Henry Hinde Edwards
Henry Hinde Edwards (1800-1861)
1863 Obituary [1]
MR. HENRY HINDE EDWARDS was born at Plymouth in November, 1800.
His father, who was a practical Engineer and steam-engine builder, perceiving that there would be a good opening on the Continent, sent his son, in 1814, to complete his education in France, and he some time afterwards followed and settled in Paris, where he eventually became the partner of Monsieur Casimir Perier at Chaillot, and took his son into the works, of which, in 1829, Henry Hinde Edwards became the managing partner, as successor of his father, in the firm of Perier, Edwards, Chaper, and Co.
The establishment, following closely after that of Messrs. Manby, Wilson, and Co. at Charenton, founded in 1820, became important in the history of mechanical engineering in France, and from thence there were produced large numbers of the double cylinder, high and low pressure engines, on Wolf's system, which are now so generally used on the Continent.
Mr. Edwards also gave valuable aid in numerous establishments for mining, pumping water, grinding corn, &c., and displayed considerable mechanical ingenuity and skill. Among other works, he built, under the direction of Monsieur Polonceau, the cast-iron bridge across the Seine, called the Pont du Carrousel.
During the period of the political crisis, when all industrial undertakings were brought to a standstill, Mr. Edwards returned to England, whence he was eventually summoned to take charge of the Locomotive and Rolling Stock Department of the Eastern (Strasbourg) Railway, duties which he performed with undoubted skill and rare conscientiousness.
He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers, as a Member, in the month of December, 1855, but his residence abroad precluded his paying frequent visits during the Sessions.
He was also a Member of the Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de Paris, amongst whose members he, at his decease on the 13th February, 1861, at the age of sixty-one years, left many friends who sincerely regard his memory as that of a modest and honest man who had done good service in his particular sphere.