Christian Hendrick Meyer
Christian Hendrick Meyer (1830-1887)
1888 Obituary [1]
. . . . Following his natural bent, in 1859 he entered the office of the late James Walker, Past-President Inst. C.E., and by that gentleman’s advice, in 1860 he became the pupil of the late James Graham.
During his pupilage, and subsequently in connection with that gentleman, he took part in the surveys and preliminary designs of many important public works, amongst which may be mentioned the Barmouth, Furness, Metropolitan District, Swindon, Marlborough and Salisbury Railways, the Bute Docks and Railway, the Amsterdam Ship Canal, the Severn Tunnel Railway, the East and West India Docks Extension, the Hull Docks and Railway, &C., &c.
In 1862-3, he rendered energetic and valuable assistance in the works carried out by Sir John Hawkshaw, Past-President Inst. C.E., to deal with the memorable disaster in the fen country, known as the Middle Level Inundation, full details of which are recorded in the Minutes of Proceedings.
Between the years 1867 and 1876 he was engaged on behalf of the contractors (the late Mr. J. T. Leather, M. Inst. C.E., and Mr. George Smith) in assisting the late Edward Pease Smith, Assoc. Inst. C.E., in carrying out the Dockyard Extension Works at Portsmouth; and owing to that gentleman’s illness, for the latter portion of the time he had entire charge of those important works, of which he subsequently contributed a description to the Institution, on the plant and machinery employed, and other engineering arrangements devised for carrying them out, very many of which were of his own contriving.
From the year 1877, up to the time of his decease, Mr. Meyer was again actively and variously engaged in connection with the Parliamentary and other surveys and the preliminary designs for many of the principal railways and other works that have been carried out, or initiated, during that period. His last important work was a survey of the Barrow Harbour and Walney Channel for F. C. Stileman, M. Inst. C.E. . . . [more]