Thomas Dyne Steel
Thomas Dyne Steel (1822-1898)
1840 Thomas Steel of Abergavenny, studying civil engineering, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[1]
1858 Petition for adjudication of Bankruptcy, filed on the 21st day of July, 1858, against John Hughes and Thomas Dyne Steel, of the town of Newport, in the county of Monmouth, Engineers and Boiler Makers, and Copartners, carrying on business under the style or firm of the Usk Side Iron Co[2]
1879 Dissolution of the Partnership between Richard Tangye, George Tangye, and Thomas Dyne Steel, under the firm of Tangye Brothers and Steel, at Newport, Monmouthshire, and at Swansea, as Engineers. All debts and demands owing to or by the said firm will be received and paid in due course by Tangye Brothers. Mr. Steel carried on the business on his own account.[3]
LLANEDARNE NEW IRON BRIDGE. The new bridge across the river Rhymney, between Llanedarne [Llanedeyrn] and St Mellons, was completed and opened for traffic a few days ago. It replaces the old wood bridge, which had become dangerous owing to decay. The new bridge is of iron, designed by Mr Dyne Steel, C.E., of Newport, and constructed under his superintendence. It is in one span of 70 feet, resting on handsome abutments of stone. The main girders are seven feet deep and cross girders two feet deep, upon which is rivetted a plate-iron floor of great strength, covered with asphalte and road metal. The roadway is 15 ft wide in the clear. The excavations for the abutments were taken out to a depth of eight feet below the low water level. Concrete four feet thick was put in to form the bottom bed, and upon this the abutment was carried up in block courses of stone from Maesycwmmer quarries. The parapets and cap storeys (from the Forest of Dean) make a good contrast with the native stone in the walls. The excavations were kept dry by a "Special" steam pump very efficiently while the foundations were laid, and the abutments and wing walls were being carried up above flood level. The bridge was constructed for the Newport and Llandaff Highway Boards at their joint expense, and under the inspection of the surveyors of the respective boards- Mr Davies and Mr Price. Messrs Tangye Bros. and Steel were the contractors for the whole of the works, and Messrs Bailey and Phillips, of Abercarne, constructed the masonry. The work is substantial and strong, and appears to give general satisfaction.'[4]
1898 Obituary [5]
THOMAS DYNE STEEL was born at Abergavenny in November, 1822, his father being a well-known medical man in large practice in the counties of Monmouth and Brecon. The subject of this notice was educated at the private school of the Rev. D. Davies, Hall Green, near Birmingham, and subsequently at King’s College, London.
In January, 1839, he was articled for five years to Mr. James Meadows Rendel, Past-President, and saw varied and extensive practice under that gentleman on railways, docks, harbours, and floating bridges for Portsmouth and Calcutta. He was also engaged with Mr. Nathaniel Beardmore on railway surveys in Devonshire, Cornwall and Norfolk.
Having completed his term of pupilage, he was employed on railway surveys and drainage works in Norfolk, on the Newport and Pontypool Railway, the Great Western Railway, the Cornwall, South Devon, Somerset and Dorset, and other lines. He was a rapid and expert leveller, and in 1845 he had sole charge of 150 miles of railway Parliamentary surveys, and worked with such zeal and energy- on one occasion night and day without taking his clothes off for more than a week-that his health broke down, and he was ordered abroad and passed some months in Turkey and the Levant. On his return from Constantinople and the Black Sea Mr. Steel was engaged on railway work in Devon and Cornwall.
On the completion of that engagement, having for some years previously turned his attention to mining pursuits, he accepted in 1848 the appointment of Assistant Manager and Engineer at the Blaenavon Iron Works, and Manager of the Blaenavon Company’s Sale Coal Collieries. He effected great improvements at Blaenavon, altering the cast-iron tramways, worked by horses, into wrought-iron loco-motive roads, designing and superintending the construction of the first locomotive engine at those works, and conveying it by road from Newport, via Abergavenny, as at that time there was only a horse tramway from Blaenavon to Pontypool, and a canal beyond. The saving in horses when a second engine was set to work was very great, and Mr. Steel was engaged on similar transformations at neighbouring works and converted the Llangattock tramway from Brynmawr to Llangattock into a locomotive road. He constructed a double engine incline across the hill from Blaenavon to convey minerals to Glandennis Forge, and coals to Hereford and North Monmouthshire. Each plane was mile long, laid on 4-foot 8.5-inch gauge, upon which worked four carriages, each conveying four trams of coal, the whole being worked by an engine at the summit by wire ropes. It was very successful, until in due time the forge and mill were removed to Blaenavon and a new route opened, via Pontypool. He also constructed a branch railway and incline from the Blaenavon Works to the Monmouthshire Eastern Valleys Railway to accommodate this traffic, and other engineering works in the neighbourhood.
In the year 1853 Mr. Steel was induced to give up his appointment at Blaenavon to become a partner in an engineering and boiler works at Newport, Mon., and for about six years he was there engaged in the construction of engines, boilers, pumps, iron bridges and piers; and he, with his partner, erected a large number of colliery engines and other machinery in the South Wales district. The first pair of direct-acting winding engines erected in Wales was constructed by the firm for Nr. Thomas Powell at the Lower Duffryn Colliery, Mountain Ash.
On the 1st January, 1859, Mr. Steel relinquished the engineering works to become manager and viewer of the Tillery Collieries, Abertillery, which post he held for several years, at the same time acting as agent and viewer to Nr. Crawshay Bailey. He was also agent and viewer of the Green Meadow mineral property belonging to Mr. J. L. Stothert and was frequently consulted on mining matters in the district.
About the year 1865 Mr. Steel commenced to practise as a Civil and Mining Engineer at Newport, Mon., making iron bridges and roofs a speciality. He designed and constructed the Abergavenny Cattle Market. He was engineer of, and carried through Parliament, the Blaenavon and Pontypool Railway, which subsequently passed by purchase into the hands of the London and North- Western Railway Company. He made the Parliamentary surveys of the Newport and Hereford Railway, and the Abergavenny, Brynmawr and Merthyr Railway.
In 1865 he was commissioned by the magistrates of the county of Monmouth to widen and improve Newport Bridge, and the work was carried out from his designs at a remarkably small cost. In 1870 his design for the New Leeds Bridge was adopted by the Town Council of Leeds, and Mr. Steel was subsequently instructed to carry out the work, Mr. W. H. Barlow, Past-President, being the Consulting Engineer.
In 1873 Mr. Steel laid and opened successfully the Newport tramways, of which he was Managing Director for some years. Mr. Steel had considerable practice as a gas engineer; he designed and constructed gasworks at Brynmawr and Blaina, Abertillery, Abercarn, Cwmbran, Caerleon, Aberavon and other places. Among other works carried out by him were the reconstruction and widening of Fisherton Bridge, Salisbury, for the Corporation of that city; a steel bridge across the Wye at Glasbury for the county of Brecon ; several highway bridges in Wales ; and water- works at Crumlin, Newbridge, Abercarn, Abertillery and Usk, in the county of Monmouth, and for the Blaenavon Local Board. He was frequently called upon to give evidence before Parliamentary Committees and at arbitrations and trials on difficult cases. He also constructed large iron roofs for the Dowlais Company, and at Blaenavon, Ebbw Vale, Tredegar and the principal works in South Wales and Monmouthshire, with numerous pit-head roofs at collieries in South Wales and other parts of the kingdom. One of his recent works was a platform covering in steel for the Great Western Railway Company at Newport Station.
In 1871 Mr. Steel was elected President of the South Wales Institute of Engineers, and held that position for two years. Mr. Steel died at his residence at Newport, Non., on the 18th June, 1898, at the age of 76. He was elected a Graduate on the 17th March, 1840, and a Member on the 24th May, 1864.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1840 Institution of Civil Engineers
- ↑ The London Gazette 14 February 1860
- ↑ London Gazette 9 September 1879
- ↑ Star of Gwent - Friday 15 August 1879
- ↑ 1898 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries