Charles Douglas Fox
Sir ( Charles) Douglas Fox ( born May 14 1840 in Smethwick, Staffordshire, England; † November 13, 1921 in Kensington, London ) was a British civil engineer, railroad engineer, bridge and tunnel builders.
Life
Douglas Fox was the eldest son of Charles Fox, the railway and bridge building contractor who was known by the construction of the Crystal Palace. Douglas Fox went to the King's College School and then studied at King's College London, the plans to further study at Trinity College, Cambridge, had to give up, however, when Fox, Henderson & Co., his father's company collapsed and his father with him 1857 the engineering firm Sir Charles Fox & Son founded.
In his father's engineering office he had to do with the planning of narrow gauge railways and bridges in South Africa, Australia, Canada and India. After a serious accident, his father took in 1861 and his second eldest son, Francis, in the engineer's office on that occurred then in 1865, when Sir Charles Fox & Sons.
In London, the office has worked among others in the planning of the line guides and the bridges for various railway companies, which extended its routes from Battersea to Victoria Station. This also included the widening of the Grosvenor Bridge ( Victoria Railway Bridge ) over the River Thames.
Douglas Fox & Partners
Douglas Fox took over after the death of his father in 1874 the management of the engineering firms, whose name was changed to Douglas Fox & Partners. In just out years discussions on a crossing of the Mersey at Liverpool, Fox senior had always advocated a railway tunnel instead of a bridge and submitted such plans. 1866 was finally the Mersey Tunnel Company founded to build the tunnel, and Douglas Fox was commissioned along with James Brunless to run his father's plans. Later the brother Francis came to the team. The construction of the 4.8 km tunnel that ran here and there among the buildings of the city and crossed the river at a depth of 30 m, was in many ways new technical ground and at this size without precedent. Suitable drills and jackhammers were not yet invented; the progress of 10 m per week had to be worked out with a hammer and chisel. 1885, the tunnel was completed in 1886 and officially opened by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.
In 1882 the partnership contract for a railroad line of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, which culminated in a twenty-year activities for this society. Douglas Fox was knighted for Merseytunnel 1886, the name of the engineering firm has been amended accordingly in Sir Douglas & Francis Fox.
Sir Douglas & Francis Fox
Among the major projects of the office included the built 1888-1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway, the first electrically operated overhead railway in the world, and the Snowdon Mountain Railway, a funicular railway opened in 1896 on the 1085 m high Snowdon in Wales.
Francis Fox, who had acquired a reputation as a tunnel and ventilation expert, was sent by the British government in the Commission convened by Switzerland to assess the feasibility of a future Simplon tunnel. In London, the office was involved in the construction of various subway lines, including on the Northern Line, and on the railway line from Rugby to Marylebone Station. 1902 Sir Douglas & Francis Fox was appointed adviser to the British Channel Tunnel Co. to create a feasibility study for a tunnel under the English Channel, and to carry out preparatory work.
In South Africa, was Sir Douglas & Francis Fox continued to work for the Cape Government Railways and the expansion of the track in the then Rhodesia, which should be part of a future connection from Cape Town to Cairo, according to the ideas of Cecil Rhodes. The project also included the Victoria Falls Bridge Opened in 1905 on the Zambezi, which was planned in the London office of George Anthony Hobson and Ralph Freeman ( 1880-1950 ). Ralph Freeman was in 1901 when 21- year-old set by the company. Due to a contract with Cecil Rhodes built the Portuguese authorities of Mozambique a railway line from Beira to Salisbury, now Harare, for planning the office was also involved. The Benguela railway was planned by Sir Douglas & Francis Fox, as well as routes for the Trans - Zambezia Railway and the Nyasaland Railways. On behalf of Alfred Beit and his Beit Trust four road bridges and a railway bridge have been planned, including the 1929 opened Alfred Beit Bridge over the Limpopo at today Beitbridge, then as now, the only road link between Rhodesia and the Transvaal, and between the present-day Zimbabwe and South Africa. Another was the Birchenough Bridge and the Otto Beit Bridge at Chirundu on the Zambezi, then Africa's longest suspension bridge. In South America jobs in Argentina, Chile and Brazil, have been executed.
1912 32-year- old Ralph Freeman was promoted to partner and tasked with the planning of port facilities for the Furness Shipbuilding Co.. After the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the company was asked to undertake a study of the agricultural and industrial potential of a future state of Israel, which was created by Ralph Freeman, Sir Charles Metcalfe and Chaim Weizmann.
After the death of Sir Douglas Fox in 1921, Ralph Freeman was promoted to senior partner and continued the business. In 1938 she changed her name to Freeman Fox & Partners and is now active in many countries as Hyder Consulting.