death_date death_place years_active birth_place honorific_suffix birth_date known_for article_title name occupation death_cause
30 may 1866 westminster , london 1821 -- 1866 gravesend , kent , england frs 14 july 1806 thames eastern railway to dover , dumpy level , bristol and tunnel exeter railway , craig telescope , difference engine , calder and hebble navigation , south william gravatt
 william gravatt mechanical and civil engineer accidental death : poisoned with morphine
william gravatt

william gravatt frs -lrb- 14 july 1806 -- 30 may 1866 -rrb- , was a noted english civil engineer and scientific instrument maker .
apprenticed as a mechanical engineer in london from aged 15 , after interview he worked with sir marc isambard brunel on the thames tunnel , and then designed bridges for the calder and hebble navigation .
whilst surveying the route for the south eastern railway to dover , he devised the more transportable dumpy level , which is now universally employed .
he then supervised the northern engineering team under isambard kingdom brunel on the bristol and exeter railway , where the deployment of his `` curve of sines '' theorem speeded construction .
dismissed from the project in 1841 , after losing money during the railway mania period , gravatt helped to construct both the craig telescope and a copy of the difference machine , distinguishing himself in a number of papers submitted to the institute of civil engineers .
he died after being accidentally poisoned by an over dose of morphine by his nurse .
