James Henry Greathead

James Henry Greathead
James Henry Greathead
Born (1844-08-06)6 August 1844
Grahamstown, South Africa
Died 21 October 1896(1896-10-21) (aged 52)
Streatham, London
Nationality British Overseas National (Cape Colony)
Education St Andrews College, Diocesan College, Grahamstown, Cape Town, South Africa; in 1859 he came to Westbourne Collegiate, part of Kings College, London.
Occupation Engineer
Spouse(s) Blanche Emily Caldecott Coryndon
Children John Coryndon, James Henry, Nancy, Mary Coryndon
Parent(s) James Henry Greathead and Eliza Julia Wright
Engineering career
Discipline Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineer
Institutions Institution of Mechanical Engineering
Practice name Chief Engineer for City and South London Railways
Projects

Tower Subway
Blackwall Tunnel
Waterloo & City line

Liverpool Overhead Railway
Significant design Greathead Shield, Greathead grouting machine, injector hydrant and other patented designs
Awards Elected to the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1884

James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896)[1] was a civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railway. He is also the reason that the London Underground is colloquially named "the tube".[2]

Early life

Greathead was born in Grahamstown, South Africa;[3] of English descent, Greathead's grandfather had emigrated to South Africa in 1820. He was educated at St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown,[4] and the Diocesan College private school in Cape Town. After migrating to England in 1859,[3] he completed his education from 1859 to 1863 at the Westbourne Collegiate School, Westbourne Grove. He returned briefly to South Africa before finally moving to London in 1864 to serve a three-year pupillage under the civil engineer Peter W. Barlow, from whom he became acquainted with the rectangular shield system of tunnelling.[3] Greathead spent some time (around 1867) as assistant engineer on the Midland Railway between Bedford and London (working with Barlow's brother, William Henry Barlow).

Tunnelling

Soon after, in 1869, he rejoined Barlow and they began work on designs for the Tower Subway,[5] only the second tunnel to be driven under the river Thames in central London. Barlow was the engineer for the tunnel and Greathead was in charge of the actual drive.

Greathead became the main contractor for the Tower subway under Barlow. William Copperthwaite asserts that whilst Barlow had patented a tunneling shield idea, Greathead not only designed a different type of shield but patented it and used it on that contract.[6] Barlow had been awarded a provisional patent on his second idea but Greathead was unaware of this until several years later (as discussed in minutes of a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) published in January 1896).

Greathead was the Blackwall Tunnel consulting engineer and oversaw is design and construction.

Railways

In 1873 Greathead became resident engineer on the Hammersmith extension railway and the Richmond extension of the District Railway, a post which he held for four years. After this he assisted in the preparation of the Regents Canal Railway (1880), the Metropolitan Outer Circle Railway (1881), a new London-Eastbourne line (1883) and in various light railways in Ireland (1884).

Also in 1884, Greathead resumed his involvement in tunnelling, being engaged as engineer on the London (City) & Southwark Subway, later the City & South London Railway[3] (and now part of the Northern line) which was, when it opened in 1890, the world's first underground electric railway. In 1888, he became joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox on the Liverpool Overhead Railway[3] and also worked with W.R. Galbraith on the Waterloo & City Railway. His final work was on the Central London Railway with Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker.[7]

Inventions and patents

Greathead Shield

This derived from Marc Isambard Brunel's original idea that was patented in 1818[8] and was, according to Robert Vogel, obviously inspired by Barlow's 1864 patent that led to Barlow's 1868 provisional patent.[6][9] However, there were considerable design changes to make it distinguishable from Brunel's shield, allowing a patent application for Greathead's design.

Brunel's shield was rectangular and comprised 12 separate, independently moveable frames; the Greathead solution was circular, and the "reduction of the multiplicity of parts in the Brunel shield to a single rigid unit was of immense advantage and an advance perhaps equal to the shield concept of tunneling itself",[9] though the face was still dug out by manual labour to begin with. Greathead's patented Shield for Tunnelling Soft Earth used pneumatic tunnel pressurisation to ensure better safety for workers by equalising internal tunnel pressure to its estimated exterior pressure underground beneath water. The 'second edition' of his shield used hydraulic action at the face to create slurry (this slurry then hardened and led to his next invention: the Greathead Grouting Machine). Brunel may be credited for the idea of using a shield, but Greathead was granted a patent of a one-piece circular shield, and Greathead designed the prototype circular shield that has since been used in most tunnelling projects, with other engineers' advancement and technological improvement in the general shield design. In his book, Tunnel Shields and the Use of Compressed Air in Subaqueous Works, Copperthwaite (who worked under Greathead as his pupil)[10] says:

Barlow was certainly the first to patent, in 1864, a shield capable of motion in one piece, and surrounded by a thin cylinder of iron... to build, in successive rings, a cast iron tunnel... this was in 1864 and in 1868 he provisionally patented a shield... neither of these designs took practical form and, in 1869 Greathead in England and Beach in New York actually built and used shields having many features in common with Barlow's patents but differing from each other in details.[11]

Copperthwaite also argues (p.20) that all three men, Barlow, Greathead and Beach, designed their tunnelling shields independently of each other. There is evidence that Greathead was unaware until 1895 of Barlow's 1868 provisional patent, which his shield resembled the most; Beach's shield more closely resembled Barlow's 1864 patent. Copperthwaite adds: "the exact apportionment of the credit of the invention between these two will be decided by each reader according as he may consider the inventor, the inventor of a new mechanism, or the man who applies it practical use, the more deserving of credit."[11] Whilst Barlow patented his idea in 1864, in 1869 both Greathead in England and Beach in New York practically simultaneously constructed their own shields that were similar but independent of each other. Greathead's achievements went further than any other engineers' tunnelling with the additional patents of 1738 (1874), 5665 (1884) and, in 1886 his patent no. 5221: grouting by means of compressed air.[11]

Copperthwaite clarifies the origins of the shift in thinking from a rectangular tunnel shield to cylindrical cutting shields as first built by Greathead. Minutes in the ICE library suggest Barlow quietly patented his ideas for a cylindrical cutting shield but never built one. Greathead, unaware of Barlow's initial patent and succeeding provisional patent, went on to design, patent and build the first cylindrical tunnelling shield in history. Simultaneously, Alfred Ely Beach built a cylindrical tunnelling shield in New York and designed a shield that very closely resembled Barlow's patented idea artound the same time as Greathead. According to a 2017 video lecture given by Professor Lord Mair for the ICE, the Brunels' shield ideas were well known in both USA and UK. Since Barlow was a Brunel pupil, he was well acquainted with the rectangular tunnelling shield design. It must have been obvious that a cylindrical design was far more suitable and stable which lead to three famous men independently designing their own unique tunneling shields within a grew years of each other. Beach never came to England to learn of Barlow's patent and later provisional patent, and Greathead did not know about Barlow's provisional patent idea until 1895 when it was discussed in the Institution of Civil Engineers meeting attended by Greathead shortly after Barlow's death.

The Greathead shield consisted of an iron cylinder 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) in diameter fitted with screw jacks which enabled it to be jacked forward. In use, the shield was inched forward as the working face was excavated, while behind it a permanent tunnel lining of cast iron segments was fitted into place, itself an important innovation.[12] Greathead patented many of his ideas including the use of compressed air and forward propulsion by hydraulic jacks, both of which are now standard features of tunnel construction. Another patent by Greathead was the addition of the grouting pan at ceiling height that allowed cement grout to be applied hydraulically behind the vast cast iron shields to stabilise the tunnel wall outside the shield sections. A third tunnelling shield was patented by Greathead that introduced hydraulic pressure nozzles at the tunnel face to blast away soft earth. The nozzle itself was also another Greathead patent invention. At some point Greathead discovered that concrete could be sprayed onto earthen surfaces to stabilise them and became the father of shot concrete and spray cement used so extensively in construction.

Greathead Injector Hydrant (c. 1879)

The hydrant was an invention to inject grouting behind cast iron tunnelling shield cavities to strengthen tunnel wall linings during construction with a permanent position.[13]

Greathead Grouting Machine

This is mentioned in relation to the repair of Winchester and Lincoln Cathedrals.[14] "His system of grouting by means of compressed air, which perhaps more than any other invention has proved indispensable in all recent tunnel work."[11]

Patents

  • 1738 of 1874 J. H. Greathead a shield having a closed face, the soil in front of which is to be disintergrated by water jets, and by protruding tools. The tunnel to be lined with cast iron , or with moulded artificial blocks. Grouting to be injected behind the tunnel lining.[15]
  • 5665 of 1884 J. H. Greathead the same shield but with modifications.[16]
  • 5221 of 1886 J. H. Greathead The grouting pan. A shield similar to those of patents 1738 (1874) & 5665 (1884)[16]
  • 13215 of 1886 J. H. Greathead A shield with alternatively, a central rotary cutter, with wedges for breaking down the face, washing out pipes,and wedges only, etc.[16]
  • 195 of 1889 J. H. Greathead A shield with a revolving cutter.[16]

Honours

Greathead's statue in the City of London
Blue Plaque at 3 St Mary's Grove
  • An English Heritage blue plaque marks his home in Barnes, south-west London, 3 St Mary's Grove, where he lived between 1885 and 1889. This was his third home as the his second residence had been demolished prior to placement of the English Heritage plaque.
  • In January 1994 a statue of Greathead was erected outside the Bank station next to the Royal Exchange in the City of London. It was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of London and is positioned on a plinth which hides a ventilation shaft for the Underground. While Bank Station was being refurbished a section of the Greathead shield was discovered in a passageway between the Underground and the Waterloo and City Railway. The section has been painted red and a brass plate erected as a further memorial to his achievements.

See also

  • London transport portal

References

  1. ↑ Taylor & Green 2001, p. 96.
  2. ↑ Wright, Lawrence (24 July 2017). "James Henry Greathead and the London Underground". Literator. 38 (1): 10. doi:10.4102/lit.v38i1.1324. hdl:10520/EJC-99a6e0249. ISSN 0258-2279.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Encyclopædia Britannica 1902, p. 90.
  4. ↑ Laurie 1914, p. 111.
  5. ↑ Lee, Charles E. (2014). "The Tower Subway: The First Tube Tunnel in the World". Transactions of the Newcomen Society. 43 (1): 41–52. doi:10.1179/tns.1970.003. ISSN 0372-0187.
  6. 1 2 Copperthwaite 1906.
  7. ↑ "Biographies of Civil Engineers, Architects, etc". Steamindex. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  8. ↑ UK Patent No 4204, 1818
  9. 1 2 Vogel 1966, p. 221.
  10. ↑ Copperthwaite 1906, p. 21.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Copperthwaite 1906, p. 20.
  12. ↑ West 2005, pp. 116–118.
  13. ↑ "Greathead Injector Hydrant – London, England". Firehydrant.org. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  14. ↑ "Fox, Sir Francis 1844–1927, civil engineer". The Peerage. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  15. ↑ Copperthwaite 1906, p. 382.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Copperthwaite 1906, p. 383.

Bibliography

  • Copperthwaite, William (1906). Tunnel shields and the use of compressed air in subaqueous works (With 260 illustrations and diagrams.) (1 ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Co. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  • Laurie, K. W. J. (1914). Register of S. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, from 1855 to 1914. Grahamstown: Slater & Co.
  • Taylor, Sheila; Green, Oliver (2001). The Moving Metropolis: The History of London's Transport Since 1800. Laurence King. ISBN 978-3-8238-5486-9.
  • Vogel, Robert M. (1966). Tunnel Engineering – a Museum Treatment. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie; Arthur T. Hadley; Hugh Chisholm, eds. (1902). "Greathead, James Henry". The New Volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. V, forming volume XXIX of the complete work (10th ed.). New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  • West, Graham (2005). Innovation and the Rise of the Tunnelling Industry. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67335-8.

Further reading

  • Cartwright, Rob (September 1997), "James Henry Greathead (1844–1896) Tunnelling Pioneer" (PDF), FOWNC Newsletter, Newsletter of the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery (30), retrieved 30 April 2008
  • Cartwright, Rob (May 2000), "James Henry Greathead Blue Plaque" (pdf), FOWNC Newsletter, Newsletter of the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery (38), retrieved 2 August 2014
  • Greathead, James Henry (1896). "The City and South London Railway". with some Remarks Upon Subaqueous Tunnelling by Shield and Compressed Air. With an abstract of the discussion upon the paper. London: The Institution of Civil Engineers. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  • "James Henry Greathead". Greathead One name study. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 30 April 2008. (Family records)
  • "James Henry Greathead". Greathead One name study. Retrieved 30 April 2008. (Genealogy)
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