Bindon Blood Stoney

Bindon Blood Stoney FRS (13 June 1828, Oakley Park, County Offaly – 5 May 1909, Dublin) was an Irish engineer who also made some significant contributions to astronomy.[1]

Life
Diving bell, designed by Stoney, preserved on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin

In 1850-52, prior to beginning his engineering work, Stoney assisted William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse at Parsonstown.[1] There he accurately mapped the spiral form of the Andromeda Galaxy[1] and observed 105 NGC objects and 8 IC objects. 91 NGC objects and all IC objects were new.[2]

In 1853, Stoney was Resident Engineer on the Boyne Viaduct under James Barton. In 1856, he was Assistant Engineer and in 1859 Executive Engineer, to the Dublin Ballast Board. In 1867, he was Chief Engineer at Dublin Port.[3]

He designed the quay walls at the River Liffey, making it a deepwater port. He designed Grattan Bridge, O'Connell Bridge, and Butt Bridge. He invented a diving bell, and means to use precast concrete.[4]

Stoney was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 2 June 1881. In 1874, was awarded the Telford medal and Telford premium of the Institute of Civil Engineers for a paper documenting his work on the northern quays.

Stoney married Susannah Frances Walker, on 7 October 1879; they had four children. He is buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.[5] His brother was the physicist George Johnstone Stoney known for coining the term electron for the fundamental unit of electricity. He was also the uncle of another Irish physicist George Francis FitzGerald, the son of his sister Anne Frances. His niece was Edith Anne Stoney, a pioneer medical physicist.

Plaque to Stoney at the Dublin Port Centre

Sources
  • Ronald C. Cox, Bindon Blood Stoney: biography of a port engineer, Irish Engineering Publications, 1990, ISBN 978-0-904083-02-6.

References
  1. Spear, W.F. "Stoney, Bindon Blood (Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement)". Wikisource. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  2. Steinicke, Wolfgang. "Bindon Blood Stoney". Astronomy. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  3. "Turtle Bunbury". Turtlebunbury.com. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  4. Cormac F. Lowth (July 2010). "The Dublin Port Diving Bell". The International Journal of Diving History. 3 (1). Archived from the original on 21 October 2011.
  5. "Dictionary of Irish Architects - stoney, bindon blood". Dia.ie. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
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