Forensic engineering: A reappraisal of the Tay Bridge disaster

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

Volumn 27, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 287-298

  Lewis, Peter R ^a   Reynolds, Ken ^a,b  

^a OPEN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b The Old Dairy   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0042920624     PISSN: 03080188     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/030801802225005725     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. The example comes from Open University course T351, 'Failure of stressed materials', first presented in 1976.
2. Open University course T839. 'Forensic engineering', first presented in 2000, is part of an MSc programme in manufacturing. It currently attracts about a hundred mature students per year in two presentations. The course comprises written text and video programmes, one of which was recorded in 2001 and deals with the Tay Bridge disaster. It is very similar to a publicly broadcast TV programme associated with an undergraduate engineering course (T173, 'Engineering the future). There is an related website on the Tay Bridge disaster at www open2.net/forensic_engineering. The only other postgraduate course in the UK with a forensic engineering component is Cranfield University's MSc in Forensic Engineering and Science, which attracts about twenty students a year.
3. Such papers include P. R. LEWIS and G. WEIDMANN: 'Failure of a polypropylene tank'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 1999, 6, 197-232; P. R. LEWIS: 'Degradation of an acetal plumbing fitting by chlorine', Proc. ANTEC, Orlando, FL, USA, 2000; and C. R. GAGG: 'Failure'of stainless steel water pump couplings'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 2001, 8, 189-199.
4. Such papers include P. R. LEWIS and G. WEIDMANN: 'Failure of a polypropylene tank'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 1999, 6, 197-232; P. R. LEWIS: 'Degradation of an acetal plumbing fitting by chlorine', Proc. ANTEC, Orlando, FL, USA, 2000; and C. R. GAGG: 'Failure'of stainless steel water pump couplings'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 2001, 8, 189-199.
5. Such papers include P. R. LEWIS and G. WEIDMANN: 'Failure of a polypropylene tank'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 1999, 6, 197-232; P. R. LEWIS: 'Degradation of an acetal plumbing fitting by chlorine', Proc. ANTEC, Orlando, FL, USA, 2000; and C. R. GAGG: 'Failure'of stainless steel water pump couplings'. Engineering Failure Analysis, 2001, 8, 189-199.
6. W. DOW: 'The riddle of the Tay Bridge disaster', BBC TV programme for Open University course T173, 'Engineerine the future' (2001).
7. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry, and report of Mr Rothery upon the circumstances attending the tall of a portion of the Tay Bridge on the 28th December, 1879' Parliamentary Papers, 1880, LIX.
8. JOHN PREBBLE: 'The high girders'; 1955. Harmondsworth, Penguin.
9. JOHN THOMAS: 'The Tay Bridge disaster: new light on the 1879 tragedy': 1972. Newton Abbot, David & Charles.
10. DAVID SWINFEN: 'The fall of the Tay Bridge': 1994, Edinburgh, Mercat Press.
11. D. R. H. JONES: 'Engineering materials 3: materials failure analysis', chaps. 27, 28; 1993, Oxford, Pergamon.
12. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry, and report of Mr Rothery' (see Note 5).
13. T. MARTIN and I. MACLEOD: 'The Tay Bridge disaster: a reappraisal based on modern analysis methods, Proceeding of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 1995, 108, 77-83; more details of their method of analysis are given in 'Developments in structural engineering: Forth Rail Bridge centenary conference'; 1990, London, Spon.
14. T. MARTIN and I. MACLEOD: 'The Tay Bridge disaster: a reappraisal based on modern analysis methods, Proceeding of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 1995, 108, 77-83; more details of their method of analysis are given in 'Developments in structural engineering: Forth Rail Bridge centenary conference'; 1990, London, Spon.
15. W. DOW: 'The riddle of the Tay Bridge disaster (see Note 4).
16. Following local publicity about our work, we received information that a cast iron column from the old Tay Bridge survived in a back garden near the site of the bridge in Fife. We and coworkers at Leicester university have examined a sample from this column, which shows a graphitic structure with few gas voids within the wall. The inner surface appears to show traces of Portland cement, whilst the outer has been painted with red lead. John Thomas states in his book (see Note 7) that red lead rather than whitewash was chosen for the painting in the summer of 1879. Pending direct inspection, the column therefore appears to be genuine.
17. Kirkaldy's London workshop at 99 Southwark Street is now run as a museum (the Kirkaldy Testing Museum, open by appointment). Operation of the tensometer was demonstrated on the BBC TV programme 'Local Heroes' (16 May 2000): the presenter. Adam Hart-Davis, included a superficial explanation of the Tay Bridge disaster using a hair dryer and a bridge of building blocks.
18. The suggestion was made during the inquiry from observation of many bent bolts on the pier platforms, and was repeated in W. G. KIRKALDY: 'Illustrations of David Kirkaldy's system of mechanical testing', 283-296; 1891, London, Sampson Low.
19. A shim is a thin strip of material used in structures, machinery, etc. to make loose parts fit; a cotter is a tapered wedge designed to secure part of a structure.
20. 'North British Railway, Tay Bridge: a report by Maj-Gen Hutchinson, March 5th, 1878', Parliamentary Papers, 1878, LIX.
21. DAVID SWINFEN: The fall of the Tay Bridge' (see Note 8).
22. JOHN THOMAS: 'The Tay Bridge disaster' (see Note 7).
23. C. E. INGLIS: 'A mathematical treatise on vibrations in railway bridges'; 1934, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
24. A direct connection was made by the public, perhaps because he was blamed so personally by the inquiry. Whilst the link cannot be proved, particularly as Bouch had suffered various bouts of illness through the latter part of his life, it cannot have been pleasant to have been so publicly rebuked by the inquiry and Parliament, and to suffer the indignity of seeing all his other bridges inspected for defects (some were reinforced, some demolished altogether), as well as losing the Forth Bridge contract.
25. M. MCCULLOUGH: 'The great bridge'; 1982, New York, NY, Simon & Schuster.
26. The plans of the Belah bridge are kept in the Public Record Office at Kew.
27. D. BECKETT: 'Bridges'; 1969, London, Hamlyn.
28. 'Report of the Committee appointed to consider the question of wind pressure on railway structures'; 1881, London, HMSO. Apart from his work on wind, Stokes will also be remembered for his famous law on the movement of spheres through viscous fluids.
29. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the accident on the Great Western Railway at Shipton-on-Cherwell on the 24th December, 1874'; 1875, London, HMSO (also published in Parliamentary Papers, 1875, LXVII, 297) and 'Report to the Commissioners for Railways by Mr Walker and Captain Simmons RN on the fatal accident on the 24th day of May 1847, by the falling of the bridge over the River Dee, on the Chester and Holyhead Railway', June 1847 (also in Parliamentary Papers. 1847, LXIII, 186).
30. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the accident on the Great Western Railway at Shipton-on-Cherwell on the 24th December, 1874'; 1875, London, HMSO (also published in Parliamentary Papers, 1875, LXVII, 297) and 'Report to the Commissioners for Railways by Mr Walker and Captain Simmons RN on the fatal accident on the 24th day of May 1847, by the falling of the bridge over the River Dee, on the Chester and Holyhead Railway', June 1847 (also in Parliamentary Papers. 1847, LXIII, 186).
31. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the accident on the Great Western Railway at Shipton-on-Cherwell on the 24th December, 1874'; 1875, London, HMSO (also published in Parliamentary Papers, 1875, LXVII, 297) and 'Report to the Commissioners for Railways by Mr Walker and Captain Simmons RN on the fatal accident on the 24th day of May 1847, by the falling of the bridge over the River Dee, on the Chester and Holyhead Railway', June 1847 (also in Parliamentary Papers. 1847, LXIII, 186).
32. 'Report of the Court of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the accident on the Great Western Railway at Shipton-on-Cherwell on the 24th December, 1874'; 1875, London, HMSO (also published in Parliamentary Papers, 1875, LXVII, 297) and 'Report to the Commissioners for Railways by Mr Walker and Captain Simmons RN on the fatal accident on the 24th day of May 1847, by the falling of the bridge over the River Dee, on the Chester and Holyhead Railway', June 1847 (also in Parliamentary Papers. 1847, LXIII, 186).
33. The story is told in L. T. C. Rolt's classic book 'Red for danger' (1955, London, John Lane Bodies Head), with some more details in the same author's 'George and Robert Stephenson'; 1960, London, Longman.
34. The story is told in L. T. C. Rolt's classic book 'Red for danger' (1955, London, John Lane Bodies Head), with some more details in the same author's 'George and Robert Stephenson'; 1960, London, Longman.
35. Interim recommendations have been published by the UK Health and Safety Executive at www.hse.gov.uk railway/hatfield investigation bl.pdf. Four people died and seventy were injured in the derailment.
36. Information about the crash is at www.hse.gov.uk railway/pottersbar/index.htm. On this occasion seven people died and seventy-six were injured, many seriously.