xxxvi Annual Report of tJie Council. « 



view, and, coming to the conclusion that their assertion was not 

 correct, he had the courage in his old age to rely on his own 

 deductions, and unhesitatingly recommended that the dam 

 should be heightened as had been originally intended. This 

 natural courage to take responsibility must have revealed itself 

 at an early date, for the late Sir John Fowler made him, when 

 only 29 years old, Chief Assistant Engineer on the construction 

 of the District Railway, the first of its kind in London, and 

 having innumerable and unforeseen difficulties. He had at the 

 age of 22 joined Sir John Fowler's staff, his previous training 

 from his i6th year being an apprenticeship, during which he 

 was engaged on the Grosvenor Bridge, but he had even 

 then engaged in scientific studies, and by papers on beams, 

 bridge construction, etc., had established a reputation as an 

 authority on the practice and theory of engineering. His great 

 scientific and practical knowledge, combined with the reliability 

 of his advice, caused him to be looked up to by the whole 

 engineering profession, and led to his being associated with 

 many of the largest and most novel undertakings both in 

 England and abroad. He was consulted about the first London 

 tube, the Central London tube, the Hudson River tunnel, 

 railways all over the world, the Avonmouth Docks, the Hull 

 Joint Docks, and many other undertakings, and rendered 

 invaluable service on the Ordnance Committee on which he sat 

 during the time that black powder was being replaced by 

 cordite, and gun barrels of old construction by wire wound ones. 

 The two great works with which his name will be lastingly 

 associated are the Forth Bridge and the Nile dam. It would 

 seem that several designs for the former were discussed by the 

 Railway Companies, but when the Tay Bridge was blown down 

 it was felt that, for a structure of the magnitude and novelty of 

 the proposed Forth Bridge, Sir Benjamin Baker's views should 

 carry the greatest weight. The bridge had to be its own 

 scaffolding, and Sir Benjamin boldly adopted for this purpose the 

 Cantilever design, though it was practically a novelty, and he 

 carried it out on the grandest scale. It is not generally realised 



