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Birth of Bindon Blood Stoney, Civil Engineer

Bindon Blood Stoney FRS, a civil engineer who also makes some significant contributions to astronomy, is born on June 13, 1828, at Oakley Park, King’s County (now County Offaly).

Stoney is the younger son of George Stoney and Anne Blood, second daughter of Bindon Blood of Cranagher and Rockforest, County Clare. His brother is the physicist George Johnstone Stoney, known for coining the term electron for the fundamental unit of electricity. He is also the uncle of another Irish physicist George Francis FitzGerald, the son of his sister Anne Frances. His nieces are Edith Anne Stoney, a pioneer medical physicist, and Florence Stoney, the first female radiologist in the United Kingdom. Both serve in hospitals near the front line during World War I.

Stoney is privately educated at home while his father’s properties lose value in the post-Napoleonic depression and are sold during the famine of 1845–49. He then attends Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where in 1850 he obtains his BA and a diploma in civil engineering with distinction. He marries Susannah Frances Walker on October 7, 1879; they have four children.

In 1850–52, prior to beginning his engineering work, Stoney assists William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse at Parsonstown. There he accurately maps the spiral form of the Andromeda Galaxy and observes 105 New General Catalogue (NGC) objects and 8 Index Catalogues (IC) objects. Ninety-one of the NGC objects and all of the IC objects are new. On March 1, 1851, he discovers the spiral galaxy NGC 5609, which is the most distant visually observed galaxy in the NGC catalogue.

Bindon’s career in engineering commences when he works on surveys for the Aranjuez to Almansa railway in Spain from 1852 to 1853. Upon returning to Ireland in 1854, he is appointed as resident engineer under James Barton on the Boyne railway viaduct until its completion in 1855. This viaduct claims to have the longest span in the world and has the world’s longest girders at the time.

Bindon’s groundbreaking work building a metal bridge with a span of such dimensions using shock-absorbent wrought-iron latticed bars instead of a continuity of plate with Barton is possibly the first of its kind. It is the basis for his later two-volume publication The theory of strains in girders and similar structures, with observations on the strength and other properties of materials (1866), nicknamed “Stoney on strains” and reproduced in two further editions.

Bindon becomes an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in January 1858 and a full member in November 1863.

In 1856, Bindon is appointed as assistant engineer to George Halpin, Jr. at the Ballast Board on Westmoreland Street and in 1859 he is appointed as Executive Engineer. He is ambitious and an engineering innovator who comes up with a cheap way to develop the Dublin Port – something appreciated by the board but they also do not want to upset Halpin. When Halpin retires, Stoney becomes the new inspector of works and in 1868, becomes the first chief engineer of the newly constituted Dublin Port and Docks Board.

Bindon designs a large dredging plant and rebuilds nearly 7,000 feet of quay walls along both north and south banks of the River Liffey, replacing the tidal berths by deep water berths. Additionally, the northern quays are lengthened eastward and the formation of Alexandra Basin begins in 1871 and is partially completed by 1885. In addition to harbour works, he is in charge of the design and construction of two major bridges that cross the River Liffey. In 1872–1875 he largely rebuilds Essex Bridge, designed in the 1750s by George Semple to his own flamboyant design. It is renamed Grattan Bridge after Henry Grattan. In 1877–80 he redesigns the 1790s Carlisle Bridge of James Gandon, renamed O’Connell Bridge after Daniel O’Connell, to provide a crossing linking Sackville (later O’Connell) Street with the converging streets to the south. He builds a new iron swing bridge in 1877–1879, just west of The Custom House named Beresford Bridge.

Stoney invents a diving bell, and means to use precast concrete. Toward the end of his career, he erects the North Bull Lighthouse (1877–80) to replace the inadequate light on the Bull Wall marking the northern side of the Dublin port channel entrance opposite Poolbeg Lighthouse before finally retiring in 1898.

Stoney is admitted to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in 1857. He is given an honorary degree by University College Dublin (UCD) in recognition of his achievements and is later elected President of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland in 1871. In 1874, he is awarded the Telford Medal and Telford premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for a paper documenting his work on the northern quays. He is elected Fellow of the Royal Society on June 2, 1881.

Stoney dies in Dublin on May 5, 1909, and he is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery. Stoney Road in East Wall is named after him.


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The Philadelphia Nativist Riots

The Philadelphia nativist riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) are a series of riots that take place on May 6—8 and July 6—7, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the adjacent districts of Kensington and Southwark. The riots are a result of rising anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants.

On July 3, Father John Patrick Dunn of the Church of St. Philip Neri in the Southwark District is warned that the church might be attacked during an upcoming parade held by the Native American Party. The Native American Party, a nativist political party, plans to hold a large parade the next day on Independence Day.

To prepare for violence, the church applies for an arsenal that a volunteer company could use in case the church is attacked. Pennsylvania Governor David R. Porter authorizes the formation of a company and the procurement of twenty-five muskets from the Frankford Arsenal. Major General Robert Patterson, commander of the Pennsylvania militia, puts the troops on alert in case of violence.

Five of the muskets placed in St. Philip Neri’s Church are discovered to be defective and are sent back to the Frankford Arsenal to be repaired. No violence occurs before or during the parade, but on July 5, a nativist mob numbering in the thousands gathers at the church after some observe five defective muskets being returned to the church. They then demand that the sheriff remove the weapons, while Father Dunn and volunteers rally to protect the church. Sheriff Morton McMichael and two aldermen search the church and remove twelve muskets. After leaving the church, the sheriff urges the crowd to disperse and leaves a volunteer posse to guard the church. The mob remains, and a man injured in the May riots makes a speech to the crowd, calling for a second search of the church. The sheriff, an alderman, and seventeen nativists enter the church and find three armed men, fifty-three muskets, ten pistols, a keg of gunpowder and ammunition. To avoid inciting the mob, the sheriff decides not to remove the armaments, and the search party stays in the church. Just after midnight, July 6, Major General Patterson orders a company of city guards to clear the streets. After the crowd disperses, the arms found within the church are removed.

By midday, the crowds return around St. Philip Neri’s Church. General George Cadwalader orders the crowds to disperse, but they do not. By the evening, the sheriff arrives with a 150-strong posse. Throughout the evening, the military presence grows, and three cannons are stationed on the streets. The soldiers clear the streets near the church, despite being pelted with rocks by the mob. Responding to the rock throwers, General Cadwalader orders a cannon to be fired at the crowd on Third Street. Former U.S. Congressman Charles Naylor begs the general not to fire. He and several others are arrested and held within the church. By the morning of July 7, most of the soldiers have left, but the crowds, led by an alderman and the sheriff, return and demand that the remaining guard release Naylor. Everyone except Naylor is released. The crowds grow, and a cannon is brought from a nearby wharf and used to threaten the church. After further negotiations, Naylor is released and carried home to cheers on people’s shoulders.

After Naylor is brought home, the mob attacks the church, damaging a wall with the cannon. A second cannon is brought from the wharfs and fired at the church, after which the mob pelts the building with rocks and break in through a side door. The soldiers fire on the men breaking into the church, who promptly retreat. After retreating, the nativists negotiate with the guard, who agrees to withdraw, allowing the nativists to guard the church. The crowd pelts the soldiers with rocks and some soldiers fire back, which only incites the mob further. The mob forces its way into the church, causing extensive damage to the interior. After about an hour, a group of twenty men organizes themselves to guard St. Philip Neri’s, and the mob leaves the church.

By the evening, a large number of soldiers arrive with orders to clear the streets, only to be stoned in the process. After a captain is attacked, the order is given to fire on the mob, which results in seven fatalities and nine injuries. Not long after, people with muskets and cannons arrive and fierce fighting breaks out between the soldiers and the mob. The fighting lasts for several hours, with the soldiers being fired upon from alleyways and the windows of nearby buildings. The soldiers bring in two cannons of their own and fire on the mob. The mob returns fire using their own cannons, armed with items such as nails, chains, knives and broken bottles. In an attempt to capture the mob’s cannons, soldiers charge one cannon’s position, only to be knocked off their horses by a rope tied across the street. The cannons are all eventually captured, and by early morning on July 8, the fighting has ended.

At least fifteen people, including rioters and soldiers, are killed in the riot, and at least fifty people are injured. Under Governor Porter’s orders, state troops continue to arrive in the city in the days afterward, but no further violence takes place. An estimated 5,000 militia are used to stop violence. Troops begin to withdraw from the city on July 10, and the church takes over responsibility from the district of Southwark of protecting the church on July 11. As with the May riots, a grand jury blames the Irish Catholics for the riots but supports the military’s response to the violence.

The riots gain national attention and condemnation. The riots are used as an issue in the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democratic Party condemning the growing Native American Party and the Whig Party, which the Democrats accuse of involvement in the nativist movement. In Philadelphia, the Native American Party ends up making a strong showing in the city’s October election.

On July 11, 1844, Philadelphia passes an ordinance that gives the city a battalion of artillery, a regiment of infantry, and at least one full troop of cavalry to preserve peace within the city when necessary. The difficulty of quelling the riots and other crime leads the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass an 1845 act that requires Philadelphia, the township of Moyamensing and the unincorporated districts of Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, and Penn to maintain a police force of one man per 150 taxable inhabitants. In 1850, another act is passed that establishes that the Philadelphia police force will police the city and seven surrounding districts. The inability to maintain order effectively in Philadelphia’s suburbs is an important argument for the consolidation of the city in 1854.

After the riots, Bishop Kenrick ends his efforts to influence the public education system and begins encouraging the creation of Catholic schools, with 17 being founded by 1860. The friars of the Church of St. Augustine sue the city of Philadelphia for not providing the church with adequate protection, claiming $80,000 in damages. The city argues that the friars cannot claim their civil rights were violated, as the Order of Saint Augustine is a foreign organization under the Pope. Furthermore, the city argues that the friars took a vow of poverty and cannot be property owners. The Augustinians end up proving the Order is incorporated in 1804 and is awarded $45,000. The church is rebuilt in 1848.

(Pictured: “Riot in Philadelphia,” lithograph by H. Bucholzer, 1844, Library of Congress)