William Anderson (engineer) facts for kids

Sir William Anderson (born 5 January 1835 in Saint Petersburg, Russia – died 11 December 1898 in Woolwich Arsenal, England) was a talented English engineer. He also held an important job as the director-general of the Ordnance Factories from 1889 to 1898. This meant he was in charge of places that made weapons and equipment for the British army.

William's Early Life and Learning

William Anderson was the fourth son of John Anderson, a banker and merchant. William grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He went to a special high school there for business. He was very good at his studies and even won a silver medal. Even though he was English, he was given the "freedom of the city" because he was so smart. When he left Russia in 1849, he could speak four languages: English, Russian, German, and French!

In 1849, William moved to London and studied at King's College, London. After that, he trained as an engineer with Sir William Fairbairn in Manchester for three years. In 1855, he joined a company called Courtney, Stephens, & Co. in Dublin, Ireland. There, he worked on many different engineering projects. He designed several types of cranes and was the first to use a special strong design for them. In 1863, he became the leader of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland.

William's Amazing Engineering Career

In 1864, William joined a company called Easton and Amos. They decided to build new workshops by the river in Erith, England. William became a partner and later the head of the company, which was then called Easton and Anderson. He was in charge of designing and setting up these new workshops. His company also built machines that pumped water. William made big improvements to a type of pump called a centrifugal pump.

While in Erith, William also cared a lot about local schools. He worked on the Erith School Board for 27 years and was its chairman from 1886 until he passed away. He was also involved with local churches.

Building Sugar Mills in Egypt

In 1870, William traveled to Egypt. He went there to build three sugar mills for the ruler, Khedive Ismail. William had helped design these mills. In 1872, he wrote about the sugar factory at Aba-el-Wakf for the Institution of Civil Engineers. For this important work, he received two special awards: a Watt medal and a Telford premium.

Designing Gun Mountings

William then started working on special stands for large guns, called gun mountings. These were of the Moncrieff type, which could hide the gun after it fired. He designed several of these for the British government. In 1876, he designed mountings for very heavy 40-ton guns for the Russian navy. These were very successful. Later, he designed similar ones for even bigger 50-ton guns. Around 1888, he designed the gun mountings for the British battleship HMS Rupert.

Waterworks for Cities

Around 1878 to 1882, William worked on big projects to bring water to the cities of Antwerp in Belgium and Seville in Spain. The river in Antwerp, the Nethe, was not clean enough to drink. So, William, working with Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, invented a special spinning iron machine to clean the water. It worked perfectly! He wrote a paper about the Antwerp Waterworks for the Institution of Civil Engineers and received another Telford Medal and premium.

Leading the Ordnance Factories

Around 1888, the War Office asked William to design machines to make a new smokeless explosive called cordite. But before he could finish, he was appointed director-general of the ordnance factories on 11 August 1889. This was a very important job, mostly at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. This new role meant he couldn't continue working on the cordite machines, so his oldest son took over that task. William made many improvements at the Arsenal, making it run better and saving money.

In the 1890s, William continued his interest in education. He became a trustee for the new Woolwich Polytechnic. He was part of its governing body in 1893 and later represented the War Department on its board. He was also involved with the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society.

William wrote many papers for scientific groups and gave many talks about science. His lectures on how heat turns into work were published in a book in 1887.

Awards and Recognition

William Anderson was recognized for his great work.

• He became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1869. He later became a council member and then a vice-president.
• He was also president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1892 and 1893.
• In 1889, he received an honorary degree (D.C.L.) from Durham University.
• On 4 June 1891, he was chosen as a fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists.
• He was also a vice-president of the Society of Arts and a member of many other important groups.
• In 1895, he was given the honor of CB, and in 1897, he became K.C.B., which meant he was knighted and could be called "Sir."

William's Family Life

William married Emma Eliza Brown on 11 November 1856. They had at least two sons and one daughter. He lived in a house called Lesney House in Erith. William passed away in Woolwich in 1898. He was buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Erith, where a monument was built to remember him. Workers from the Woolwich Arsenal carried his coffin, and it was taken by a special train to Erith. There, workers from the Erith Iron Works carried the coffin from the train to the hearse.