Edward Bindon Marten (1832-1914)
1832 April 4th. Born at Westminster the son of Robert Giles Marten, Secretary to the Vauxhall Bridge Co, and his wife Eliza Warnington.
1859 Edward Binden Marten, Stourbridge Water Works.[1]
1911 Living at Southlea, new Road, Pedmore, Worcestershire: Edward Bindon Marten (age 78 born Plaistow), Civil Engineer, Retired and a Widower. Three servants.[2]
1914 June 8th. Died.
1914 Obituary [3]
EDWARD BINDON MARTEN was born in Vauxhall, London, on 4th April 1832.
He served a pupilage of four years, 1850-53, with his brother, Mr. H. J. Marten, M. Inst. C.E., and on its completion he was for one year, 1853, Resident Engineer of the Bridgnorth and Warrington Waterworks, and occupied similar positions for two years, 1854-55, at the Wolverhampton Waterworks, and for three years, 1856-58, at the South Staffordshire Waterworks.
In 1858 he went into practice on his own account as a Civil Engineer. From September 1857 till July 1865 he leased the undertaking of the Stourbridge Waterworks Co., and afterwards became their engineer and manager till December 1909, when the undertaking was transferred to the Stourbridge and District Water Board.
From 1865, Mr. Marten was Chief Engineer to the Midland Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co., and investigated the causes of boiler explosions, to explain which he prepared numerous models and an apparatus for showing the spheroidal condition of water; he also made an hydro-electric machine, a contrivance for showing heat as a mode of motion, and an apparatus for separating the two gases by passing steam through a heated tank. This collection of machines and models was distributed to the Stourbridge Free Library, the Mason College, Birmingham, and the South Kensington Museum. He also published annual abstracts from reports of boiler explosions.
In 1874 he became engineer to the Commissioners under the South Staffordshire Mines Drainage and Improvement Act of 1873, and carried out extensive drainage and improvement works on the Rivers Tame and Stour.
He resigned, and was appointed consulting engineer in 1908, from which position he finally resigned in 1909. He gave much of his time to the question of drainage of the district, and in 1865 he read a Paper before the British Association, putting the matter in practical form, and thus helping to prepare the first Bill.
About 1890 he prepared a sewerage scheme for the Rowley Regis Urban District Council. This was ultimately combined with another scheme for the Worcestershire parishes in the same watershed, then being prepared for the Halesowen Rural District Council, and Mr. Marten was appointed one of the two engineers to the Board, from which post he retired in 1909.
He also carried out the following works:— Rowley Collecting Sewers, 1894-97, Ruabon Sewerage and Sewage Disposal, 1895, Pedmore Sewerage, 1896-7, Powick Asylum Water Supply, 1897-8, Callow End Sewerage, 1902-3, East Worcestershire Co.'s New Washingstocks Pumping Station, High Level Reservoir and other works, 1902-3.
He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1859, was Member of Council from 1885 to 1891, and Vice-President from 1892-94, when he resigned.
He contributed articles and papers on Boiler Explosions and Mining Accidents, also, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Hawksley he read a Paper before this Institution in 1877 on Special Mechanical Appliances for meeting the requirements of certain classes of Mine Accidents.
He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was a keen geologist, and was from 1874 to 1879 Honorary Secretary of the Dudley and Midland Geological Scientific Society.
His death took place at his residence at Pedmore, on 8th June 1914, at the age of eighty-two.
1915 Obituary [4]
1914 Obituary.[5]