collins worked with Crampton for about eight years, including on other important projects. He then worked independently again in his office on Buckingham Street, Adelphi, until he retired into private life a few years before his death.

Collins was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, from 1846 as an associate and from 1860 as a full member. He was also a member or associate of the Geological Society, the Royal Microscopical Society, the Meteorological Society and the Zoological Society, the Royal Institution and the British Association.

The engineer, who lost a leg in an accident at a relatively young age, died unexpectedly after a brief illness. He was buried in West London Cemetery.

His great knowledge and erudition were praised in an obituary. Theodor Fontane , who met Collins during his third stay in London, held him in high regard. Collins, who had a good command of the German language, read Fontane's summer in London , which, according to a letter to his wife Emilie, “naturally hid from the eyes of every Englishman”, and expressed his intention to translate this work. Fontane hoped he was just saying this for fun.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Obituary. William Whitaker Collins , in: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 58, 1879, pp. 340 f. ( Digitized version )
  2. ↑ Wasserwerke on www.diegeschichteberlins.de
  3. ^ Theodor Fontane to Emilie Fontane, February 9, 1857. Quoted from Emilie and Theodor Fontane. Poet women are always like that. The exchange of marriage letters 1844–1857 , published by Gotthard Erler with the assistance of Therese Erler, Aufbau-Verlag, ²1998, ISBN 3-351-03133-5 , p. 509
personal data
SURNAME Collins, William Whitaker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British engineer
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1879
Place of death Brompton