Joseph Locke | |
---|---|
Born | 9 August 1805 Attercliffe, Sheffield, Yorkshire |
Died | 18 September 1860 | (aged 55)
Occupation | Engineer |
Engineering career | |
Discipline | Civil engineer |
Significant advance | Railway |
Joseph Locke FRSA (9 August 1805 – 18 September 1860) was a notable English civil engineer of the nineteenth century, particularly associated with railway projects. Locke ranked alongside Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel as one of the major pioneers of railway development.
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Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER"
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Transcription
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This is a course about Justice and we begin
with a story
suppose you're the driver of a trolley car,
and your trolley car is hurdling down
the track at sixty miles an hour
and at the end of the track you notice
five workers working on the track
you tried to stop but you can't
your brakes don't work
you feel desperate because you know
that if you crash into these five workers
they will all die
let's assume you know that for sure
and so you feel helpless
until you notice that there is
off to the right
a side track
at the end of that track
there's one worker
working on track
you're steering wheel works
so you can
turn the trolley car if you want to
onto this side track
killing the one
but sparing the five.
Here's our first question
what's the right thing to do?
What would you do?
Let's take a poll,
how many
would turn the trolley car onto the side track?
How many wouldn't?
How many would go straight ahead
keep your hands up, those of you who'd go straight
ahead.
A handful of people would, the vast majority
would turn
let's hear first
now we need to begin to investigate the reasons
why you think
it's the right thing to do. Let's begin with
those in the majority, who would turn
to go onto side track?
Why would you do it,
what would be your reason?
Who's willing to volunteer a reason?
Go ahead, stand up.
Because it can't be right to kill five people
when you can only kill one person instead.
it wouldn't be right to kill five
if you could kill one person instead
that's a good reason
that's a good reason
who else?
does everybody agree with that
reason? go ahead.
Well I was thinking it was the same reason it was on
9/11 we regard the people who flew the plane
who flew the plane into the
Pennsylvania field as heroes
because they chose to kill the people on the
plane
and not kill more people
in big buildings.
So the principle there was the same on 9/11
it's tragic circumstance,
but better to kill one so that five can
live
is that the reason most of you have, those
of you who would turn, yes?
Let's hear now
from
those in the minority
those who wouldn't turn.
Well I think that same type of mentality that
justifies genocide and totalitarianism
in order to save one type of race you
wipe out the other.
so what would you do in this case? You would
to avoid
the horrors of genocide
you would crash into the five and kill them?
Presumably yes.
okay who else?
That's a brave answer, thank you.
Let's consider another
trolley car case
and see
whether
those of you in the majority
want to adhere to the principle,
better that one should die so that five
should live.
This time you're not the driver of the trolley
car, you're an onlooker
standing on a bridge overlooking a trolley car track
and down the track comes a trolley car
at the end of the track are five workers
the brakes don't work
the trolley car is about to careen into the
five and kill them
and now
you're not the driver
you really feel helpless
until you notice
standing next to you
leaning over
the bridge
is it very fat man.
And you could
give him a shove
he would fall over the bridge
onto the track
right in the way of
the trolley car
he would die
but he would spare the five.
Now, how many would push
the fat man over the bridge? Raise your hand.
How many wouldn't?
Most people wouldn't.
Here's the obvious question,
what became
of the principle
better to save five lives even if it means
sacrificing one, what became of the principal
that almost everyone endorsed
in the first case
I need to hear from someone who was in the
majority in both
cases is
how do you explain the difference between
the two?
The second one I guess involves an
active choice of
pushing a person
and down which
I guess that
that person himself would otherwise not
have been involved in the situation at all
and so
to choose on his behalf I guess
to
involve him in something that he otherwise would
have this escaped is
I guess more than
what you have in the first case where
the three parties, the driver and
the two sets of workers are
already I guess in this situation.
but the guy working, the one on the track
off to the side
he didn't choose to sacrifice his life any
more than the fat guy did, did he?
That's true, but he was on the tracks.
this guy was on the bridge.
Go ahead, you can come back if you want.
Alright, it's a hard question
but you did well you did very well it's a
hard question.
who else
can
find a way of reconciling
the reaction of the majority in these two cases? Yes?
Well I guess
in the first case where
you have the one worker and the five
it's a choice between those two, and you have to
make a certain choice and people are going to die
because of the trolley car
not necessarily because of your direct actions.
The trolley car is a runway,
thing and you need to make in a split second choice
whereas pushing the fat man over is an actual
act of murder on your part
you have control over that
whereas you may not have control over the trolley car.
So I think that it's a slightly different situation.
Alright who has a reply? Is that, who has a reply to that?
no that was good, who has a way
who wants to reply?
Is that a way out of this?
I don't think that's a very good reason because
you choose
either way you have to choose who dies
because you either choose to turn and kill a person
which is an act of conscious
thought to turn,
or you choose to push the fat man
over which is also an active
conscious action so either way you're making a choice.
Do you want to reply?
Well I'm not really sure that that's the case, it just still
seems kind of different, the act of actually
pushing someone over onto the tracks and killing them,
you are actually killing him yourself, you're pushing
him with your own hands you're pushing and
that's different
than steering something that is going to
cause death
into another...you know
it doesn't really sound right saying it now when I'm up here.
No that's good, what's your name?
Andrew.
Andrew and let me ask you this question Andrew,
suppose
standing on the bridge
next to the fat man
I didn't have to push him, suppose he was standing
over a trap door that I could open by turning
a steering wheel like that
would you turn it?
For some reason that still just seems more
more wrong.
I mean maybe if you just accidentally like leaned into
this steering wheel or something like that
or but,
or say that the car is
hurdling towards a switch that will drop the trap
then I could agree with that.
Fair enough, it still seems
wrong in a way that it doesn't seem wrong in the
first case to turn, you say
An in another way, I mean in the first situation you're
involved directly with the situation
in the second one you're an onlooker as well.
So you have the choice of becoming involved
or not by pushing the fat man.
Let's forget for the moment about this case,
that's good,
but let's imagine a different case. This time
your doctor in an emergency room
and six patients come to you
they've been in a terrible trolley car wreck
five of them sustained moderate injuries one
is severely injured you could spend all day
caring for the one severely injured victim,
but in that time the five would die, or you could
look after the five, restore them to health, but
during that time the one severely injured
person would die.
How many would save
the five
now as the doctor?
How many would save the one?
Very few people,
just a handful of people.
Same reason I assume,
one life versus five.
Now consider
another doctor case
this time you're a transplant surgeon
and you have five patients each in desperate
need
of an organ transplant in order to survive
on needs a heart one a lung,
one a kidney,
one a liver
and the fifth
a pancreas.
And you have no organ donors
you are about to
see you them die
and then
it occurs to you
that in the next room
there's a healthy guy who came in for a checkup.
and he is
you like that
and he's taking a nap
you could go in very quietly
yank out the five organs, that person would
die
but you can save the five.
How many would do it? Anyone?
How many? Put your hands up if you would do it.
Anyone in the balcony?
You would? Be careful don't lean over too much
How many wouldn't?
All right.
What do you say, speak up in the balcony, you
who would
yank out the organs, why?
I'd actually like to explore slightly alternate
possibility of just taking the one
of the five he needs an organ who dies first
and using their four healthy organs to save the other
four
That's a pretty good idea.
That's a great idea
except for the fact
that you just wrecked the philosophical point.
Let's step back
from these stories and these arguments
to notice a couple of things
about the way the arguments have began to unfold.
Certain
moral principles
have already begun to emerge
from the discussions we've had
and let's consider
what those moral principles
look like
the first moral principle that emerged from the
discussion said
that the right thing to do the moral thing to do
depends on the consequences that will result
from your action
at the end of the day
better that five should live
even if one must die.
That's an example
of consequentialist
moral reasoning.
consequentialist moral reasoning locates morality
in the consequences of an act. In the state of the
world that will result
from the thing you do
but then we went a little further, we considered
those other cases
and people weren't so sure
about
consequentialist moral reasoning
when people hesitated
to push the fat man
over the bridge
or to yank out the organs of the innocent
patient
people gestured towards
reasons
having to do
with the intrinsic
quality of the act
itself.
Consequences be what they may.
People were reluctant
people thought it was just wrong
categorically wrong
to kill
a person
an innocent person
even for the sake
of saving
five lives, at least these people thought that
in the second
version of each story we reconsidered
so this points
a second
categorical
way
of thinking about
moral reasoning
categorical moral reasoning locates morality
in certain absolute moral requirements in
certain categorical duties and rights
regardless of the consequences.
We're going to explore
in the days and weeks to come the contrast
between
consequentialist and categorical moral principles.
The most influential
example of
consequential moral reasoning is utilitarianism,
a doctrine invented by
Jeremy Bentham, the eighteenth century English
political philosopher.
The most important
philosopher of categorical moral reasoning
is the
eighteenth century German philosopher
Emmanuel Kant.
So we will look
at those two different modes of moral reasoning
assess them
and also consider others.
If you look at the syllabus, you'll notice
that we read a number of great and famous books.
Books by Aristotle
John Locke
Emanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill,
and others.
You'll notice too from the syllabus that
we don't only read these books,
we also all
take up
contemporary political and legal controversies
that raise philosophical questions.
We will debate equality and inequality,
affirmative action,
free speech versus hate speech,
same sex marriage, military conscription,
a range of practical questions, why
not just to enliven these abstract and distant
books
but to make clear to bring out what's at stake
in our everyday lives including our political
lives,
for philosophy.
So we will read these books
and we will debate these
issues and we'll see how each informs and
illuminates the other.
This may sound appealing enough
but here
I have to issue a warning,
and the warning is this
to read these books
in this way,
as an exercise in self-knowledge,
to read them in this way carry certain risks
risks that are both personal and political,
risks that every student of political philosophy have known.
These risks spring from that fact
that philosophy
teaches us
and unsettles us
by confronting us with what we already know.
There's an irony
the difficulty of this course consists in the
fact that it teaches what you already know.
It works by taking
what we know from familiar unquestioned settings,
and making it strange.
That's how those examples worked
worked
the hypotheticals with which we began with their
mix of playfulness and sobriety.
it's also how these philosophical books work. Philosophy
estranges us
from the familiar
not by supplying new information
but by inviting
and provoking
a new way of seeing
but, and here's the risk,
once
the familiar turns strange,
it's never quite the same again.
Self-knowledge
is like lost innocence,
however unsettling
you find it,
it can never
be unthought
or unknown
what makes this enterprise difficult
but also riveting,
is that
moral and political philosophy is a story
and you don't know where this story will lead
but what you do know
is that the story
is about you.
Those are the personal risks,
now what of the political risks.
one way of introducing of course like this
would be to promise you
that by reading these books
and debating these issues
you will become a better more responsible
citizen.
You will examine the presuppositions of
public policy, you will hone your political
judgment
you'll become a more effective participant
in public affairs
but this would be a partial and misleading promise
political philosophy for the most part hasn't
worked that way.
You have to allow for the possibility
that political philosophy may make you a worse
citizen
rather than a better one
or at least a worse citizen
before it makes you
a better one
and that's because philosophy
is a distancing
even debilitating
activity
And you see this
going back to Socrates
there's a dialogue, the Gorgias
in which one of Socrates’ friends
Calicles
tries to talk him out
of philosophizing.
calicles tells Socrates philosophy is a pretty toy
if one indulges in it with moderation at
the right time of life
but if one pursues it further than one should
it is absolute ruin.
Take my advice calicles says,
abandon argument
learn the accomplishments of active
life, take
for your models not those people who spend
their time on these petty quibbles,
but those who have a good livelihood and reputation
and many other blessings.
So Calicles is really saying to Socrates
quit philosophizing,
get real
go to business school
and calicles did have a point
he had a point
because philosophy distances us
from conventions from established assumptions
and from settled beliefs.
those are the risks,
personal and political
and in the face of these risks there is a
characteristic evasion,
the name of the evasion is skepticism. It's
the idea
well it goes something like this
we didn't resolve, once and for all,
either the cases or the principles we were
arguing when we began
and if Aristotle
and Locke and Kant and Mill haven't solved these questions
after all of these years
who are we to think
that we here in Sanders Theatre over the
course a semester
can resolve them
and so maybe it's just a matter of
each person having his or her own principles
and there's nothing more to be said about
it
no way of reasoning
that's the
evasion. The evasion of skepticism
to which I would offer the following
reply:
it's true
these questions have been debated for a very
long time
but the very fact
that they have reoccurred and persisted
may suggest
that though they're impossible in one sense
their unavoidable in another
and the reason they're unavoidable
the reason they're inescapable is that we live
some answer
to these questions every day.
So skepticism, just throwing up their hands
and giving up on moral reflection,
is no solution
Emanuel Kant
described very well the problem with skepticism
when he wrote
skepticism is a resting place for human reason
where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderings
but it is no dwelling place for permanent settlement.
Simply to acquiesce in skepticism, Kant wrote,
can never suffice to overcome the restless
of reason.
I've tried to suggest through theses stories
and these arguments
some sense of the risks and temptations
of the perils and the possibilities I would
simply conclude by saying
that the aim of this course
is to awaken
the restlessness of reason
and to see where it might lead
thank you very much.
Like, in a situation that desperate,
you have to do what you have to do to survive.
You have to do what you have to do you? You've gotta do
What you
gotta do. pretty much,
If you've been going nineteen days without any food
someone has to take the sacrifice, someone has to make the sacrifice
and people can survive. Alright that's good, what's your name? Marcus.
Marcus, what do you say to Marcus?
Last time
we started out last time
with some stores
with some moral dilemmas
about trolley cars
and about doctors
and healthy patients
vulnerable
to being victims of organ transplantation
we noticed two things
about the arguments we had
one had to do with the way we were arguing
it began with our judgments in particular cases
we tried to articulate the reasons or the
principles
lying behind our judgments
and then confronted with a new case
we found ourselves re-examining those principles
revising each in the light of the other
and we noticed the built-in pressure to try
to bring into alignment
our judgments about particular cases
and the principles we would endorse
on reflection
we also noticed something about the substance
of the arguments
that emerged from the discussion.
We noticed that sometimes we were tempted
to locate the morality of an act in the consequences
in the results, in the state of the world that
it brought about.
We called is consequentialist
moral reason.
But we also noticed that
in some cases
we weren't swayed only
by the results
sometimes,
many of us felt,
that not just consequences but also the intrinsic
quality or character of the act
matters morally.
Some people argued that there are certain things
that are just categorically wrong
even if they bring about
a good result
even
if they save five people
at the cost of one life.
So we contrasted consequentialist
moral principles
with categorical ones.
Today
and in the next few days
we will begin to examine one of the
most influential
versions of consequentialist
moral theory
and that's the philosophy of utilitarianism.
Jeremy Bentham,
the eighteenth century
English political philosopher
gave first
the first clear systematic expression
to the utilitarian
moral theory.
And Bentham's idea,
his essential idea
is a very simple one
with a lot of
morally
intuitive appeal.
Bentham's idea is
the following
the right thing to do
the just thing to do
it's to
maximize
utility.
What did he mean by utility?
He meant by utility the balance
of pleasure over pain,
happiness over suffering.
Here's how we arrived
at the principle
of maximizing utility.
He started out by observing
that all of us
all human beings
are governed by two sovereign masters,
pain and pleasure.
We human beings
like pleasure and dislike pain
and so we should base morality
whether we are thinking of what to do in our own lives
or whether
as legislators or citizens
we are thinking about what the law should be,
the right thing to do individually or collectively
is to maximize, act in a way that maximizes
the overall level
of happiness.
Bentham's utilitarianism is sometimes summed
up with the slogan
the greatest good for the greatest number.
With this
basic principle of utility on hand,
let's begin to test it and to examine it
by turning to another case
another story but this time
not a hypothetical story,
a real-life story
the case of
the Queen versus Dudley and Stephens.
This was a nineteenth-century British law case
that's famous
and much debated in law schools.
Here's what happened in the case
I'll summarize the story
and then I want to hear
how you would rule
imagining that you are the jury.
A newspaper account of the time
described the background:
A sadder story of disaster at sea
was never told
than that of the survivors of the yacht
Mignonette.
The ship foundered in the south Atlantic
thirteen hundred miles from the cape
there were four in the crew,
Dudley was the captain
Stephens was the first mate
Brooks was a sailor,
all men of
excellent character,
or so the newspaper account
tells us.
The fourth crew member was the cabin boy,
Richard Parker
seventeen years old.
He was an orphan
he had no family
and he was on his first long voyage at sea.
He went, the news account tells us,
rather against the advice of his friends.
He went in the hopefulness of youthful ambition
thinking the journey would make a man of him.
Sadly it was not to be,
the facts of the case were not in dispute,
a wave hit the ship
and the Mignonette went down.
The four crew members escaped to a lifeboat
the only
food they had
were two
cans of preserved
turnips
no fresh water
for the first three days they ate nothing
on the fourth day that opened one of the cans of
turnips
and ate it.
The next day they caught a turtle
together with the other can of turnips
the turtle
enabled them to subsist
for the next few days and then for eight days
they had nothing
no food no water.
Imagine yourself in a situation like that
what would you do?
Here's what they did
by now the cabin boy Parker is lying at the
bottom of the lifeboat in a corner
because he had drunk sea water
against the advice of the others
and he had become ill
and he appeared to be dying
so on the nineteenth day Dudley, the captain, suggested
that they should all
have a lottery. That they should
all draw lots to see
who would die
to save the rest.
Brooks
refused
he didn't like the lottery idea
we don't know whether this
was because he didn't want to take that chance
or because he believed in categorical moral
principles
but in any case
no lots were drawn.
The next day
there was still no ship in sight
so a Dudley told Brooks to avert his gaze
and he motioned to Stephens
that the boy Parker had better be killed.
Dudley offered a prayer
he told a the boy his time had come
and he killed him with a pen knife
stabbing him in the jugular vein.
Brooks emerged from his conscientious objection
to share in the gruesome bounty.
For four days
the three of them fed on the body and blood
of the cabin boy.
True story.
And then they were rescued.
Dudley describes their rescue
in his diary
with staggering euphemism, quote:
"on the twenty fourth day
as we were having our breakfast
a ship appeared at last."
The three survivors were picked up by a German ship.
They were taken back to Falmouth in England
where they were arrested and tried
Brooks
turned state's witness
Dudley and Stephens went to trial. They didn't
dispute the facts
they claimed
they had acted out of necessity
that was their defense
they argued in effect
better that one should die
so that three could survive
the prosecutor
wasn't swayed by that argument
he said murder is murder
and so the case went to trial. Now imagine
you are the jury
and just to simplify the discussion
put aside the question of law,
and let's assume that
you as the jury
are charged with deciding
whether what they did was morally
permissible or not.
How many
would vote
not guilty, that what they did was morally
permissible?
And how many would vote guilty
what they did was morally wrong?
A pretty sizable majority.
Now let's see what people's reasons are, and let me
begin with those who are in the minority.
Let's hear first from the defense
of Dudley and Stephens.
Why would you morally exonerate them?
What are your reasons?
I think it's I think it is morally reprehensible
but I think that there's a distinction between
what's morally reprehensible
what makes someone legally accountable
in other words the night as the judge said
what's always moral isn't necessarily
against the law and while I don't think that
necessity
justifies
theft or murder any illegal act,
at some point your degree of necessity does
in fact
exonerate you form any guilt. ok.
other defenders, other voices for the defense?
Moral justifications for
what they did?
yes, thank you
Early life and career
Locke was born in Attercliffe, Sheffield in Yorkshire, moving to nearby Barnsley when he was five. By the age of 17, Joseph had already served an apprenticeship under William Stobart at Pelaw, on the south bank of the Tyne, and under his own father, William. He was an experienced mining engineer, able to survey, sink shafts, to construct railways, tunnels and stationary engines. Joseph's father had been a manager at Wallbottle colliery on Tyneside when George Stephenson was a fireman there. In 1823, when Joseph was 17, Stephenson was involved with planning the Stockton and Darlington Railway. He and his son Robert Stephenson visited William Locke and his son at Barnsley and it was arranged that Joseph would go to work for the Stephensons. The Stephensons established a locomotive works near Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, to manufacture locomotives for the new railway. Joseph Locke, despite his youth, soon established a position of authority. He and Robert Stephenson became close friends, but their friendship was interrupted, in 1824, by Robert leaving to work in Colombia for three years.[1]
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
George Stephenson carried out the original survey of the line of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, but this was found to be flawed, and the line was re-surveyed by a talented young engineer, Charles Vignoles. Joseph Locke was asked by the directors to carry out another survey of the proposed tunnel works and produce a report. The report was highly critical of the work already done, which reflected badly on Stephenson. Stephenson was furious and henceforth relations between the two men were strained, although Locke continued to be employed by Stephenson, probably because the latter recognised his worth. Despite the many criticisms of Stephenson's work, when the bill for the new line was finally passed, in 1826, Stephenson was appointed as engineer and he appointed Joseph Locke as his assistant to work alongside Vignoles, who was the other assistant. However, a clash of personalities between Stephenson and Vignoles led to the latter resigning, leaving Locke as the sole assistant engineer. Locke took over responsibility for the western half of the line. One of the major obstacles to be overcome was Chat Moss, a large bog that had to be crossed. Although, Stephenson usually gets the credit for this feat, it is believed that it was Locke who suggested the correct method for crossing the bog.[1]
Whilst the line was being built, the directors were trying to decide whether to use standing engines or locomotives to propel the trains. Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke were convinced that locomotives were vastly superior, and in March 1829 the two men wrote a report demonstrating the superiority of locomotives when used on a busy railway. The report led to the decision by the directors to hold an open trial to find the best locomotive. This was the Rainhill Trials, which were run in October 1829, and were won by "Rocket".[1]
When the line was finally opened in 1830, it was planned for a procession of eight trains to travel from Liverpool to Manchester and back. George Stephenson drove the leading locomotive "Northumbrian" and Joseph Locke drove "Rocket". The day was marred by the death of William Huskisson, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool, who was struck and killed by "Rocket".
Grand Junction Railway
In 1829 Locke was George Stephenson's assistant, given the job of surveying the route for the Grand Junction Railway. This new railway was to join Newton-le-Willows on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with Warrington and then on to Birmingham via Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton, a total of 80 miles.
Locke is credited with choosing the location for Crewe and recommending the establishment there of shops required for the building and repairs of carriages and wagons as well as engines.[2]
During the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Stephenson had shown a lack of ability in organising major civil engineering projects. On the other hand, Locke's ability to manage complex projects was well known. The directors of the new railway decided on a compromise whereby Locke was made responsible for the northern half of the line and Stephenson was made responsible for the southern half. However Stephenson's administrative inefficiency soon became apparent, whereas Locke estimated the costs for his section of the line so meticulously and speedily, that he had all of the contracts signed for his section of the line before a single one had been signed for Stephenson's section. The railway company lost patience with Stephenson, but tried to compromise by making both men joint-engineers. Stephenson's pride would not let him accept this, and so he resigned from the project.[3] By autumn of 1835 Locke had become chief engineer for the whole of the line. This caused a rift between the two men, and strained relations between Locke and Robert Stephenson. Up to this point, Locke had always been under George Stephenson's shadow. From then on, he would be his own man, and stand or fall by his own achievements.[4]
The line was opened on 4 July 1837.[5]
New methods
Locke's route avoided as far as possible major civil engineering works. The main one was the Dutton Viaduct which crosses the River Weaver and the Weaver Navigation between the villages of Dutton and Acton Bridge in Cheshire. The viaduct consists of 20 arches with spans of 20 yards.
An important feature of the new railway was the use of double-headed (dumb-bell) wrought-iron rail supported on timber sleepers at 2 ft 6 in intervals. It was intended that when the rails became worn they could be turned over to use the other surface, but in practice it was found that the chairs into which the rails were keyed caused wear to the bottom surface so that it became uneven. However this was still an improvement on the fish-bellied, wrought-iron rails still being used by Robert Stephenson on the London and Birmingham Railway.[6]
Locke was more careful than Stephenson to get value for his employers' money. For the Penkridge Viaduct Stephenson had obtained a tender of £26,000. After Locke took over, he gave the potential contractor better information and agreed a price of only £6,000. Locke also tried to avoid tunnels because in those days tunnels often took longer and cost more than planned. The Stephensons regarded 1 in 330 as the maximum slope that an engine could manage and Robert Stephenson achieved this on the London and Birmingham Railway by using seven tunnels which added both cost and delay. Locke avoided tunnels almost completely on the Grand Junction but exceeded the slope limit for six miles south of Crewe.[5]
Proof of Locke's ability to estimate costs accurately is given by the fact that the construction of the Grand Junction line cost £18,846 per mile as against Locke's estimate of £17,000. This is amazingly accurate compared with the estimated costs for the London and Birmingham Railway (Robert Stephenson) and the Great Western Railway (Brunel).[3]
Locke also divided the project into a few large sections rather than many small ones. This allowed him to work closely with his contractors to develop the best methods, overcome problems and personally gain practical experience of the building process and of the contractors themselves. He used the contractors who worked well with him, especially Thomas Brassey, William Buddicom and William Mackenzie, on many other projects. Everyone gained from this cooperative approach whereas Brunel's more adversarial approach eventually made it hard for him to get anyone to work for him.[5]
Marriage
In 1834 Locke married Phoebe McCreery, with whom he adopted a child. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1838.
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
A significant difference in philosophy between George Stephenson and Joseph Locke and the surveying methods they employed was more than a mere difference of opinion. Stephenson had started his career at a time when locomotives had little power to overcome excessive gradients. Both George and Robert Stephenson were prepared to go to great lengths to avoid steep gradients that would tax the locomotives of the day, even if this meant choosing a circuitous path that added on extra miles to the line of the route. Locke had more confidence in the ability of modern locomotives to climb these gradients. An example of this was the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, which had to cope with the barrier of the Lake District mountains. In 1839 Stephenson proposed a circuitous route that avoided the Lake District altogether by going all the way round Morecambe Bay and West Cumberland, claiming: 'This is the only practicable line from Liverpool to Carlisle. The making of a railway across Shap Fell is out of the question.' The directors rejected his route and chose the one proposed by Joseph Locke, one that used steep gradients and passed over Shap Fell. The line was completed by Locke and was a success.[4]
Locke's reasoned that by avoiding long routes and tunnelling, the line could be finished more quickly, with less capital costs, and could start earning revenue sooner. This became known as the 'up and over' school of engineering (referred to by Rolt as 'Up and Down,' or Rollercoaster). Locke took a similar approach in planning the Caledonian Railway, from Carlisle to Glasgow. In both railways he introduced gradients of 1 in 75, which severely taxed fully laden locomotives, for even as more powerful locomotives were introduced, the trains that they pulled became heavier. It may therefore be argued that Locke, although his philosophy carried the day, was not entirely correct in his reasoning.[3] Even today, Shap Fell is a severe test of any locomotive.
Manchester and Sheffield Railway
Locke was subsequently appointed to build a railway line from Manchester to Sheffield, replacing Charles Vignoles as chief engineer, after the latter had been beset by misfortunes and financial difficulties. The project included the three-mile Woodhead Tunnel, and the line opened, after many delays, on 23 December 1845. The building of the line required over a thousand navvies and cost the lives of thirty-two of them, seriously injuring 140 others. The Woodhead Tunnel was such a difficult undertaking that George Stephenson claimed that it could not be done, declaring that he would eat the first locomotive that got through the tunnel.
Subsequent commissions
In the north, Locke also designed the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway; the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway; and the Caledonian Railway from Carlisle to Glasgow and Edinburgh.[7]
In the south, he worked on the London and Southampton Railway, later called the London and South Western Railway, designing, among other structures, Nine Elms to Waterloo Viaduct, Richmond Railway Bridge (1848, since replaced), and Barnes Railway Bridge (1849), both across the River Thames, tunnels at Micheldever, and the 12-arch Quay Street viaduct and the 16-arch Cams Hill viaduct, both in Fareham (1848).
He was actively involved in planning and building many railways in Europe (assisted by John Milroy[8]), including the Le Havre, Rouen, Paris rail link, the Barcelona to Mataró line and the Dutch Rhenish Railway. He was present in Paris when the Versailles train crash occurred in 1842, and produced a statement concerning the facts for General Charles Pasley of the Railway Inspectorate. He also experienced a catastrophic failure of one of his viaducts built on the new Paris-Le Havre link. . The viaduct was of stone and brick at Barentin near Rouen, and was the longest and highest on the line. It was 108 feet high, and consisted of 27 arches, each 50 feet wide, with a total length of over 1600 feet. A boy hauling ballast for the line up an adjoining hillside early that morning (about 6.00 am) saw one arch (the fifth on the Rouen side) collapse, and the rest followed suit. Fortunately, no one was killed, although several workmen were injured in a mill below the structure. Locke attributed the catastrophic failure to frost action on the new lime cement, and premature off-centre loading of the viaduct with ballast. It was rebuilt at Thomas Brassey's cost, and survives to the present. Having pioneered many new lines in France, Locke also helped establish the first locomotive works in the country.
Distinctive features of Locke's railway works were economy, the use of masonry bridges wherever possible and the absence of tunnels. An illustration of this is that there is no tunnel between Birmingham and Glasgow.[6]
Relationship with Robert Stephenson
Locke and Robert Stephenson had been good friends at the beginning of their careers, but their friendship had been marred by Locke's falling out with Robert's father. It seems that Robert felt loyalty to his father required that he should take his side. It is significant that after the death of George Stephenson in August 1848, the friendship of the two men was revived. When Robert Stephenson died in October 1859, Joseph Locke was a pallbearer at his funeral. Locke is reported to have referred to Robert as 'the friend of my youth, the companion of my ripening years, and a competitor in the race of life'. Locke was also on friendly terms with his other engineering rival, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
In 1845, Locke and Stephenson were both called to give evidence before two committees. In April a House of Commons Select Committee was investigating the atmospheric railway system proposed by Brunel. Brunel and Vignoles spoke in support of the system, whilst Locke and Stephenson spoke against it. The latter two were to be proved right in the long run. In August the two gave evidence before the Gauge Commissioners who were trying to arrive at a standard gauge for the whole country. Brunel spoke in favour of the 7 ft gauge he was using on the Great Western Railway. Locke and Stephenson spoke in favour of the 4 ft 8½in gauge that they had used on several lines. The latter two won the day and their gauge was adopted as the standard.[1]
Later life and legacy
Locke served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in between December 1857 and December 1859.[9] He also served as Member of Parliament for Honiton in Devon from 1847 until his death.[10]
Joseph Locke died on 18 September 1860,[11] apparently from appendicitis, whilst on a shooting holiday. He is buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery. He outlived his friends/rivals Robert Stephenson and Isambard Brunel by less than a year; all three engineers died between 53 and 56 years of age, a circumstance attributed by Rolt to sheer overwork, accomplishing more in their brief lives than many achieve in a full three score and ten.
Locke Park in Barnsley was dedicated to his memory by his widow Phoebe in 1862. It features a statue of Locke plus a folly, 'Locke Tower'.
Locke's greatest legacy is the modern day West Coast Main Line (WCML), which was formed by the joining of the Caledonian, Lancaster & Carlisle, Grand Junction railways to Robert Stephenson's London & Birmingham Railway. As a result, around three-quarters of the WCML's route was planned and engineered by Locke.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Haworth, Victoria (2004). Robert Stephenson: Engineer and Scientist. The Rocket Press. ISBN 0-9535162-1-0.
- ^ "Creator of Crewe is an unsung hero". 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ^ a b c Rolt, L.T.C., "Great Engineers", 1962, G. Bell and Sons Ltd, ISBN
- ^ a b Davies, Hunter (1975). George Stephenson. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76934-0.
- ^ a b c Martin Barnes (2011), Joseph Locke pioneer engineering project manager, Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society, No. 211. pp 2–10
- ^ a b Beckett, Derrick (1984). Stephensons' Britain. David & Charles Limited. ISBN 0-7153-8269-1.
- ^ Webster, N.E. (1970). Joseph Locke: Railway Revolutionary. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. ISBN 0-04-385055-3.
- ^ "John Milroy". Gracesguide.co.uk.
- ^ Watson, Garth (1988). The Civils. London: Thomas Telford Ltd. p. 251. ISBN 0-7277-0392-7.
- ^ Devey, Joseph (1862) The Life of Joseph Locke. London: Richard Bentley.
- ^ "The Sydney Morning Herald". Trove.nla.gov.au. 16 November 1860. p. 3. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
METROPOLITAN GOSSIP
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Joseph Locke
- The life of Joseph Locke, civil engineer by Joseph Devey (1862)