. The Encyclopaedia Britannica; ... A dictionary of arts, sciences and general literature. ering practice. Mr Stephensonsfirst conception was that of a tube partly carried bychains. This would have practically been a suspensionbridge stiffened by a girder. Under Mr Stephensono direc- EXAMPLES.] B K I D G E S 335 tiohs, experiments and calculations on the strength andbest form of tubes were made by Mr William Fairbaim(Sir William Fairbaim) and Mr Eaton Hodgkinson. In tliocourse of the experiments it was found that the tube couldbe made self-supporting over the desired span of 460 feet;and in co
. The Encyclopaedia Britannica; ... A dictionary of arts, sciences and general literature. ering practice. Mr Stephensonsfirst conception was that of a tube partly carried bychains. This would have practically been a suspensionbridge stiffened by a girder. Under Mr Stephensono direc- EXAMPLES.] B K I D G E S 335 tiohs, experiments and calculations on the strength andbest form of tubes were made by Mr William Fairbaim(Sir William Fairbaim) and Mr Eaton Hodgkinson. In tliocourse of the experiments it was found that the tube couldbe made self-supporting over the desired span of 460 feet;and in consequence of this discovery the Conway and Menaitubular bridges were built, being the first great examplesoi properly designed girders. Some disputes arose as tothe real inventor of these bridges. Sir WiUiam Fairbaimjustly claimed the great merit of first perceiving that thegirder might be self-supporting. Mr Hodgkinson had,perhaps, the smallest part in the design, but the sharesof Fairbaim and Stephenson respectively cannot be veryrigorously apportioned; nor is this now of much conse-. FiQ. 122.—Britannia Bridge (Cross Section of Tutular Girder). quence. Bott engineers were men of extraordinary merit,and co-operated in producing the great revolution in prac-tice which has led to the adoption of the wrought irongirder as the most common typo of bridge. The firsttrain passed through the Britannia Bridge in 1850. Thefollowing description of the structure appeared in the 8theditioii of the present work. It will be seen that this de-scription is to some extent a defence of the design againstcriticisms asserting that the structure was unnecessarilyheavy and costly. It is true that a considerably lighterbridge could now be built, but some prudence in intro-ducing so great a novelty was certainly commendable. The Britannia Bridge which carries the Chester andHolyhead Railway over the Menai Straits (figs. 122 and 123,and Plate XIX. fig. 1) consists of two independent continuous wroug
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