Edward Duncan Stoney
Edward Duncan Stoney (1868-1898).
1868 July 31st. born the only son of Francis Goold Morony Stoney.
1889 Worked for Ransomes and Rapier and took charge of the Weaver sluices, Manchester Ship Canal on their behalf.
1894 Elected Associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Died shortly after his father of pleurisy at age 29.
1898 Obituary [1]
We are sorry to have to announce the death of Mr. Edward Duncan Stoney, which has quickly followed that of his father, Francis G. M. Stoney, of Ipswich. Edward Duncan Stoney was an only son.
He matriculated in 1886 at the Central Institution, South Kensington, of the City and Guilds of London, and after a three years' course under Professor Unwin, obtained the diploma of the Institute in 1889.
In July of that year be entered the service of Messrs. Ransomes and Rapier, and took charge of the erection of the ironwork of the Weaver Sluices, Manchester ship Canal, for which work the firm were contractors.
The following year he was entrusted by the contractors with charge of all sluice erection work on the Manchester Ship Canal, representing about £100,000 worth of work. This work necessitated an intimate knowledge of the manufacture as carried on in the shops. A method of calculating the position and loading of the beams in sluices was devised by Mr. Duncan toney, and adopted by Messrs. Ransomes and Rapier, and has since been used exclusively by them. An account of this method will be found in THE ENGINEER for September 9th, 1891.
In the summer of 1892 he was appointed engineer to the new bridge and sluices on the Thames at Richmond.
After the completion of this work in the summer of 1894 he was principally at Messrs. Ransomes and Rapier's works at Ipswich, but still supervised all erection.
In December, 1894, he was elected an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
In the autumn of 184 he prepared plans and estimates - by evening work in addition to the ordinary work of the firm - and sent them in for a competition for the improvement of the river Parrett from the sea to the town of Bridgwater, and the first prize of 100 guineas was awarded him for a ship canal scheme, as stated in THE ENGINEER of November, 1895.
Since that time Mr. Stoney has been employed on the design of the sluices for the river Clyde, and since the death of his father in August, 1897, has been in sole charge of all sluice design Messrs. Ransomes and Rapier.
He leaves a number of original designs, some completed, and a large number of papers on original research in various branches of science. His death, at the age of twenty-nine, is a loss to many outside his family circle. He was one of those men, full of promise, whom the world can so badly spare. It is to be feared that overwork is largely accountable for his death, the immediate cause of which was pleurisy.
1898 Obituary [2]