page_title: Asa Binns
section_title: London docks work
hierarchical_section_title: Asa Binns / London docks work
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Royal Albert dock
context_page_description: Asa Binns was a British mechanical and civil engineer. He trained with hydraulic pump and engine makers before becoming a draughtsman. Binns worked for a period at HMS Chatham Dockyard and rose to become head of their civil engineering works. He later worked on the construction of several major docks in London, including for the Port of London Authority. Binns served as president of the Institution of Engineers-in-Charge and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1946 but died before he could take office.
context_section_description: Binns left the admiralty and was appointed resident engineer for the works at London Docks and St Katharine Docks in 1906.  He worked for the Port of London Authority (PLA, established 1909) from 1910 as resident engineer at the Surrey Commercial Docks from 1910 and the £2 million Royal Albert Dock southern extension from 1912.  Binns was elected a member of the ICE on 21 January 1913 and in 1914 sat on the IMechE's refrigeration committee, which met to establish new standards for measuring the efficiency of refrigeration machines.  He worked on the construction of the King George V Dock which was completed in 1921 and was awarded the IMechE's George Stephenson Gold Medal for a paper on the project.
  Binns was appointed a major in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, a volunteer unit providing advice to the British Army, on 25 July 1925 and later rose to lieutenant-colonel.  He was appointed chief engineer to the PLA in 1928 and was elected to the council of the ICE in 1932.  Binns served as president of the Institution of Engineers-in-Charge for the 1936–37 session.  He retired from the PLA in 1938, entering private practice with the engineering design firm Rendel, Palmer and Tritton, though he continued to work for the PLA on a consultancy basis.
caption: Map showing the Royal Albert Dock southern extension
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}