Bindon Blood Stoney | |
|---|---|
 Plaque to Stoney at the Dublin Port Centre | |
| Born | 13 June 1828 (1828-06-13) Oakley Park,County Offaly |
| Died | 5 May 1909(1909-05-05) (aged 96) |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Civil |
| Institutions | Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (president), Royal Society, Institution of Civil Engineers |
| Projects | Dublin Harbour |
Bindon Blood StoneyFRS (13 June 1828, Oakley Park,County Offaly – 5 May 1909,Dublin) was anIrish engineer who also made some significant contributions to astronomy.[1]
A son of George Stoney (1792–) and Anne Blood (1801–1883), Stoney married Susannah Frances Walker on 7 October 1879; they had four children. He is buried inMount Jerome cemetery.[2]
His brother was the physicistGeorge Johnstone Stoney known for coining the termelectron for the fundamental unit of electricity. He was also the uncle of another Irish physicistGeorge Francis FitzGerald, the son of his sister Anne Frances. His nieces wereEdith Anne Stoney, a pioneer medical physicist, andFlorence Stoney, the first femaleradiologist in theUnited Kingdom; both served in hospitals near the front line duringWorld War I.[3]
In 1850–52, prior to beginning his engineering work, Stoney assistedWilliam Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse atParsonstown.[1] There he accurately mapped the spiral form of theAndromeda Galaxy[1] and observed 105NGC objects and 8IC objects. 91 NGC objects and all IC objects were new.[4]
On 1 March 1851 he discovered the spiral galaxyNGC 5609, which is the most distant visually observed galaxy in the NGC catalogue.[5]
Bindon's career in engineering commenced when he worked on surveys for theAranjuez toAlmansa railway in Spain from 1852 to 1853. Upon returning to Ireland in 1854, he was appointed as resident engineer under James Barton on theBoyne railway viaduct until its completion in 1855. This viaduct claimed to have the longest span in the world and had the world's longest girders at the time.[6]
Bindon's groundbreaking work building a metal bridge with a span of such dimensions using shock-absorbent wrought-iron latticed bars instead of a continuity of plate with Barton was possibly the first of its kind. It was the basis for his later two-volume publicationThe theory of strains in girders and similar structures, with observations on the strength and other properties of materials (1866),[7] nicknamed 'Stoney on strains' and reproduced in two further editions.[8]
Bindon became an associate of theInstitution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in January 1858 and a full member in November 1863.
In 1856, Bindon was appointed as assistant engineer toGeorge Halpin Junior at the Ballast Board onWestmoreland Street and in 1859 he was appointed as Executive Engineer.[6] Stoney was ambitious and an engineering innovator who had come up with a cheap way to develop theDublin Port – something appreciated by the board but they also did not want to upset Halpin. When Halpin retired, Stoney became the new inspector of works and in 1868, he became the first chief engineer of the newly constituted Dublin Port and Docks Board.[9]
Bindon designed a large dredging plant and rebuilt nearly 7,000 ft of quay walls along both north and south banks of theRiver Liffey, replacing the tidal berths by deep water berths. Additionally, the northern quays were lengthened eastwards and the formation of Alexandra Basin begun in 1871 and was partially completed by 1885.[10] In addition to harbour works, Stoney was in charge of the design and construction of two major bridges that crossed the River Liffey. In 1872–1875 he largely rebuilt Essex Bridge, designed in the 1750s byGeorge Semple to his own flamboyant design; it was renamedGrattan Bridge afterHenry Grattan.[8] In 1877–80 he redesigned the 1790s Carlisle Bridge ofJames Gandon, renamedO'Connell Bridge afterDaniel O'Connell, to provide a crossing linking Sackville (later O'Connell) Street with the converging streets to the south.[8] He built a new ironswing bridge in 1877–1879, just west of the Custom House named Beresford Bridge.
He invented a diving bell, and means to use precast concrete.[11] Towards the end of Bindon's career, he erected theNorth Bull lighthouse (1877–80) to replace the inadequate light on the Bull Wall marking the northern side of the Dublin port channel entrance oppositePoolbeg lighthouse before finally retiring in 1898.
Bindon was admitted to theRoyal Irish Academy in 1857.[10] Bindon was given an honorary degree byUniversity College Dublin in recognition of his achievements and was later elected President of theInstitution of Civil Engineers of Ireland in 1871.[12] In 1874, he was awarded theTelford medal and Telford premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for a paper documenting his work on the northern quays. Stoney was electedFellow of the Royal Society on 2 June 1881.
Stoney Road inEast Wall is named after Stoney.[13]
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