Robert William Mylne, FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FGS FRIBA (14 June 1817 – 2 July 1890) was an English

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

Life

Mylne was born in

Great Amwell Great Amwell is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is southeast of Ware and about north of London. History On a hill above the church there are some traces of an Iron Age ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, the son of

William Chadwell Mylne William Chadwell Mylne, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (6 April 1781 – 25 December 1863) was an English people, English civil engineer and architect. He was descended from a Scottish family of masons and architects, and was the second ...

(1781–1863) and grandson of Robert Mylne (1733–1811), both of whom were chief engineers of the

New River Company The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by roy ...

. His mother was Mary Smith Coxhead (1791-1884). Robert William himself also practiced as an architect and engineer. In 1836 he worked on designing new docks at

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and he traveled to Italy and Sicily in the early 1840s. He acted as his father's assistant for twenty years, becoming an authority on water supply. He was later appointed Engineer to the

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

Water Company, and provided a fresh-water supply for one of the

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

forts. He wrote a number of books, primarily on the subject of the

geology of London The geology of London comprises various differing layers of sedimentary rock upon which London, England is built. Oldest rocks The oldest rocks proved through boreholes to exist below London are the old, hard rocks of the Palaeozoic. These consist ...

, as well as producing several

geological map A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show various geological features. Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols. Bedding planes and structural features such as faults, folds, are shown with st ...

s of the area. His 1856 "Map of the Geology and Contours of London and its Environs", produced at a scale of 4 miles to 1 inch, was the first comprehensive geological map of London. In 1859 he was one of a party of eminent scientists, including

Joseph Prestwich Sir Joseph Prestwich, FRS (12 March 1812 – 23 June 1896) was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme valle ...

Sir John Evans Sir John Evans (17 November 1823 – 31 May 1908) was an England, English archaeologist and geologist. Biography John Evans, son of the Rev. Arthur Benoni Evans, A. B. Evans, was born at Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire. At the age of seventeen ...

Hugh Falconer Hugh Falconer MD FRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865) was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam,Burma,and most of the Mediterranean islands ...

, Godwin-Austen and John W. Flower, who investigated the discovery of ancient human remains in the

Somme valley The Somme ( , , ) is a river in Picardy, northern France. The river is in length, from its source in the high ground of the former at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geological ...

, establishing the

antiquity of man The discovery of human antiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology. The antiquity of man, human antiquity, or in simpler language the age of the human race, are ...

. He was an associate of the

Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

from 1839, and a member of the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

from 1848, and of the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

. In 1860 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

. His candidature citation read: In 1884 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

George Seton George Seton of Careston FRSE FSA (25 June 1822 – 14 November 1908) was a Scottish philanthropist and genealogist. Early life Seton was born in Perth, Scotland, the son of Captain George Seton, an officer in the East India Company, and ...

Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), Professor of Natural Philoso ...

, William Rutherford, and

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook '' Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote wi ...

. He died at Home Lodge in Great Amwell in 1890. He is buried in the Mylne family vault at St John the Baptist Church in Amwell, designed by his ancestor Robert Mylne.

Family

In 1852 he married Hannah Scott (1826-1885), the daughter of George Scott. Their eldest son was Robert Scott Mylne

Publications

* "On the supply of Water from Artesian Wells in the London Basin", 1840 * "Account of the Ancient Basilica of San Clemente in Rome", 1845 * "Sections of the London Strata", 1850 * "Topographical Map of London and its Environs", 1851 and 1855 * "Map of the Geology and Contours of London and its Environs", 1856 * "Map of London, Geological - Waterworks and Sewers", 1858

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mylne, Robert William 1817 births 1890 deaths English geologists 19th-century English architects English civil engineers People from Great Amwell Fellows of the Royal Society Architects from Hertfordshire