John Duncan Watson (7 March 1860 – 1946) was a British

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. Watson was born in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on 7 March 1860. He specialised in sanitation and was regarded as a pioneer in the development of

sewage treatment Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

. Watson was engineer to the Birmingham and District Drainage Board and also General Manager to the Birmingham, Tame and Rea District Drainage Board.. At

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

he was responsible for the construction of the first large-scale percolating filter plant, a complete departure from the traditional land treatment in use in the city and elsewhere. Other changes that he introduced, based on his work in Birmingham, were the separation of

sludge Sludge (possibly , or some dialect related to slush) is a semi-solid slurry that can be produced from a range of industrial processes, from water treatment, wastewater treatment or on-site sanitation systems. It can be produced as a settled sus ...

digestion, the extraction of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

from sewage for use in power generation and the introduction of

flocculation In colloidal chemistry, flocculation is a process by which colloidal particles come out of Suspension (chemistry), suspension to sediment in the form of floc or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The actio ...

prior to the percolating filter. He drew up plans for sanitation works in the district of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

which included a pumping station at Denmill, reservoir at the Hill of Ord and water supply to the district of Culter. These plans are now held by the

National Archives of Scotland The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) is the previous name of the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and are the national archives of Scotland, based in Edinburgh. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europ ...

. Watson became General Manager of Birmingham Agricultural College by 1920 where he undertook investigations into tuberculosis in cattle. By 1920 he was also a member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

(ICE) and a fellow of the

Royal Sanitary Institute Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is an independent, multi-disciplinary charity concerned with the improvement of the public's health. RSPH's Chief Executive is William Roberts, while its current president is Professor Lord Patel of Bradf ...

. Watson was elected president of the ICE for the November 1935 to November 1936 session.. In his retirement he joined his son, David Mowat Watson, who was also a member of the ICE, in his private engineering consultancy practice. Watson died in Birmingham in 1946. His son, David Watson followed in his footsteps in November 1954 by also becoming president of the ICE.

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Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, John Duncan 1860 births 1946 deaths Engineers from Dundee People educated at the High School of Dundee Scottish civil engineers British civil engineers Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers