fAXUARY 31, 191 



NATURE 



427 



SIR JOHN WOLFE BARRY, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



SIR JOHN WOLFE BARRY, the eminent civil 

 engineer, died on January 22, in his eighty- 

 second year. The youngest son of Sir Charles 

 Barry, R.A., the architect of the Houses of Parlia- 

 ment, he was educated at Trinity College, Glen- 

 almond, and at King's College, London. He was 

 a pupil of Sir John Hawkshaw, and afterwards 

 for him assistant resident engineer on the Charing 

 Cross and Cannon Street Railway. In 1867 he 

 started in private practice. 



Sir John Wolfe Barry devoted himself largely 

 to the construction of bridges, railways, and 

 docks, and by his ability, wide experience, and 

 energy acquired a position of leadership in the 

 engineering profession. He gave ungrudging 

 assistance to all public undertakings and inquiries 

 involving engineering considerations, and had 

 great influence in many ways in promoting the 

 industrial and commercial prosperity of the 

 country. He took great interest in efforts to raise 

 the scientific qualifications of engineers and in 

 the investigation of engineering problems. A 

 member of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 

 fifty years, on its council for thirty-four years, and 

 Its "president in 1896-97, his authority and the value 

 of his services to it can scarcely be overrated. He 

 became F.R.S. in 1895, K.C.B. in 1897, and was 

 chairman of council of the Royal Society of Arts 

 in 1898-99. 



There is not space here to enumerate the 

 ■ numerous undertakings on which Sir John Wolfe 

 Barry was engaged in an executive or consultative 

 capacity. Amongst them were the Lewes and 

 East Grinstead Railway, the Inner Circle extension 

 from the Mansion House to Whitechapel- — a work 

 of great difficulty — the Blackfriars arched railway 

 bridge, the Tower Bridge (in association with the 

 late Sir Horace Jones), the King Edward VII. 

 Bridge at Kew, the Barry docks and railways, 

 the Grangemouth dock, and the entrance lock 

 and graving dock at Immingham ; also dock and 

 railway works in Buenos Ayres, Natal, and India. 

 Sir John took an interest in the introduction of 

 electricity on railways. With the late Sir Charles 

 Hartley, he represented this country on the Suez 

 Canal International Commission ; with Sir E. Fry 

 and Sir Hugh Owen, he was a member of the 

 Court of Arbitration for the purchase of the 

 London Water Companies, and was a member of 

 ilie Royal Commission on London Traffic in 



Perhaps the greatest service rendered by Sir 

 John Wolfe Barry to engineering industries was 

 the part he took in founding and directing the 

 activities of the Engineering Standards Committee. 

 It was due mainly to his insight and influence that 

 representatives of Government departments, en- 

 gineers, manufacturers, shipbuilders, and others 

 were brought together, and have freely given their 

 time and experience in dealing with the complex 

 details of standardisation, a work of the greatest 

 national impgrtance. Sir John, in 1917, gave an 

 account of the work of the Standards Committee, 

 NO. 2518, VOL. 100] 



during sixteen years, in a lecture to the Institution 

 of Civil I£ngineers on "The Standardisation of 

 Engineering Materials and its Influence on the 

 Prosperity of the Country," Started in a tentative 

 way, with the object of reducing the wholly un- 

 necessary number of rolled sections of steel bacs 

 and rails, produced by manufacturers who had to 

 meet the wishes of different engineers and archi- 

 tects, it was soon found necessary to draw up 

 complete specifications of quality and of the tests 

 to which material should be subjected. The work 

 of the committee then extended to other depart- 

 ments of industry, especially to the various 

 branches of the electrical industry. The main 

 committee now consists of twenty-two members, 

 and there are sixty-four sectional and sub-com- 

 mittees, having in the aggregate more than 500 

 members. Practically all persons interested are 

 represented and have a consultative voice in all 

 proposals for standardisation. The specifications 

 adopted are published, and when necessary revised 

 annually. 



Sir John Wolfe Barry pointed out in his lecture 

 that it was diflficult to estimate exactly the bene- 

 ficial results of standardisation, but that he was 

 justified in saying that they have been immense in 

 facilitating production and in cheapening output, 

 while ensuring excellence in the scientific com- 

 position of materials and in accuracy of workman- 

 ship. Thus, in the case of Portland cement, 

 whereas formerly different specifications were im- 

 posed by different users, involving modifications in 

 manufacture, practically now the whole output is 

 made to one standard specification. 



In the case of rolled sections for construction, 

 for shipbuilding, and for railway and tramway 

 rails, the annual output before the war was 

 3,700,000 tons, valued at 25,000,000^. Of this 

 at least 85 per cent., and in some cases 95 per 

 cent., were rolled to standard specifications. 



The war has raised serious problems as to the 

 security in the future of our foreign trade. Under 

 Sir John Wolfe Barry's guidance, the Standards 

 Committee has undertaken the laborious work of 

 translating the standard specifications into 

 French, Spanish, and Russian, converting British 

 into metric measures, and issuing them in a much 

 cheaper form. It also contemplates the estab- 

 lishment, in twelve important foreign trading 

 centres, of local committees in touch with the 

 London organisation, and concerned with the pro- 

 motion of trade. 



Sir John took an active interest in the founda- 

 tion of the National Physical Laboratory, having 

 been a member of its Executive Committee, and . 

 greatly assisted it in obtaining such funds as it 

 has secured for carrying on its work and in making 

 it the expert authority in scientific questions aris- 

 ing in connection with standardisation. He exerted 

 great influence in the improvement of technical 

 education. He was chairman of the Executive 

 Committee of the City and Guilds of London In- 

 stitute, and took much interest in the develop- 

 ment of the Central Technical College. Since the 

 reorganisation of the London L^niversity, he was 



