Person

Selfe, Norman (1839 - 1911)

Born
9 December 1839
Teddington, Middlesex, England
Died
15 October 1911
Normanhurst, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Consulting engineer, Engineer and Educator

Summary

Norman Selfe, a founder of the Engineering Association of New South Wales in 1870, achieved a number of 'firsts' including an ice-making machine, a double-ended screw ferry, a lift and a concrete quay wall. He also designed a cantilever bridge for Sydney Harbour.

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Details

Technical Papers presented to the Engineering Association of New South Wales:

* May 1871. "Compound Engines: Their History and Progress";
* Oct 1873. "Some Remarks on the Connection Between Labour-saving Machinery and Education Question, with a Description of a Coal-getting Machine";
* Sep 1875. "Steam Launches";
* Oct 1876. "Scheme for the Water Supply of Sydney";
* Mar 1886. "Compressed Air and its Applications";
* May 1886. "Our Colonial Built Harbour Steamers";
* Aug 1887. "Railway Brakes";
* Apr 1888. "Our Harbour Steamers";
* Feb 1889. "The Pumping Machinery for the Water Supply of Sydney and Irrigation";
* Sep 1889. "Operation of Power Companies and Power Transmission by Compressed Air";
* Sep 1891. "Railway Brakes";
* Jul 1892. "Notes on the Comparative Advancement Made in Marine Engineering and High Duty Pumps during the Past 50 Years";
* Jun 1893. "Relative Position of the Architect, Engineer, and Builder in Modern Works";
* Oct 1894. "The Rise and Progress of Lift Construction in N.S.W.";
* Mar 1898. "Boiler Settings for Refrigerating and Other Houses";
* Apr 1900. "Sydney and Its Institutions as They Are and Might Be, from an Engineer's Point of View";
* Aug 1902. "Some Remarks on an Australian Marble Cutting Machine";
* Jun 1906. "A Century of Bridge Building and the Great Sydney Bridge Competitions, with a Description of the Foundations of the Accepted Design";
* Apr 1908. "A Comparison on the Strengths of the Principal Compression Members in Three Notable Bridges".

Chronology

7 Dec 1880
Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London
15 Aug 1882
Career event - Member (MIMechE), Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London

Related Corporate Bodies

Related People

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Norman Selfe - Records, 1872 - 1948, ML MSS 3864; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

Journal Articles

Resources

See also

  • Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2019), 136 pp. 'A Prolific Performer - Norman Selfe' p.43. Details
  • Rich, Norman, 'Chapter 7: Harbour works' in Sydney: from settlement to city: an engineering history of Sydney, Don Fraser, ed. (Crows Nest, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 1989), pp. 151-168. Details
  • Shellshear, Walter; Wells, W. S.; Selfe, N.; Cruickshank, W. D., 'Discussion on Mr. W. Shellshear's paper, "On the modern tendency of railway practice"', Minutes of proceedings of the Engineering Association of New South Wales, 4 (1889), 68-69, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/EANSW/article/view/2912. Details

Gavan McCarthy; Ken McInnes

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 28 August 2024

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