Southwark

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy, Ports and shipping

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The son of a merchant of Dundee, Kirkaldy was educated there, then at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh University. For a while he worked in his father's office, but with a preference for engineering, in 1843 he commenced an apprenticeship at the Glasgow works of Robert Napier. After four years in the shops he was transferred to the drawing office and in a very few years rose to become Chief. Here Kirkaldy demonstrated a remarkable talent both for the meticulous recording of observations and data and for technical drawing. His work also had an aesthetic appeal and four of his drawings of Napier steamships were shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, earning both Napier and Kirkaldy a medal. His "as fitted" set of drawings of the Cunard Liner Persia, which had been built in 1855, is now in the possession of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, London; it is regarded as one of the finest examples of its kind in the world, and has even been exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

With the impending order for the Royal Naval Ironclad Black Prince (sister ship to HMS Warrior, now preserved at Portsmouth) and for some high-pressure marine boilers and engines, there was need for a close scientific analysis of the physical properties of iron and steel. Kirkaldy, now designated Chief Draughtsman and Calculator, was placed in charge of this work, which included comparisons of puddled steel and wrought iron, using a simple lever-arm testing machine. The tests lasted some three years and resulted in Kirkaldy's most important publication, Experiments on Wrought Iron and Steel (1862, London), which gained him wide recognition for his careful and thorough work. Napier's did not encourage him to continue testing; but realizing the growing importance of materials testing, Kirkaldy resigned from the shipyard in 1861. For the next two and a half years Kirkaldy worked on the design of a massive testing machine that was manufactured in Leeds and installed in premises in London, at The Grove, Southwark.

The works was open for trade in January 1866 and engineers soon began to bring him specimens for testing on the great machine: Joseph Cubitt (son of William Cubitt) brought him samples of the materials for the new Blackfriars Bridge, which was then under construction. Soon The Grove became too cramped and Kirkaldy moved to 99 Southwark Street, reopening in January 1874. In the years that followed, Kirkaldy gained a worldwide reputation for rigorous and meticulous testing and recording of results, coupled with the highest integrity. He numbered the most distinguished engineers of the time among his clients.

After Kirkaldy's death, his son William George, whom he had taken into partnership, carried on the business. When the son died in 1914, his widow took charge until her death in 1938, when the grandson David became proprietor. He sold out to Treharne \& Davies, chemical consultants, in 1965, but the works finally closed in 1974. The future of the premises and the testing machine at first seemed threatened, but that has now been secured and the machine is once more in working order. Over almost one hundred years of trading in South London, the company was involved in many famous enquiries, including the analysis of the iron from the ill-fated Tay Bridge (see Bouch, Sir Thomas).

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LRD / FMW

1) known (þér munu kunnar leiðir);

kunnr at e-u, known for something (þú ert kunnr at drengskap);

2) familiar;

þeir vóru mjök kunnir áðr, intimate friends.

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adj., older kuðr, which form is freq. in poets, Hm. 56, and in old MSS.; dat. fem. sing. kuðri ( notae) rhymed with Súðvík ( Southwark), Ó. H. (in a verse), as in the compds ú-kuðr etc.; [Goth. kunþs; A. S. cuð, whence Engl. un-couth, prop. = strange; Germ. kund]:—known; vil ek göra þér kunnt, hvat vera skal um þínn hag, 655 ix. A. 2; var mér kunnara um Bárð. Eg. 39; þér munu kunnar leiðir, Fms. i. 71; jókk því es mér varð síðan kunnara, Íb. (pref.); jafn-kunnr; Björn var frægr maðr ok mörgum kuðr (kunnr, Ó. H. 53, l. c.) at sýn ok at máli, Hkr. ii. 78: familiar, grannar þínir ok kunnir menn, neighbours and friends, Hom. 151; vinir hans ok kunnir menn, Sks. 109; þeir vóru mjök kunnir áðr, intimate friends, Ld. 166.

2. with prep.; kunnr at e-u, known, convicted of; verðr hann at því kunnr eða sannr, N. G. L. i. 16, Gþl. 17: in a good sense, en þú, Einarr, ert k. at drengskap, Fms. vi. 21; emk kuðr at slíku, Fms. vi. (in a verse); kuðr at máli = málkunnugr, ‘speech friend,’ on speaking terms, Hm. 56: nafn-kunnr, famous; ú-kunnr, unknown.

n. Southwark in London, Fagrsk., Ó. H.: rhymed, Súð búðir, Ó. H. (in a verse).

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1) work, = verk; esp. in compds., ill-, spell-, stór-, þrek-virki;

2) stronghold, castle.

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n. = verk, Anecd. 8 new Ed.: esp. in compds, íll-virki, stór-v., þrek-v., mann-v., qq. v.

II. a work (= wark in bulwark, Southwark, etc.), wall, stronghold, castle, Bs. i. 672, Landn. 69; hann lét göra kirkju á Agðanesi, ok þar virki ok höfn, Fms. vii. 100; virki þat er heitir Skarðaborg, the work that is called Scarborough, Korm. 24, Stj. 509, O. H. L. 10; virkis-armr, the wing of a castle, Nj. 247; virkis-dyrr, -garðr, -horn, -hurð, -veggr, -stokkr, Fms. iii. 148, Sturl. i. 31, Krók. 56, Bs. i. 672, Eb. 310, Gullþ. 10; virkis-maðr, a defender in a work, Eb. 310; Suðr-virki, Southward in London, O. H. L.

2. in mod. usage the wooden frame of a saddle is called virki (söðul-virki).

3. a building; lögðu fjár-hluti til þessa helga virkis, O. H. L. 78; til kirkju virkisins, 86. virkis-búð, the name of one of the booths in the alþing, see búð.

Southwark

SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

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Hugo Bilgram studied mechanical engineering at the Augsburg Maschinenbau Schule and graduated in 1865. He worked as a machinist and draughtsman for several firms in Germany before going to the United States in 1869.

In America he first worked for L.B.Flanders Company and Southwark Foundry \& Machine Company in Philadelphia, designing instruments and machines. In the 1870s he also assisted in an evening class in drawing at The Franklin Institute. He devised the Bilgram Valve Diagram for analysing the action of steam engine slide valves and he developed a method of drawing accurate outlines of gear teeth. This led him to design a machine for cutting the teeth of gear wheels, particularly bevel wheels, which he patented in 1884. He was in charge of the American branch of Brehmer Brothers Company from 1879 and in 1884 became the sole owner of the company, which was later incorporated as the Bilgram Machine Works. He was responsible for several other inventions and developments in gear manufacture.

Bilgram was a member of the Franklin Institute, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Philadelphia Technische Verein and the Philadelphia Engineer's Club, and was elected a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1885. He was also an amateur botanist, keenly interested in microscopic work.

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SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

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Porter graduated from Hamilton College, New York, in 1845, read law in his father's office, and in the autumn of 1847 was admitted to the Bar. He practised for six or seven years in Rochester, New York, and then in New York City. He was drawn into engineering when aged about 30, first through a client who claimed to have invented a revolutionary type of engine and offered Porter the rights to it as payment of a debt. Having lent more money, Porter saw neither the man nor the engine again. Porter followed this with a similar experience over a patent for a stone dressing machine, except this time the machine was built. It proved to be a failure, but Porter set about redesigning it and found that it was vastly improved when it ran faster. His improved machine went into production. It was while trying to get the steam engine that drove the stone dressing machine to run more smoothly that he made a discovery that formed the basis for his subsequent work.

Porter took the ordinary Watt centrifugal governor and increased the speed by a factor of about ten; although he had to reduce the size of the weights, he gained a motion that was powerful. To make the device sufficiently responsive at the right speed, he balanced the centrifugal forces by a counterweight. This prevented the weights flying outwards until the optimum speed was reached, so that the steam valves remained fully open until that point and then the weights reacted more quickly to variations in speed. He took out a patent in 1858, and its importance was quickly recognized. At first he manufactured and sold the governors himself in a specially equipped factory, because this was the only way he felt he could get sufficient accuracy to ensure a perfect action. For marine use, the counterweight was replaced by a spring.

Higher speed had brought the advantage of smoother running and so he thought that the same principles could be applied to the steam engine itself, but it was to take extensive design modifications over several years before his vision was realized. In the winter of 1860–1, J.F. Allen met Porter and sketched out his idea of a new type of steam inlet valve. Porter saw the potential of this for his high-speed engine and Allen took out patents for it in 1862. The valves were driven by a new valve gear designed by Pius Fink. Porter decided to display his engine at the International Exhibition in London in 1862, but it had to be assembled on site because the parts were finished in America only just in time to be shipped to meet the deadline. Running at 150 rpm, the engine caused a sensation, but as it was non-condensing there were few orders. Porter added condensing apparatus and, after the failure of Ormerod Grierson \& Co., entered into an agreement with Joseph Whitworth to build the engines. Four were exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle, but Whitworth and Porter fell out and in 1868 Porter returned to America.

Porter established another factory to build his engine in America, but he ran into all sorts of difficulties, both mechanical and financial. Some engines were built, and serious production was started c. 1874, but again there were further problems and Porter had to leave his firm. High-speed engines based on his designs continued to be made until after 1907 by the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company, Philadelphia, so Porter's ideas were proved viable and led to many other high-speed designs.

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SUBJECT AREA: Canals, Civil engineering

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Born into a prosperous farming family, he early demonstrated his natural mechanical and structural aptitude. As a boy he spent a great deal of time, often as a truant, near his home in the workshop of Andrew Meikle. Meikle was a millwright and the inventor of a threshing machine. After local education and an apprenticeship with Meikle, Rennie went to Edinburgh University until he was 22. He then travelled south and met James Watt, who in 1784 offered him the post of Engineer at the Albion Flour Mills, London, which was then under construction. Rennie designed all the mill machinery, and it was while there that he began to develop an interest in canals, opening his own business in 1791 in Blackfriars. He carried out work on the Kennet and Avon Canal and in 1794 became Engineer for the company. He meanwhile carried out other surveys, including a proposed extension of the River Stort Navigation to the Little Ouse and a Basingstoke-to-Salisbury canal, neither of which were built. From 1791 he was also engaged on the Rochdale Canal and the Lancaster Canal, as well as the great masonry aqueduct carrying the latter canal across the river Lune at Lancaster. He also surveyed the Ipswich and Stowmarket and the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigations. He advised on the Horncastle Canal in 1799 and on the River Ancholme in 1799, both of which are in Lincolnshire. In 1802 he was engaged on the Royal Canal in Ireland, and in the same year he was commissioned by the Government to prepare a plan for flooding the Lea Valley as a defence on the eastern approach to London in case Napoleon invaded England across the Essex marshes. In 1809 he surveyed improvements on the Thames, and in the following year he was involved in a proposed canal from Taunton to Bristol. Some of his schemes, particularly in the Fens and Lincolnshire, were a combination of improvements for both drainage and navigation. Apart from his canal work he engaged extensively in the construction and development of docks and harbours including the East and West India Docks in London, Holyhead, Hull, Ramsgate and the dockyards at Chatham and Sheerness. In 1806 he proposed the great breakwater at Plymouth, where work commenced on 22 June 1811.

He was also highly regarded for his bridge construction. These included Kelso and Musselburgh, as well as his famous Thames bridges: London Bridge (uncompleted at the time of his death), Waterloo Bridge (1810–17) and Southwark Bridge (1815–19). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1798.

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