Eaton A. Hodgkinson FRS (26 February 1789 – 18 June 1861) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering th ...

, a pioneer of the application of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

to problems of structural design.

Early life

Hodgkinson was born in the village of Anderton, near

Northwich {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, to a

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

family. His father died when he was six years old, and he was raised with his two sisters by his mother, who maintained the farming business. She sent her son to Witton Grammar School in

where he studied the

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Class ...

with the intention that he would fulfill the family's ambition that he prepare for a career in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...

. Unfortunately, the regime was unsuited to his tastes and talents which were already showing promise in mathematics. His mother moved him to a less prestigious private school in Northwich where his enthusiasm for mathematics was encouraged and fostered but, as the young Hodgkinson grew physically, he became indispensable on the family farm and soon left education to devote himself there. However, farming was no more to his taste than

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and his mother yearned to satisfy her son's appetites. Family friends advised that Hodgkinson might find some more suitable outlet in nearby

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and so, in 1811, the family left for

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county aft ...

to open a pawnbroking business. Hodgkinson used all his spare time in reading

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

and mathematics and soon introduced himself into Manchester's scientific community, meeting, among others, his future collaborator, Sir

William Fairbairn Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third presid ...

. He became a pupil of

John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into colour blindness, which he had. Colour ...

, studying mathematics, and the two remained firm friends until Dalton's death in 1844. He retired early from the family business to devote a modest pension to his scientific work. He married twice, to Catherine Johns and to a Miss Holditch. There were no children.

Scientific work

Hodgkinson measured the strength of columns of materials including cast iron and marble in a series of experiments.

Henry Moseley Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (; 23 November 1887 – 10 August 1915) was an English physicist, whose contribution to the science of physics was the justification from physical laws of the previous empirical and chemical concept of the atomic nu ...

. ''Illustrations of Mechanics''. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster-Row. 1839. Page 403. Hodgkinson worked with Sir

on the design of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in fro ...

beams, especially on the Water Street bridge for the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

in 1828–30. His improved cross section was published by the

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit. & Phil., is one of the oldest learned society, learned societies in the United Kingdom and second oldest provincial learned society (after the Spalding Gentlemen's S ...

in 1830 and influenced much nineteenth century

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

. He derived the empirical formula for a concentrated load, ''W'' (in

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

s), at which a beam will fail as a function of its length between simple supports, ''L'' (in inches); its depth, ''d'' (in inches); and its bottom-flange

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open ...

, ''A'' (inch²): :

W=\frac

His expertise with beams led to his retention, along with Fairbairn, as consultant on the novel tubular design for the Britannia Bridge. Fairbairn built and tested several prototypes, and developed the final form adopted for the bridge. Both Hodgkinson and

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson FRS H FRSE FRSA DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father ...

believed that extra chains would be needed to support the heavy spans, so the towers were built with spaces for the chains. Fairbairn, however, insisted that chains would not be necessary, and his opinion prevailed. He was right, and chains were never used, but the towers remain with their empty recesses.

Later years

Hodgkinson was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1841 and, in 1847, he became professor of the mechanical principles of engineering at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. In 1849, he was appointed by the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

to participate in a Royal Commission to investigate the application of iron in

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

structures, performing some early investigations of

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...

. Towards the end of his life, his mental faculties failed and he died at Higher Broughton,

References

Bibliography

*''Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Application of Iron to Railway Structures'' (1849) cmd. 1123, HMSO * Petroski, H. (1994) ''Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgement in Engineering'' *Rawson, R (1865) "Memoir of Eaton Hodgkinson", ''Transactions of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society'', vol II, reprinted in ''Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution'' (1868), pp203–230 *Timoshenko, S. P. (1953) ''History of Strength of Materials'', pp126–129 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgkinson, Eaton 1789 births 1861 deaths English Anglicans Fellows of the Royal Society English engineers 19th-century English mathematicians People from Northwich British structural engineers Academics of University College London People educated at Sir John Deane's College Royal Medal winners Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Early life

Scientific work

Later years

See also

References

Bibliography