The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-21 00:00:00

MR. ,TOSEPII LOCKE.

It was only yesterday that we were called upon
to announce to our readers the sudden and prema-
ture death of Joseph Locke, M.P. for Honiton, and
President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It
appears that he died at Moffat, on the morning of
Tuesday last, of that acute disease termed the iliac
Passion, a seizure by which is so difficult of treat-
ment and so commonly fatal. On the preceding
morning he first became aware that he was not in
his ordinary health, although he had been recruit-
ing himself at Moffat for the previous five weeks,
as his custom was at this time of year, and enjoy-
ing the shooting in Annandale, which he hadrented
for the last eight or ten years. As if sensible of his
peril, he at once sent for medical aid, and Dr.
Munro, of Moffat, with Dr, Hunter speedily reached
him, and rendered him all the professional service
in their power; but their efforts to mitigate the
pain or arrest the progress of the disease were only
partially successful. The seizure took a rapid and
fatal course, and a little after 8 o'c!ock on Tuesday
he died,—as we said above, prematurely as well as
suddenly, for he was not yet 55 years of age, having
been born in 1805.

-It is, indeed, not a little remarkable that his death
should follow so suddenly upon those of Stephenson
and Brunel, to whose position it may be said he was
legitimate heir, as the remaining chief of the engi-
neering world. Whatever difficulty there may be
now in assigning pre-eminence to those who survive,
the civil engineers had agreed in according priority
to Locke, who succeeded Robert Stephenson as the
President of their Institution. This position was un-
questionably his due as the chief representative of
the Stephenson school, Locke having been the pupil
of George Stephenson, the father, and first the co-
adjutor and afterwards the competitor of Robert
Stephenson, the son. The independent position which
he subsequently marked out for himself, and the
great works he executed either singly or in con-
junction with his partner, Mr. Errington, equally
entitle him to such notice as a contemporary memoir
renders possible. He was born, it is said, at Atter-
cliffe, near Sheffield, and educated in the Grammar-
school at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, whence he was
taken to be placed under George Stephenson at New-
castle-on-Tyne, and from him he learned the elements
of his profession. After five or six years—that is
to say, in 1826, George Stephenson became the chief
engineer of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway,
which it was now determined to commence. Joseph
Locke was engaged at once on the works of this
line, and remained actively employed upon them
until its opening on the 14th of September, 1830.
During this interval his experiments as to the right
motive power were an important contribution to
the success of this great work, and in conjunction
with the Stephensons he was inftrumental in deter-
n-ining the superior capabilities of the locomotive.
In the controversy which ensued on this critical
question Joseph Locke took a prominent part. In
conjunction with Robert Stephenson he collected the
results, which they stated. in a joint pamphlet, and
which may be said to have settled the practical ques-
etion of their time. Henceforth it was allowed, to use
the simile of their chief, that the rail and wheel were
" man and wife,': the wheel in question being the
wheel of the locomotive. Rope traction was still used
for a time in exceptional cases, and easy gradients
were at first deemed indispensable for the moving
engine. It was one of the boasts of Locke that
he subsequently adopted lines of gradient far more
steep than had ever before been held suitable for
its powers. After having joined in launching the
locomotive, he irsposed upon it its most arduous
tasks.
Shortly after the completion of the Manchester
and Liverpool line the project of a railway from its
Warrington branch to Birmingham was revived,
and this line was commenced in 1832 or 1833.
George Stephenson was at first the engineer, but
the line was eventually constructed by Locke, and
opened on the 6th of July, 1837, being then de
nated the Grand Junction. It included some heavy
works, such as the Dutton and Vale Royal Via-
ducts, and was the occasion of some improvements
in the rails and their fixing by the use of the heavy
double-headed rail and en key. But another
boast of its engineer rasats marked commercial
success, and the encouragement it afforded to the
commencement of other railways by its construc-
tion for a sum actually within the estimate, and at
a cost only of from £14,000 to £15,000 a mile.
Capital was consequently invested largely in
similar undertakings under Locke's directions, who
had thus obtained the rare reputation of being
economical engineer. The Lancaster and
Preston'-‘ellaen-
line was thus commenced in 1837, and was °D
an
in 1840, in which latter year the Sheffield and
chester line was also undertaken. Some time pre-
vious to the completion of the Grand Junction line
a railway from London to Southampton had been
also
named
m e
d engineer, commenced.
andTo thhiiss
chieflas aotetlei
tnieaisi
wasen ua
giveneventually
named engineer, and his chief atteition was given
to its works after the completion of the Grand
Junction. The first section of the line, from Nine
Elms to Woking, was opened on the 21st of May,
1838 ; and the whole main line was completed on
the 11th of May, 1840,
since which period numerous
branches have been added. Of the works en this
South-Western line the AEC heldever embanknacn.e
near Winchester, may be named as one of the prin-
cipal ; it is 90 feet in height. Economy in construc-
tion continued still to be a characteristic of Locke 's

• •
works, and a distinction which he 'strove zealously
and effectually to retain.
From Southampton it was natural that he should
turn to France, where numerous projects were sub-
sequently set on foot by him as engineer—as, for
example, the Paris and Rouen and Rouen and.
Havre lines, which he completed ; a line from Paris
to Lyons, constructed under another engineer ; and
the Caen and Cherbourg line, which was opened in
1856. For the Paris and Rouen line he received, in
1845, the decoration of the Legion of Honour from
King Louis Philippe. He also designed and super-
intended the line between Barcelona and Mattaro
in Spain, and the Dutch Rhenish Railway, of which
the final portion was completed in 1856, During
the construction of the works on the continental
lines Locke had joined with him as his coadjutor in
professional practice Mr. John Edward Errington,
and together they constructed the Lancaster and
Carlisle, the East Lancashire, the Caledonian, the
Scottish Central, the Scottish Midland, and the
Aberdeen Railways, and the Greenock Railway
and Docks. Notwithstanding the heavy works on
the Caledonian line, it was constructed, with the
platforms and roadside stations, for less than
£16,000 a mile. This economy of construction was
attained, as we have said, by the adoption of
steeper gradients, which Locke deliberately elected,
and rather from caution than audacity, sustaining
the economy of his principle, subject to some qua-
lifications, in the face of many rivals. His early
study of the locomotive engine led him to take
great interest also in the engine works which were
established at Crewe, and the " Crewe engine"—
constructed on a system by which each of the seve-
ral parts of an engine is made with mathematical
accuracy, and repeated in duplicate so as to fit in-
differently any engine—was the novel as well as
successful result.

To mark, however, the special grounds of his
reputation, we should add this :—The peculiar cha-
racteristic of Locke's career was the firmness and.
decision with which throughout all his projects he
avoided the construction of great and too costly
works. His viaducts were of ordinary dimensions,
though some of them were of admirable construc-
tion —such as those across the bold ravines of the
north of. England and Scotland. In every case
they are exactly fitted to the places they occupy ;
and in the same manner his bridges over the Thames
and the Seine are distinguished for their adaptation
to their position, the lightness and simplicity of
their construction, and the elegance of their design.
An engineer with such qualifications, and so re-
commended to shareholders by his caution and judg-
ment, united to his great talents, had naturally an
eminent career before him. In common with the
most fortunate of his profession he enjoyed golden
opportunities, and, in conjunction with Stephenson
and Brunel more particularly, he may be said to
have completed the Triumvirate of the engineering
world. He was its President, as we before men-
tioned, after Robert Stephenson's death. He was
also a Fellow of the Royal Society, and M.P. for
Honifon, which he represented continuously from
1847. He was a consistent Liberal—independent,
for he had so made himself by his own exertions,
as the architect of a large private fortune, honour-
ably and fairly acquired by his talents and by his
services to his generation.