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as an engineer, — first in conjunction with Mr Lawrence Hill, and 
latterly with Messrs Liddell and Newall, with whom he entered 
into a second copartnery. 
He ultimately found, as his engineering business increased, that 
he could not fulfil the duties of his chair to his own satisfation, 
and, in 1855, he resigned his professorship, in which he was suc- 
ceeded by the late Professor Pankine. 
During the time of his first partnership he, in conjunction with 
Mr Hill, was employed in general engineering business in Scot- 
land, and reference may, in particular, be made to the investigation 
for the water supply of Glasgow in 1845, when they came to the 
conclusion “ that the nearest adequate supply of pure water, that 
can be brought to Glasgow by gravitation, is what is afforded by 
the overflow of Loch Katrine.” This project was revived in 1852 
by Professor Eankine and Mr John Thomson, and was ultimately, 
as is well known, successfully carried out by Mr J. F. Bateman. 
Among other works, Messrs Gordon and Hill were employed in 
advising the Marquis of Breadalbane in his mining operations at 
Tyndrum, and in constructing the great chimney for Messrs 
Tennants’ works at St Rollox, which was, at that early period, 
considered to be a work as bold as it was successful. 
But it was in connection with Messrs Liddell and Newall that 
most of Gordon’s engineering work was done. Liddell and Gordon 
were engineers for several railways in England and Wales, and 
designed and executed many iron bridges, among which may be 
mentioned the Hereford, the Usk, and especially the Crumlin Via- 
duct in South Wales, consisting of 10 spans of 150 feet, — a structure 
of marvellous lightness, and withal of requisite strength and rigidity. 
Their firm was rendered famous by the introduction of wire ropes, 
which Gordon had seen in use at the mines in Germany, and intro- 
duced into England in 1840, under a patent taken out by Gordon, 
Newall, and Liddell. The uses of these ropes became highly import- 
ant when they were ultimately so largely employed in protecting the 
electric wires for submarine cables, — a new and large field of work 
was thus opened up for the firm, which was designated P. S Newall 
and Co. of Gateshead. The firm manufactured and laid upwards of 
4500 miles of cable in different parts of the world. It was on one 
of his numerous voyages in connection with marine telegraphs that 
