Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey (9 November 1853 – 3 October 1925) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

-born

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 the l ...

and captain in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, known as the creator of the

Sankey diagram Sankey diagrams are a type of flow diagram in which the width of the arrows is proportional to the flow rate. Sankey diagrams can also visualize the energy accounts, material flow accounts on a regional or national level, and cost breakdowns. ...

Biography

Sankey was born at Nenagh in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

in 1853 the son of General

William Sankey General William Sankey (died 16 November 1892) was a British Army officer who served as colonel of the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster). Military career Sankey was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1844. He saw action as Dep ...

, C.B. He received his first education in Switzerland and at Mr. Rippon's School at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

. Here from 1871 to 1873 he attended the Royal Military Academy, and from 1874 to 1876 the School of Military Engineering in Chatham. In the last years of his studies Sankey started as research-assistant of the Royal Commission on Railway Accidents making calculations and experiments on railway-brakes and trails. After graduation he started at the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, first on the War Office on architectural design, then leading a drawing office of 16

draughtsmen A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for m ...

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 t ...

. In

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

he was superintended at the construction of barracks for a Military Telegraphs station. From 1879 to 1882 he was instructor at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Canada, and from 1882 to 1889 back in England working for the Ordnance Survey Establishment at Southampton.OBITUARY. CAPTAIN MATTHEW HENRY PHINEAS RIALL SANKEY. 1853-1925
in: ''Minutes of the Proceedings'', Vol 221, Issue 1 January 1926, pp. 271–274. E-ISSN 1753-7843 From 1889 to 1904 he was a member of the board of directors of

Willans & Robinson Willans & Robinson Limited manufacturing engineers of Thames Ditton, Surrey. Later, from 1896, at Victoria Works, Rugby, Warwickshire, England. They were manufacturers of stationary reciprocating steam engines then steam turbines, Diesel motors and ...

engineers. He was appointed lead engineer and steam engine designer in 1892 after Mr. Willans died. Later he designed their new Victoria Works at Rugby. From 1904 to 1909 he was a consulting engineer in the steam and internal-combustion engineering industry. From 1909 until his death in 1925 he was a board member of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd, and on the board of some other companies. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Sankey volunteered serving as a staff officer at the department of the Director of Fortifications and Works. He was decorated with the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) and the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) for his service in World War I. He was also President of the

Institution of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 120,000 member ...

Work

Sankey diagram

In an 1898 article about the energy efficiency of a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

in the ''Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers'' Sankey introduced the first energy

flow diagram Flow diagram is a collective term for a diagram representing a flow or set of dynamic relationships in a system. The term flow diagram is also used as a synonym for flowchart, and sometimes as a counterpart of the flowchart.Harris. (1999, p. 156 ...

: a visualisation to be christened

. Sankey gave the following explanation how to read the image: :"No portion of a steam plant is perfect, and each is the seat of losses more or less serious. If therefore it is desired to improve the steam plant as a whole, it is first of all necessary to ascertain separately the nature of the losses due to its various portions; and in this connection the diagrams in Plate 5 have been prepared, which it is hoped may assist to a clearer understanding of the nature and extent of the various losses.
The boiler; the engine; the condenser and air-pump; the feedpump and the economiser, are indicated by rectangles upon the diagram. The flow of heat is shown as a stream, the width of which gives the amount of heat entering and leaving each part of the plant per unit of time; the losses are shown by the many waste branches of the stream. Special attention is called to the one (unfortunately small) branch which represents the work done upon the pistons of the engine." Originally created by

Charles Joseph Minard Charles Joseph Minard (; ; 27 March 1781 – 24 October 1870) was a French civil engineer recognized for his significant contribution in the field of information graphics in civil engineering and statistics. Minard was, among other things, noted ...

(for the Russian campaign of 1812) to show the number of Napoleon's soldiers going to and from Russia, Sankey adapted the method for energy flow. This presentation made an impression. Four years later in 1902

Robert Henry Thurston Robert Henry Thurston (October 25, 1839 – October 25, 1903) was an American engineer, and the first Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. He was assistant professor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and a ...

among others acknowledged, that the heat distribution of the then modern steam engine was best shown by the use of the so-called "Sankey Diagram".

Patents

Sankey received at least four patents for an expansion-gear for engines (1894), a turbine (1905), a reversible turbine (1907), and a steam-turbine (1907).US Patent 874,443, 1907
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Publications

Books: * 1879.
Elementary theory and calculation of iron bridges and roofs
'. English translation of August Ritter's German book of 1863. * 1898. ''Temperature Entropy Or heta PhiChart for 1 Lb. of H2O: Giving Also Volumes, Absolute Pressures and Dryness Fractions, Internal Energy, Water Heat, and Total Heat in British Thermal Units''. Frost & Sons * 1911. ''Gas engines''. with William Johnstone Marshall * 1907. ''The Energy Chart: Practical Applications to Reciprocating Steam-engines''. E. & F.N. Spon Articles, a selection: * 1888. "The Maps of the Ordnance Survey: a mid-Victorian view". in: ''Engineering'', a weekly illustrated journal. Charles Close Society London. Republished in 1995. * 1896. "The Thermal Efficiency of Steam-Engines". In: ''Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers'' 125, 1896, S. 182–242. * 1898. "Introductory Note on the Thermal Efficiency of Steam-Engines". in: ''Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers''. Vol. 134, p. 278–283

References

External links

Captain H Riall Sankey
imeche.org
Obituary notice
IEEE {{DEFAULTSORT:Sankey, Matt 1853 births 1925 deaths Royal Engineers officers Fellows of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers People from County Tipperary Irish engineers British Army personnel of World War I Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire