Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
McInnes, Ken
Title
William Thomas Doyne, a pioneer in metal truss bridges - a career shaped by changing, challenging circumstances
In
From the Past to the Future: 18th Australian Engineering Heritage Conference 2015 [Newcastle]
Imprint
Engineers Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2015, pp. 123-146
ISBN/ISSN
9781922107435
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.697026319242477
Abstract

William Thomas Doyne (1823-1877), civil engineer, MInstCE, had a remarkable, diverse and demanding engineering career that spanned Ireland, England, Belgium, Germany, Wales, Crimea, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), New Zealand and Australia. Doyne contributed to the development and transfer of technologies across the globe and across many fields - the design and construction of metal truss bridges and railways, developments in mining, metallurgy, geology and in disinfection and sanitation. However, his career was disrupted and redirected many times, by changing and challenging socio-economic and political circumstances, including booms, busts, wars, mutinies, migrations and gold rushes. Although several short biographies have previously been written about Doyne, this paper fills many gaps in his life and career, by uncovering evidence that has been previously overlooked, clouded in controversy, or hidden away in untapped sources.

Doyne's significant engineering achievements include: the Hunningham High Bridge, over the Rugby and Leamington Railway (1849); two award-winning technical papers on metal truss bridges (1849, 1851); Superintendent-General of the Army Works Corps in the Crimea War (1855-1856); improvements in disinfection and sanitation (1855-1856); Chief Railway Engineer for Ceylon (1857-1859); his paper on the problems of the Empire in building railways in India and Ceylon (1860); the Dun Mountain Copper mine, Nelson, and its "first railway" in New Zealand (1862); the survey of the Canterbury Plains (1864); the Christchurch to Rakaia Railway (1865-1867,1870-1873); the design of a long metal truss railway bridge over the Rakaia River (1865); the Kings Bridge, over the South Esk River, Launceston, Tasmania, (1863); the design of the Tasmanian Railways; and the railway bridge, over South Esk River, Longford, Tasmania (1870).

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