Thomas Hack
Thomas Hack (1837-1888)
1837 Born the son of William Boughton Hack
1888 Obituary [1]
THOMAS HACK was born on the 30th April, 1837, and was educated at a private school at Hammersmith.
At the comparatively early age of fifteen he left school, and having shown great aptitude for drawing and love of machinery, he entered the office of his father, Mr. W. B. Hack, who, in succession to the late Mr. Tierney Clarke, was then the Engineer to the West Middlesex Water Company, under whom he served as an assistant till the year 1875, when Mr. W. E. Hack died, and Mr. Thomas Hack was appointed Engineer to the Company.
He designed and carried out many extensive works for the Company, including large subsiding reservoirs, filter-beds, covered service-reservoirs, engine-houses and engines. He also laid many miles of large pumping-mains, from 48 inches in diameter downwards, some of which presented many difficulties and involved great anxiety, and among them should be specially mentioned the 36-inch main which he laid under the Thames, connecting the filter-beds at Barnes with the pumping station at Hammersmith. This work, although attended with considerable risk, was, by the aid of coffer dams in short lengths, successfully accomplished in a comparatively brief period.
In 1881 he increased the pumping power at Hammersmith by the erection of two compound beam-engines of 150 HP. each, the engines at Hammersmith previous to this date being all of the Cornish type. A third compound-engine of similar size was erected in 1887. At the time of his death he was engaged in the erection of a large Worthington engine at the Company’s intake at Hampton, capable of pumping 172 million gallons in twenty-four hours ; also in the reconstruction of three filter-beds and other work at Barnes, and in laying a 30-inch main from the works at Hammersmith to Notting Hill Gate.
He died at his residence, Beavor House, Hammersmith, on the 10th of April, 1888, after a few days’ illness, from an attack of bronchitis and pneumonia. Mr. Hack did not engage in private practice, but devoted the whole of his time and talents to the Company, whom he served most faithfully for thirty-six years. He was much respected, and by his kind and genial manner had made many friends.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 2nd of April, 1878.
1888 Obituary [2]
. . . . he entered the office of his father, Mr. W. B. Hack, who, in succession to the late Mr. Tierney Clarke, was then the Engineer to the West Middlesex Water Co, under whom he served as an assistant till the year 1875, when Mr. W. B. Hack died, and Mr. Thomas Hack was appointed Engineer to the Company.
He designed and carried out many extensive works for the Company, including large subsiding-reservoirs, filter-beds, covered service-reservoirs, engine-houses and engines. He also laid many miles of large pumping-mains, from 48 inches in diameter downwards . . . . [more]