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.