Engineering

Boyne Bridge

Located 3km upstream from Drogheda, the Boyne Bridge is the first major cable-stayed bridge in Ireland. It incorporates a tall pylon at the south side with cable stays fanning out from it supporting the main structure, is 350m long and has a span of 170m.

Images & Text: © NDP.ie

Boyne Bridge
Images & Text: © NDP.ie

Boyne Bridge

Located 3km upstream from Drogheda, the Boyne Bridge is the first major cable-stayed bridge in Ireland. It incorporates a tall pylon at the south side with cable stays fanning out from it supporting the main structure, is 350m long and has a span of 170m.

Images & Text: © NDP.ie

Enlarge image

For centuries engineers have given us ingenious devices and solutions to problems. From engines and machines of various kinds, to mills and power stations, from the roads, railways, canals and harbours that make travel possible, and the navigational aids that make it safe, to the public health works that bring us power and clean water and take our dirt away.

Engineering was once a military profession, but in the early 1700s 'civil' (that is, non-military) engineering began. In Ireland the first civil engineers worked on projects such as the Great South Wall at Dublin port and the new stagecoach roads and canals. The port wall, begun in 1715, strides out into the sea for 2 km to Poolbeg lighthouse, and was one of the great port improvement projects of its time.

Engineering changed the face of Ireland in the 19th century. This was the era of the railways and big government programmes like the Shannon navigation, arterial drainage (to prevent floods), new harbours, a telegraph network and commercial exploitation of the bogs.

The aim was to bring the industrial revolution to Ireland and open the country to trade and development. All of the groundwork was done by engineers, and much of it was internationally important

The Steam Turbine

This invention changed the world: it revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare and made cheap and plentiful electricity supplies possible. Power stations still use turbine generators based on the principle - were it not for the turbine, we would still be using, gas lighting and gas-powered appliances. The turbine was the brainchild of Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931), from Birr Castle. It was significantly more efficient than conventional steam engines: instead of using the steam to drive pistons, Parsons used it to turn a rotor directly. The design was ideal returning dynamos, and power stations quickly spotted the potential. Turbine-powered ships, such as the Turbinia (pictured above), revolutionised transport at sea.

Image: Alfred John West (1857-1937)

The Steam Turbine
Image: Alfred John West (1857-1937)

The Steam Turbine

This invention changed the world: it revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare and made cheap and plentiful electricity supplies possible. Power stations still use turbine generators based on the principle - were it not for the turbine, we would still be using, gas lighting and gas-powered appliances. The turbine was the brainchild of Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931), from Birr Castle. It was significantly more efficient than conventional steam engines: instead of using the steam to drive pistons, Parsons used it to turn a rotor directly. The design was ideal returning dynamos, and power stations quickly spotted the potential. Turbine-powered ships, such as the Turbinia (pictured above), revolutionised transport at sea.

Image: Alfred John West (1857-1937)

Enlarge image

Heavy industrial engineering was mostly in Belfast and Northern Ireland, with its linen mills and shipbuilding. The emphasis elsewhere was on lighter engineering, especially agricultural implements. A prime example was the Wexford engineering company begun in 1847 by millwright and inventor, James Pierce, who was famous for his hearth fan. His company went on to employ 1,000 people, and exported around the world until it closed in 1980.

Three Scottish engineers were important in Ireland: Alexander Nimmo, and a father and son team of port and dock engineers, John Rennie the Elder and John Rennie the Younger. Noted Irish engineers included Bindon Blood Stoney, who developed Dublin's docklands; lighthouse engineer Alexander Mitchell; Thomas Mulvany, who developed Germany's Ruhr coalfield; Sir Charles Parsons who invented the steam turbine; and a 20th-century architectural genius, Peter Rice.