Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet
Sir John Fowler ( born July 15, 1817 in Wadsley, † November 10, 1898 in Bournemouth ) was a railway engineer and bridge builder of the Victorian era in England. He worked on the first underground railway in London, was involved in the " Metropolitan Line" in the 1860s and built the Forth Bridge in Scotland.
Life
Fowler was born in Wadsley, Hillsborough, near Sheffield in South Yorkshire in England.
At first he worked in the hydraulic engineer Leather, who was then constructed the large water reservoir for Sheffield. At the same time he devoted himself to the railway system and made the preparations for the Stourbridge line - Birmingham, who began to run Brunel, but he finished. He became an engineer and later Director of Manufacturing at Stockton and Hartlepoolbahn 1843 chief engineer for the railway complex Manchester - Sheffield - Lincolnshire and participated even after moving to London several times on railway construction, construction of port facilities, etc. In 1844 he started his own business. He acquired the greatest name for himself by building the underground London railway started in 1853 and construction of the peculiar locomotive for this course ( see below). He was also involved in the construction of locomotives own system for agricultural and military purposes, and turned as the transmission wire rope to which he introduced herewith in agriculture and industry. As President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the youngest in this office, he tried in 1865 to better education of engineers. Later, he was until 1880 chief engineer of the railways in Egypt and was planning a train in Sudan. In 1885 he was knighted ( KCMG ) and after the construction of the Forth Bridge in 1890 he became appointed baronet.
He died in Bournemouth in Dorset at the age of 81 years and is buried in the Brompton Cemetery in London.
Bridge building
Together with Sir Benjamin Baker as chief engineer, he designed the Firth of Forth Bridge, a cantilever bridge, and the Millwall Dock facilities in East London. He was consulted, as in 1891 when the railway route London- Brighton an iron bridge in the so-called Norwood Junction accident collapsed as a train passed over it. The carrier was broken because a large inner hole was in it, which was not noticed during construction. Since Fowler had the most bridges of this line designed and built, he advised that that many of them should be strengthened or replaced because the locomotives were now become heavier compared to the time when the bridges were built.
Other buildings of Fowler are the almost identical Albert Edward Bridge in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire in 1864 and the Victoria Bridge in Upper Arley, Worcestershire of 1861. Both bridges are still as railway bridges over the Severn in use. In addition, he built:
- Findhorn Railway Viaduct (1897 )
- Grosvenor Bridge ( 1860)
After the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1859, Fowler was a consulting engineer for the Great Western Railway Company. In his honor, was a locomotive class of the Great Western Railway " Fowler " called.
The locomotive " Fowler 's Ghost "
Fowler has also designed an experimental fire less locomotive, which was nicknamed " Fowler 's Ghost ". It was tried in the 1860s to the Metropolitan Railway line. You energy stored in heated bricks according to the principle of the heat store, but was not successful. Three technical variants of these locomotives were designed, but built only one. On regular routes they should take a charcoal fire, but fall back in tunnels on the stored energy. Built by Robert Stephenson and Company locomotive was finally sold in 1865 and Isaac Watt Boulton received some parts.