Lindon Wallace Bates (1858–1924) was an American

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 ...

Early years and education

Bates was born at

Marshfield, Vermont Marshfield is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,583 at the 2020 census. History The town was named for Captain Isaac Marsh, who bought the original town site. Geography According to the United States ...

on November 19, 1858, and educated at

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

Career

After the completion of engineering studies he was appointed assistant engineer for the

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and Oregon Pacific railways, and subsequently was contracting engineer or manager of a number of important contracts in connection with the building of transcontinental railways. His advisory services were employed by the governments of

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, and

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in such large undertakings as the improvement of the port of

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, the enlargement of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

, and the increasing of

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harbor efficiency. For the authorities of Queensland, South Australia, and

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he designed a number of harbors and planned the regulation of several rivers. A scheme for the improvement of the port of

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was also prepared by him, working in cooperation with other engineers of international reputation. In the United States one of Bates's big contracts was the raising of the grade of

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after the flood there, and it was he who designed the "three-lake" plan for the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. In 1900 the

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government conferred on him a ''Grand Prix'' and decoration for "distinguished services to science"; and he was chosen to membership in various foreign as well as American engineering societies. He wrote: * ''The Navigation Interests of Nations in Ports and Waterways'' (1900; French translation, 1900) * ''The Panama Canal'' (1905) * ''Retrieval at Panama'' (1907) Bates was chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Submarine Defense Association in 1917.

Personal life

Bates married Josephine White in

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on April 6, 1881, and they had two sons. One was Lindon Wallace Bates, Jr. (1883–1915), a renowned engineer who wrote several books on technical and economic subjects and perished in the sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania''. Lindon Wallace Bates died at

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on April 22, 1924.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Lindon Wallace 1858 births 1924 deaths American science writers People from Marshfield, Vermont American civil engineers Yale College alumni