KIRKWOOD

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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27.3.1807 Edinburgh/UK - 22.4.1877 Brooklyn NY/USA

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James Pugh Kirkwood was apprenticed at the age of 14 to a land surveyor and later became acquainted with engineering. He sailed in 1832 to America and there found his first work on the Norwich Line. Within 12 years he had served as resident engineer for road works in New England. From 1848, Kirkwood was in charge of the Starucca Bridge, at that time the greatest railroad bridge masonry in the US 400 m long and 35 m high. From 1853 he carried out successfully a ticklish job in connection with the Croton water supply. Brooklyn engaged him as chief engineer of the Nassau water works and he remained there until this project was finished four years later. He solved many problems and also designed and tested the pumping engines.

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While engaged in these works, the question of coating cast-iron pipes came up. By contacting engineers from Europe, Kirkwood learned the method of coating pipes with coal tar. Boston thus had the first pipes treated by this method in the USA. In 1864 Kirkwood was retained by Cincinnati to make an extensive study on the best means of providing the town with an adequate water supply. The surface waters so far used in various cities were known for its turbidity. Kirkwood knew that slow sand filtration was practiced in several European cities. A few months later, he presented the case for filtration so well to the water commissioners of St. Louis that they sent him to Europe to gather the facts at first hand. His instructions were delivered in 1865, and the report became classic in the field of water works engineering. After having returned to New York in 1867 he was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. In 1875 he made a comprehensive survey on the pollution of the rivers of Massachusetts for the Board of Health of that state.

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_{Anonymous (1936). James Pugh Kirkwood. Civil Engineering 6(5): 338-339. P}

_{Boase, F. (1965). Kirkwood, James Pugh. Modern English biography: 246. Cass: London.}

_{Kirkwood, J.P. (1869). Report on the filtration of river waters, for the supply of cities, as practiced in Europe, made by the Board of water commissioners of the city of St. Louis. Van Nostrand: New York.}

_{Kirkwood, J.P. (1870). A special report on the pollution of river waters. Arno: New York (reprint).}

_{Weston, T., Kirkwood, J.P. (1861). A report on the extent and character of the district supplying water to the city of Brooklyn. Van Nostrand: Brooklyn.}