Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/441

 424,

FOWLEB.

elected a Senator by the department of Dordogne, March 7, 1880.

FOWLEK, John, civil engineer, is the eldest son of the late Mr. Fowler, of Wadsley Hall, in the parish of Ecclesfield, Sheffield, and was born in 181 7. After completing his scholastic education, he became a pupil of Mr. J. Towlerton Leather, the eminent hydraulic engineer, and obtained his first practical knowledge under the guidance of that gentleman in the construction of the Sheffield waterworks. When Mr. George Stephenson, the father of railways, projected the line of the Midhmd Company through the valley country, from Derby to Nor- manton, and excluded from that great highway the towns of Shef- field, Bajnsley, and Wakefield, Mr. Leather was employed to survey a route from Chesterfield through Sheffield, and his pupil acquired his first experience as a railway en- gineer in laying out the line which was subsequenUy adopted. Whilst yet a pupU, he surveyed the rocky district through Whamcliffe Wood, in Yorkshire, for a line which, though not constructed at that time, he was afterwards enabled to carry out and complete, and he also sur- veyed the country for a line between Stourbridge and Birmingham, pass- ing through Dudley and Wolver- hampton ; which Une, though only commenced some twenty years after- wards by Brunei, it fell to the lot of John Fowler to carry out. On the completion of his profes- sional education, Mr. Fowler became an assistant to Mr. Eastrick in the' construction of several lines of rail- way then in progress, and amongst others the London and Brighton Kailway. He was then appointed resident engineer of the Stockton and Hartlepool EaUway, and of other Hnes in the same district. It was at this period that he first came as a witness before a parlia- mentary committee, and exhibited those qualities of acuteness, firm- ness, and soundness of judgment

which still constitute him one oft] ablest and most valued engineerii witnesses in the committee rooi of both Houses of Parliament, j the age of twenty-seven, Mr. Fowl was selected as the engineer f constructing the large group railways known as the Manchestc Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ml which includes tunnels, viaduci and bridges of considerable magi tude, in addition to a dock, a fioe ing pier, large hydraulic works, ai a steam feny, of all which hun and multifarious work he had t sole engineering charge. From tl time the name of Jo& Fowler w established in the first rank practical engineers, and he becan after settling in London, contin ously employed at home and abroj in the laying out and constructi< of railways, docks, and other larj works requiring a high class of e gineering ability. Amongst i principal works executed by M Fowler are to be found the origin " underground " or Metropoliti Railway, the District Railway, tl St. John's Wood EaUway, the Vi toria Station and Pimlico Eailwa on which occurred the first railwj bridge built over the river Tham at London; the Edgware, Hig gate, and London Railway; tJ Manchester, Sheffield, and Linool shire Eailways ; the Oxford, Worc€ ter, and Wolverhampton Eailwa; the Severn Valley Eailway ; the 3ii Kent Eailways; the London, T: bury, and Southend Eailway ; tl Great Northern and Western of Ii land system of railways ; the Mu< Wenlock Eailway, and its extendi east and west ; l^e Great Easte Eailway Extension in Oambrid^ shire and Essex ; the Isle of Wig! Eailway ; the Launceston and Sou Devon Eailway ; the Moreton Ham stead Eailway ; the Weymouth ai Portland EaUway ; the Wellingt and Cheshire EaUway ; the Millw] Docks ; and works for the improT ment of rivers and estuaries, m the reclamation of lands from t