Eaton Hodgkinson (26 February 1789 – 18 June 1861) was an English

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, a pioneer of the application of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

to problems of structural design.

Early life

Hodgkinson was born in the village of Anderton, near

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

, Cheshire, to a farming family. His father died when he was six years old, and he was raised with his two sisters by his mother, who maintained the farming business. He went to Witton Grammar School in

where he studied the

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

to prepare for a career in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. The regime was unsuited to his tastes and talents which were already showing promise in mathematics. His mother moved him to a less prestigious private school in Northwich where his enthusiasm for mathematics was encouraged and fostered but, as the young Hodgkinson grew physically, he became indispensable on the family farm and soon left education to devote himself there. Farming was no more to his taste than

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and his mother yearned to satisfy her son's appetites. Family friends advised that Hodgkinson might find some more suitable outlet in nearby

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and so, in 1811, the family left for

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

to open a pawnbroking business. Hodgkinson used all his spare time in reading

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and mathematics and soon introduced himself into Manchester's scientific community, meeting, among others, his future collaborator, Sir William Fairbairn. He became a pupil of

John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched Color blindness, colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term ...

, studying mathematics, and the two remained firm friends until Dalton's death in 1844. He retired early from the family business to devote a modest pension to his scientific work. He married twice, to Catherine Johns and to a Miss Holditch. There were no children.

Scientific work

Hodgkinson measured the strength of columns of materials including cast iron and marble in a series of experiments. Henry Moseley. ''Illustrations of Mechanics''. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster-Row. 1839. Page 403. Hodgkinson worked with Sir William Fairbairn in

on the design of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

beams, especially on the Water Street bridge for the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It ...

in 1828–30. His improved cross section was published by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1830 and influenced much nineteenth century

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made Structure#Load-bearing, structures. Structural engineers also ...

. He derived the empirical formula for a concentrated load, ''W'' (in

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s), at which a beam will fail as a function of its length between simple supports, ''L'' (in inches); its depth, ''d'' (in inches); and its bottom-flange

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

, ''A'' (inch²): :

W=\frac

His expertise with beams led to his retention, along with Fairbairn, as consultant on the novel tubular design for the Britannia Bridge. Fairbairn built and tested several prototypes, and developed the final form adopted for the bridge. Both Hodgkinson and

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...

believed that extra chains would be needed to support the heavy spans, so the towers were built with spaces for the chains. Fairbairn, however, insisted that chains would not be necessary, and his opinion prevailed. He was right, and chains were never used, but the towers remain with their empty recesses.

Later years

Hodgkinson was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1841 and, in 1847, he became professor of the mechanical principles of engineering at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. In 1849, he was appointed by the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

to participate in a

Royal Commission A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...

to investigate the application of iron in

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

structures, performing some early investigations of

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...

. Towards the end of his life, his mental faculties failed and he died at

Higher Broughton Broughton is a suburb and district of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Located on the east bank of the River Irwell, it is northwest of Manchester and south of Prestwich. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, the form ...

References

Bibliography

*''Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Application of Iron to Railway Structures'' (1849) cmd. 1123, HMSO * Petroski, H. (1994) ''Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgement in Engineering'' *Rawson, R (1865) "Memoir of Eaton Hodgkinson", ''Transactions of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society'', vol II, reprinted in ''Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution'' (1868), pp203–230 *Timoshenko, S. P. (1953) ''History of Strength of Materials'', pp126–129 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgkinson, Eaton 1789 births 1861 deaths English Anglicans Fellows of the Royal Society English engineers 19th-century English mathematicians People from Northwich British structural engineers Academics of University College London People educated at Sir John Deane's College Royal Medal winners Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Early life

Scientific work

Later years

See also

References

Bibliography