John Dodds

of Glasgow

1849-50 Listed in the Post Office annual Glasgow Directory as a civil engineer, land and mineral surveyor, and referee, at 59 St Vincent Street, Glasgow.

1849 The Practical Mechanic's Journal of April 1849 described and illustrated a hydrostatic swing bridge designed by Dodds to carry the Stirlingshire Midland Junction Railway over the Forth and Clyde Canal at Falkirk. The bridge had box-section wrought iron girders, with massive ornamented cast iron frames and kingposts at the pivot position. For turning, the bridge was raised by hydrostatic pressure, and two hydraulic rams acted on chains to rotate the bridge. Confusingly, the drawings show two different pivot arrangements. The contract for masonry had been placed in August 1847, but the bridge itself had not yet been constructed.

1892 A John Dodds of Pollokshaws (not sure whether this is the same person) claimed to have invented an engine that could be reversed without the need for excentrics, and he had found a means to balance the slide valves, and a way to avoid the need for a steam jacket

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