Benjamin Baker (engineer)

Sir Benjamin Baker ( KCB, KCMG ) ( born March 31, 1840 in Keyford, now part of Frome, Somerset, England, † May 19 1907 in Bowden Green, Pangbourne, United Kingdom ) was an English civil engineer.

Life and work

After leaving school at the Cheltenham Grammar School Baker worked from 1856 for four years as an apprentice in an iron works of Price and Fox in South Wales (Neath Abbey Iron Works ). From 1862 he worked in the office of John Fowler in London, to which he remained faithful until 1898. Despite the age difference, he was good friends with Fowler. In 1875 he became a partner.

He was involved in many construction projects of the Victorian era, including at various bridges such as the Forth Bridge ( with John Fowler, 1883-1890 ) constructed on the urban railway lines in London and New York ( 1868) and the construction of the London Metro. After the collapse of the Firth of Tay Bridge, he was one of the reviewers. In the construction of the old Aswan Dam (1902 completed ), he worked as a consulting engineer. He constructed the specialized vessel was brought to the 1877/78, the obelisk on the Thames embankment, Cleopatra 's Needle to London. In 1867 he was responsible for backup and restoration work for three bridges by Thomas Telford ( Menai Bridge, Buildwas Bridge, bridge over the Severn ).

In addition, Baker was an employee of the Encyclopædia Britannica and one of the first members of the British Committee for Standardisation Engineering Standards Committee. He also published many essays on topics of civil engineering, especially in the Engineering Magazine. In 1867 he published essays on the bridge there, Long clamping Bridges, who later appeared in German translation, and in which he advocated the use of steel for even greater spans. His Firth of Forth Railway Bridge was one of the first major bridges made ​​entirely of steel. That there realized concept of cantilever bridge ( cantilever bridge ) he described also in his essays of 1867. Too over the Firth of Forth Bridge in 1887 he published a series of articles in engineering magazines. Baker was an engineer of the 1891 Watkins built Tower. The unfinished tower, which should make in response to the Eiffel Tower in London, was demolished as unfinished stump again in 1907.

He also dealt with matters of earth pressure and the strength of masonry in his essays in the Engineering Magazine.

Honors

In 1890 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society. In the same year awarded the title Knight Commander ( KCMG ) of the Order of St Michael and St George was awarded. In 1902 he was knighted with the Bathorden second class ( Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB ) of the Order of the Bath.

Quotes

• If an engineer has made ​​no mistakes in his career, the only way to a lack of practice (If an engineer Has not had some failures, it is Merely evidence did his practice Has not been Sufficiently extensive ), Benjamin Baker in 1881 ( in connection with retaining walls )