William Edward Langdon
William Edward Langdon (1832-1905) of the Midland Railway
Electrical engineer
1901 President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. [1]
1903 Lived in Nottingham[2]
1906 Obituary [3]
WILLIAM EDWARD LANGDON died on August 12, 1905, at his residence, Palmeira Gardens, Westcliff-on-Sea.
Born in 1832, Mr. Langdon was the son of the late Commander J. W. Langdon, R.N., Assistant-Hydrographer at the Admiralty.
After receiving his education at the Royal School, New Cross, he entered the service of the Electric and International Telegraphic Company at the age of 19, and while so engaged he acted as Assistant to Sir William H. Preece. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to the post of Junior Engineer.
On the transfer of the telegraphs to the State in 1870 he took charge of the Telegraph Dept. of the London & South Western Railway Co., but he was subsequently recalled by the Post Office to take up the position of Assistant Divisional Engineer, a post which he held until 1878, when he was appointed Telegraph Superintendent of the Midland Railway Co. The entire block system on the Midland Railway was completely reorganised under his supervision. The total mileage of wire on the Midland Railway increased during his term of service from 8,000 to 30,000, and the number of instruments from 7,000 to 26,000.
When Mr. Langdon retired in 1902 there were over 1,000 telegraph stations and 1,070 block signalling posts on the Midland Railway Company's system. There were also eleven generating stations for lighting and power purposes, all of which were established under his direction, the total annual output of these various stations being over 5,000,000 units.
During his connection with the Midland Railway Co., Mr. Langdon erected for the Post Office the trunk telegraph line to Glasgow and the trunk telephone line to the North.
At the end of 1902 he retired from the service of the Company, but was retained as Consulting Electrical Engineer.
Mr. Langdon read a number of papers before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and was the author of a well-known work entitled "The Application of Electricity to Railway Working."
He was a member of the Institution from the first year of its establishment as the Society of Telegraph Engineers, and in 1877 he acted for a short time as Secretary. He was elected a member of the Council in 1895, and held the office of President for the year 1901-2.
1905 Obituary [4]
. . . until recently chief electrical engineer to the Midland Railway at Derby . . .
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1901/09/06
- ↑ Electrical engineer lists
- ↑ 1906 Institution of Electrical Engineers: Obituaries
- ↑ The Engineer 1905/08/18