William Blackburn
architect and surveyor; b. December 20, 1750; d. December 28, 1790.
He studied first with a surveyor and afterward entered the Royal Academy, London. He was intimately associated with John Howard, and assisted him much in his prison reform. Howard considered him the only architect capable of realizing his conception of an ideal prison. In 1782 he won a 100 guinea prize for the best design for a penitentiary. He built the county jail at Oxford, improved the jail of Newgate in Dublin, Ireland, designed the jail at Limerick, and was engaged in numerous similar undertakings when he died. Blackburn had also a considerable general practice as an architect.
Alexandre Théodore Brongniart
architect: b. February 15, 1739; d. June 6, 1813.
Brongniart was a pupil of Jacques François Blondel. He was associated with Jacques Ange Gabriel, and succeeded him as architect of the École Militaire. Brongniart'e chief work is the Bourse (Exchange), in Paris, which he designed. The first stone was laid March 24, 1808. He completed only the basement.
Thomas Telford
engineer; b. August 9, 1757 (in Scotland); d. September 2, 1834.
He was apprenticed to a stone mason, and in 1780 went to Edinburgh. After 1782 he was employed on Somerset House in London. Between 1795 and 1805 he constructed the Ellesmere canal, with its great aqueduct, and between 1773 and 1823 the Caledonian canal in Scotland. He made the roads in the highlands of Scotland, with about twelve hundred bridges. His name is associated with a peculiar form of pavement for roads.
Wyatt, Samuel
architect; b. September 8, 1737; d. February 8, 1807.
An elder brother of James Wyatt. In 1782 he was employed at Somerset House, London, under Sir William Chambers. He built numerous residences in England, and March 5, 1792, he was appointed clerk of the works at Chelsea hospital (London).
| |
| |
|