William Jeremiah Hall
William Jeremiah Hall (1851-1889)
1890 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM JEREMIAH HALL, the eldest son of Mr. Ambrose Hall, J.P., Limerick, was born on 17th July 1851.
He studied engineering in Queen's College, Cork, and in 1873 received the degree of Bachelor in Civil Engineering at the Queen's University in Ireland.
During his apprenticeship to Mr. John Long, Harbour Engineer, Limerick, he assisted in the building of the graving dock for the accommodation of large sea-going vessels, and other works in connection with the port and harbour of Limerick.
Afterwards he became assistant to [William Barrington|Mr. William Barrington]], under whom he was engaged in surveying for contract plans about 10 miles of the Limerick and Kerry Railway, and also on the Mulcair drainage and other general works.
On Mr. Long's retirement in 1877 he was elected Limerick Harbour Engineer, which position he held till his death.
Amongst the works on which he was engaged were included the deepening of the entrance to the floating dock and the erection of new steel dock gates, and improvements in the buoying and lighting of the river Shannon. By order of the harbour commissioners he prepared designs, plans and estimates for the following projected works:— extension of the floating dock and construction of new entrance; construction of central pier for floating dock; removal of Cock rock and Waller's bank in the Shannon; deepening the Shannon from Limerick to Grass Island; construction of Coonagh Canal; and erection of pier at Foynes harbour.
Whilst superintending the rebuilding of the north wall of the floating dock he was attacked by typhoid fever, which caused his death on 21st May 1890, in the thirty-ninth year of his age.
He published a directory of Limerick harbour, and contributed two papers to the Institution of Civil Engineers, on the new steel dock gates of Limerick floating dock (Proceedings 1889, vol. xcvii, page 335), and on rebuilding the wall of Limerick floating dock.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1886.
1890 Obituary [2]
. . . . He studied at Queen’s University, Ireland, from 1870 to 1873, and obtained the diploma of Civil Engineer in June, 1873, and the degree of B.E. in October of the same year, together with the triple first prize in Engineering.
In December 1873 he became Assistant to W. Barrington, M. Inst. C.E., and remained with him for three years, having the Superintendence of the Mulkear Drainage Works, which cost nearly £5O,COO, and the making of contract-surveys and plans for the Limerick and Kerry Railway. During the same period Mr. Hall was also engaged in work on his own account, and after leaving Mr. Barrington was appointed, in January, i877, Harbour Engineer at Limerick. Under his superintendence many important works were carried out, including extensive subaqueous rock excavating, the deepening of the channel and erection of lighthouses, and other heavy operations for improving the navigation of the River Shannon.
The steel cellular gates of the Limerick Floating Dock, designed in 1852 by Robert Mallet, having become damaged to such an extent as to necessitate their removal, Mr. Hall decided upon constructing a new pair of gates on a somewhat modified plan, a description of which was communicated by him to the Institution.
He acted as Consulting Engineer to the Limerick Waterworks from October 1880 to April 1883, . . . [more]