John Baker, Baron Baker facts for kids

John Fleetwood Baker, also known as Baron Baker, was a brilliant British scientist and structural engineer. He was born on March 19, 1901, and passed away on September 9, 1985. He is famous for creating the Morrison shelter during World War II. He also developed a new way to design steel structures called plastic theory. This theory made buildings safer and stronger.

John Baker's Early Life

John Baker was born in Liscard, a town in Cheshire, England. His parents were J.W. Baker and Emily Fleetwood. He went to school at Rossall School. Later, he studied at Clare College, Cambridge, a famous university. In 1928, he married Fiona Mary MacAlister Walker.

Building a Career in Engineering

After finishing his studies, Baker started working for the Air Ministry. He helped solve problems with the structures of airships. In 1929, when he was 28, he became ill with tuberculosis.

After he recovered, he joined the Structural Steel Research Committee. This group was trying to understand why real-life stress on steel structures was different from what theories predicted. During this time, he came up with his amazing plastic theory of design.

What is Plastic Theory?

Before Baker's work, engineers designed steel structures using elastic theory. This method was good, but it didn't always show how strong a building truly was. Baker's plastic theory was a new, revolutionary way to design steel structures. It helped engineers figure out the lowest possible weight a structure could hold before it collapsed. This made designs much safer. In 1932, he won the Telford Gold Medal for his important work. This is a very high award from the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Helping During World War II

In 1933, Baker became a Professor of Engineering at Bristol University. When World War II started in 1939, he became a special advisor. He worked for the Ministry of Home Security.

During the war, he used his plastic theory to create something very important: the Morrison shelter. This was an indoor shelter designed to protect families during air raids. For his great work, he was given the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1941.

Leading at Cambridge University

From 1943 to 1968, Baker was a Professor and Head of Department at the Cambridge University Engineering Department. Under his leadership, the department grew a lot. The number of teachers went from 24 to 111! He used the famous Forth rail bridge as an example to teach his students about structural design.

His plastic theory was even used to design a new building for the department. This building, called the Baker Building, was the first in the world designed using this method.

Awards and Recognition

In 1956, John Baker was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a huge honor for scientists. He also received their Royal Medal in 1970. In 1961, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight. This meant he was now called "Sir John Baker."

In 1963, he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh. Later, in 1977, he was given the title of Baron Baker. This made him a life peer, which is a special title in the British Parliament.

The Morrison Shelter: A Smart Design

The Morrison shelter was a brilliant invention. It was designed to protect people inside their homes during bombings. It was not meant to stop a direct bomb hit. Instead, it was designed to save lives if a house partly collapsed.

Baker studied bombed buildings. He noticed that often, one wall of a house would be blown away. Then, the floor above would fall down, trapping people. The Morrison shelter was built to withstand this falling floor.

The shelter used plastic deformation to absorb the energy of the falling debris. This means it would bend and change shape, but not break. This bending could absorb much more energy than if it stayed stiff. The shelter was also practical. Families could sleep inside it at night. During the day, they could use it as a dining table. This made it a useful piece of furniture in their homes.

John Baker's Books

John Baker wrote several important books about engineering and structures. These books helped share his ideas with other engineers and students.

• The Analysis of Engineering Structures (1937)
• The Plastic Design of Frames (1969)
• Enterprise versus Bureaucracy: The Development of Structural Air-Raid Precautions during the 2nd World War (1978)
• The Steel Skeleton (two volumes)

Images for kids

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  A couple demonstrating the use of a Morrison shelter

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  A Morrison shelter containing a dummy, after the house it was in had been destroyed as a test