Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge
Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge (1845-1911)
1911 Obituary [1]
EMERSON MUSCHAMP BAINBRIDGE was born at Eshott Hall, Northumberland, on 23rd December 1845, being the son of Mr. E. M. Bainbridge, colliery proprietor.
He was educated privately, and, concurrently with his period of apprenticeship in Lord Londonderry's collieries, at the University of Durham, where he studied mathematics and mining engineering. He soon established a reputation among those connected with the mining industry.
In 1867 he was selected to report to the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers on the haulage of coal, and his efforts were rewarded by a valuable premium.
Two years later the Institution of Civil Engineers awarded him the Manby Premium for a Paper upon the probability of working coal at a depth of 4,000 feet.
In 1870 the Sheffield and Tinsley Collieries were placed under his supervision, and later he accepted the management of the Duke of Norfolk's collieries.
Subsequently he became managing director of the Nunnery Colliery Co., and, with other gentlemen, devoted his attention to the possibilities of large colliery developments in the east of Derbyshire, which met with great success.
He next became associated with the promotion of a railway line — the Lancashire, Derbyshire, and East Coast Railway — which was to connect the east and west coasts of England by a line running through the manufacturing and colliery districts, commencing at Warrington and ending at Sutton-on-Sea. The scheme passed through Parliament, but was not sufficiently supported by the public, with the result that only the central sections were constructed, and these after some years became merged in the Great Central Railway.
On the occasion of the Summer Meeting of this Institution in Sheffield in 1890, Mr. Bainbridge read a Papers on ‘Recent Improvements in the Mechanical Engineering of Coal Mines’. His wide knowledge of engineering made him a valuable member of the Royal Commission on Coal Dust in Mines in 1891.
In 1895 he was elected Member of Parliament for the Gainsborough Division of Lincolnshire, but in 1900 he was defeated. In all the works with which he was connected, he endeavoured in various ways to help the workers. Thus at Sheffield he established a home for waifs and strays, at Bolsover a model village and an orphanage, at other villages co-operative stores, recreation grounds, etc.
Among the many directorates upon which he served may be mentioned those of the Lancashire, Derbyshire, and East Coast Railway, the Sheffield District Railway, the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway Co., the New Huck-nail Colliery Co., the Yorkshire Engine Co., and various colliery companies in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Northumberland.
His death took place from pneumonia, in London, on 12th May 1911, at the age of sixty-five.
He was elected a Graduate of this institution in 1869, and was transferred to full Membership in 1890.