William Jessop

William Jessop ( born January 23, 1745 in Devonport, Devon, † November 18, 1814 in Butterley Hall ) was an English civil engineer, who is best known for its canals, harbors and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Life

Jessop was the son of Josias Jessop, a foreman in a shipyard. Josias Jessop was responsible for the maintenance of the Rudyerd 's Tower, a wooden lighthouse on the Eddystone rock. He performed this task for 20 years from until 1755, when the lighthouse was burned John Smeaton, a leading civil engineer, made ​​plans for the new stone Eddystone Lighthouse and Josiah supervised the construction work, the two became friends and as Josiah in 1761, died two years after completion the lighthouse, was William Jessop pupil and assistant of John Smeaton at work at various channel construction projects in Yorkshire.

Jessop worked several years as Smeaton's assistant before becoming self-employed. He assisted Smeaton in the shipping lanes of Calder and Hebble and Aire and Calder in Yorkshire. Jessop was a member of the Society of Civil Engineers, the Smeaton founded in 1771.

From 1784 to 1805 Jessop lived in Newark in Nottinghamshire, where he was mayor twice.

Jessop later fell ill from a paralysis, so that he could no longer work from 1805. A year after his death in 1814 a memorial was erected at Ripley in Codnor Park in the form of a 21 meter high Doric column for him. His son Josias Jessop was also a successful engineer.

Grande Canal from Dublin

Jessops first important work was the great channel of Ireland. It began in 1753 as a project of the government, and in 17 years had been built 21 km from Dublin. 1772 a private company was founded in order to complete the canal and John Smeaton was called. Smeaton Jessop commissioned as a construction manager. This measured the lines of new and introduced the channel with an aqueduct over the River Liffey and with a high dam across the swamp of Allen, comparable to George Stephenson's crossing of Chat Moss swamp with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Jessop also found water sources and reservoirs built so that the channel could not run dry. After he had everything under way, he left the work to a Supervisor and returned to England. The canal was finally completed in 1805. Apparently Jessop was only until 1787 worked intensively with the channel, then others went on.

Relationship with other engineers

Jessop was very modest and did not seek self-glorification. Unlike others, he was not jealous of other aspiring young engineers, but promoted it. He also recommended other engineers when he himself was too busy. He recommended John Rennie for the senior engineering positions at the Lancaster Canal Company, which Rennie's reputation zugutekam. As Jessop 1793 was a consulting engineer in the Ellesmere Canal Company, the Company commissioned the relatively unknown Thomas Telford. This had no experience with channels, but with Jessops Advice and help Telford made ​​a success of it. He supported Telford even when the company held its draft aqueducts for too demanding.

Cromford Canal

1789 Jessop was appointed chief engineer of the Cromford Canal Society. The proposed channel would be transporting limestone, coal and iron ore from the upper Derwent and Erewash Valley and connect to the nearby Erewash Canal. The one thing about this channel are the Derwent Viaduct, which led with a single arch the channel on the Derwent (Derbyshire ), and the Butterley Tunnel (formerly Ripley tunnel). 1793 plunged the Derwent Viaduct partially, and Jessop took the blame and said he had not made ​​strongly enough the front walls. He left the viaduct repair and strengthen at their own expense. The Butterley tunnel was 2712 m long, 2.7 m wide and 2.4 m high and needed 33 wells that had to be lowered from the surface to build it. Jessop built the Butterley reservoir above the tunnel, which is stretched across 20 acres.

The Butterley Company

1790 founded Jessop with its partners Benjamin Outram, Francis Beresford and John Wright the Butterley Iron Works Company in Derbyshire, to produce cast-iron rails among other things - a construction that Jessop 1789 successfully in a horse-drawn railway for coal cars between Nanpantan and Loughborough, Leicestershire had used. Outram took care of the production of the iron works and equipment for Jessops Engineering projects.

Grand Junction Canal

The Oxford Canal was built by James Brindley and were transported on coal in large parts of southern England. But he was not sufficiently direct link between the Midlands and London. Therefore, a new channel was planned, proceeding out of the Oxford Canal at Braunston near Rugby and ended on the Thames at Brentford, a distance of 90 miles. Jessop was in 1793 appointed chief engineer of the canal company. This channel has been particularly difficult to plan because while other channels followed river valleys and watersheds crossed only when it was unavoidable, the new channel the rivers Great Ouse, Nene and other cross had. At Wolverton an aqueduct was built to carry the canal over the Ousetal. During the three-arched stone aqueduct was built, nine temporary locks have been used to down the canal on one side of the valley and to lead on the other side up again. The aqueduct failed 1808 and 1811 replaced by an iron. The iron trough had a similar construction as the aqueduct at Longdon -on -Tern and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct by Thomas Telford and Jessop. He is known as the Cosgrove Aqueduct and was designed and built by Benjamin Bevan.

Two tunnels had to be built at Braunston and Blisworth. The Blisworth Tunnel caused major problems and was unfinished when the rest of the canal was completed. Jessop was considering to give it up and use locks to carry the canal over the ridge. Jessops temporary solution was a railroad that took over the market until the tunnel was completed. The Grand Junction Canal was extremely important to promote trade between London and the Midlands.

West India- docks

The West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs were the first large harbor basin with a constant water level in the port of London. Between 1800 and 1802 a harbor was created with an area of ​​119 hectares and a depth of 7.2 m for 600 ships. Jessop was the chief engineer with Ralph Walker as his assistant.

Surrey Iron Railway

1799, two different projects were pursued: one channel from London to Portsmouth and a train pulled by draft horses on the same route. The first part of the Surrey Iron Railway went from Wandsworth to Croydon, and Jessop was asked for his opinion about the conflicting plans. He explained that the railroad was the better projects because a channel needed too much water and would reduce the water flow in the river Wandle excessively. It was agreed to build a railway from Wandsworth to Croydon, and a basin in Wandsworth. Jessop was in 1801 appointed chief engineer. 1802, the Wandsworth Basin and the line were completed. There are doubts about the track width of the line, with some estimate there are 4 feet and 2 inches have been, others say it was 4 feet and 8 ½ inches.

1803, the next phase has been approved. That was a line from Croydon via Merstham after Godstone in Surrey. Jessop had happened Chefingeneur, with his son Josiah as his assistant. The line reached Mestham, but was never extended to Godstone. The entire route of the tram from Wandsworth was 18 miles. It was acquired by the steam locomotives at the end.

Legacy

Jessop filled the gap between the channel construction engineers and the railway engineers who came later. His name has not become as famous for his modesty as he deserved it. Some of his works were mistakenly assigned to other who were his assistants. Unlike some others, such as George Stephenson he gave not been around for undignified wrangles with colleagues. He was highly regarded by almost all who worked with him or for him.

List of Jessops engineering projects

• Aire and Calder Navigation
• Calder and Hebble Navigation (1758-1770)
• Caledonian Canal
• Ripon Canal ( 1767)
• Chester Canal (May 1778) under contract to James Pinkerton
• Ouse Navigation (1788 )
• Barnsley Canal (1792-1802)
• Grand Canal (Ireland ) between the river Shannon and Dublin ( 1773-1805 )
• Grand Junction Canal (1793-1805), later part of the Grand Union Canals
• Cromford Canal, Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire
• Nottingham Canal (1792-1796)
• River Trent Navigation
• Grantham Canal (1793-1797), the first English channel that was completely dependent on reservoirs for water supply
• Ellesmere Canal (1793-1805), with a design by Thomas Telford
• Rochdale Canal (1794-1798)
• Sleaford Navigation (1794 )
• West India Docks and Isle of Dogs Canal, London (1800-1802); John Rennie was senior advisor to the Dockprojekt
• Surrey Iron Railway, connecting Wandsworth and Croydon (1801-1802), probably the first public railway, albeit with horse power
• Bristol Harbour / ' Floating Harbour ' in Bristol (1804-1809)
• Kilmarnock and Troon Railway (1807-1812); first railway in Scotland, decided by an Act of Parliament
• Ports in Shoreham- by-Sea and Littlehampton, West Sussex