R.A.Barker, MA(Cantab), C.Eng, MICE, MCIWEM rabarker@clara.co.uk
SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION - last update November 2003
Chartered Civil Engineer; Member of the Fountain Society.
Specialist hydraulic network analyst, including water quality issues (chlorine decay, discolouration). Formerly Senior Engineer, Network Analysis, Severn Trent Water, from 1982-2000; and a member of UKWIR Steering Group DW03, "Drinking water quality in distribution" to 2000. Consultancy work undertaken in these professional areas.
Hydraulic calculations and design undertaken for fountains and water features.
Specialist translations undertaken into English, from Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian.
"A model does not prove: it merely raises hopes" - Barnes Wallis.
And pertinent remarks from 1821:
"In 1810 the New River Co. could not serve above the ground floor, in any part of the town, and did not profess to do it....Mary-Le-Bone was never satisfied in my remembrance....Every man endeavours to get his cistern upstairs......."
"...often have to clear 2 or 3 hundred yards in a street to find one small leak not equal to the size of a quill."
"Can you state what has been, and what is now the average quantity of water furnished to each house per day, month or year ? - It is a very difficult thing to get at that; we have not been able to get at it accurately."
"Have you no means by the mode of working your water, of ascertaining or guessing, or giving information as to the quantity of water you now supply to the public ? - No. We have an account of the coals burned by the engine, which would lead us to it."
"...some inhabitants may prefer the New River, but
there are many that think our water [London Bridge] vastly softer and take
it in preference. Q: Is it not so soft, it is not drinkable ? - A: I never
think of drinking it."
MARITIME & HISTORICAL THEMES
Member of Society for Nautical Research, Nautical Archaeology Society, Ordnance Society, Fountain Society, Anglo-Portuguese Society, Broseley Local History Society (formerly Wilkinson Society).
Associate Member of the Academia de Marinha, Lisbon.
Participating in Net-Forum of the Max Planck Institut, Berlin, for the SHIP project.
Specialist translations undertaken into English, from Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, Croatian.
PRINCIPAL INTERESTS OUTSIDE WATER ENGINEERING:
Maritime and engineering historian, specialising in shipbuilding history, ordnance at sea, Portuguese studies, infrastructure issues such as launching, careening, docks, water supply. Geometric methods of hull design, timber supply, tonnage measurement. Early iron shipbuilding. Archaeological aspects of above.
Fountains - hydraulics, history. Water supply - history, pumping and pipelines. Early steam developments.
John Wilkinson - ironmaster; especially for pumps,
guns, barges. (Formerly edited Wilkinson Studies with Douglas Braid).
BIBLIOGRAPHYof published works - complete list at November 2003. File is 35KB.
LINKS TO SELECTED PAPERS
Restricted to papers not readily available elsewhere, and with retained copyright, or permissions.
In general, these will be provided without footnotes
or figures.
"John Wilkinson and the early iron barges" (text
127KB, figure 110KB), in WSJ 15,
1987.
"...I was worse off than Noah, for I had no one to give me the least instruction
how to draught or
calculate, or build a boat, but I thought I would try, so I began by displacing
a cubic foot of water
and weighing it, and then I weighed a square foot of sheet iron, and a
lineal foot of iron for the
ribs......"
"We would like to ask in the first place, whether there exists any legitimate
or sensible reason why
a length of bar-keel intended to be straight, rectangular and out of winding,
should be
crooked from end to end......"
"Iron Boat Studies, 1990", in WS 1, 1991. (text 26KB, Tank1-photos 523KB, Tank1GA 79KB, Tank2GA 60KB, Tank1-details 80KB, IBSmetalFigs1-2, 283KB, IBSmetalFig3 228KB)
"Barges in Victorian Shropshire", in WSJ 8, 1980.
"John Wilkinson and the Paris Water Pipes" (text 76KB, figure 118KB), in WS 2, 1992.
"Fragments from the Pepysian Library", 1983 (text
only 38KB), in Rev.Univ.Coimbra XXXII, 1986
"....who being a mere schollar and preacher attained to this knowledge
in this art
and yet with a little help he would have been excellent."
""Many may peruse us": ribbands, moulds and models
in the dockyards", 1987, (text only
51KB), in Rev.Univ.Coimbra XXXIV, 1988.
"Many may peruse us, but few that will us know
We are not so simple as we to them do show
Our autour thought not good our uses to disclose
Within his head he keeps the same from all his filching foes...."
"Careening: Art and Anecdote", (text
only 90KB) in Mare Liberum 2, 1991.
"It's wonderful what you could do with main strength and foolishness"
"Cradles of Navigation: launching of ships in the age
of Discoveries", 1994, (text only 63KB)
in Limites do Mar e da Terra (VIII IRNSH, Viana), Ars Nautica 1998.
This is a short version of the paper prepared.
"...les Portugais....estiment qu'il vaut mieux que le vaisseau entre dans
l'eau par la pouppe, que par
la proue. Ils ont sans doute leurs raisons: mais il n'est point aisé
de les découvrir."
O Livro Primeiro da Architectura Naval, Academia de Marinha 1997, (text only - English translation of Lavanha; text only (105KB) - English translation of Pimentel Barata's 1965 commentary, with his updates made on the draft translation in 1983 ; excludes translator's note and appendices, all original text and figures).
"What Fernando Oliveira did not say about cork oak", 1998, (text
only 44KB) in Fernando Oliveira e o seu tempo, (IX IRNSH, Aveiro),
Ars Nautica 2000.
"A timber-tree is a Merchant Adventurer, you shall never know what he is
worth, till he be dead".
" Reader if thy faith hold out, read on; but if you find you can't believe, be gone".
"Sources for Lusitanian Shipbuilding",
(72KB) presented at Archaeology of Medieval and Modern Ships of Iberian-Atlantic
Tradition, Lisbon, 1998 (in press).
"In that document it is determined that the tribute of mermaids and other
animals fished on the
beaches of the same Order ought to be paid not to the Master but to the
Kings. From which it is
easy to collect that mermaids were frequent in our waters, seeing that
a law had been promulgated
about them". Damião de Gois, Lisboa
Quinhentista, 1555.
"Fernando Oliveira: the English Episode, 1545-7".
Academia de Marinha, Lisbon 1992 (text
only 31KB).
"The
English King [Henry VIII] ordered some galleys to be built... so that his
men should see what
the thing was...with which strategy he so emboldened his men that they
had no esteem for the
galleys of France".
Three texts arising from the Max Planck Institut Workshop on Shipbuilding practice and ship design methods from the Renaissance to the XVIII century, Berlin, November 2001, published in Preprint 245, ed H.Nowacki and M.Valleriani, Berlin 2003, and on the Workshop intranet. Note: the web versions do not include the drawings.
Whole-moulding: a preliminary study of early English and other sources.
A Venetian ship drawing of 1619.
Cradles of navigation re-visited.
"Showing the flag in 1521: wafting Beatriz to Savoy" (Presented in May 2002, at the joint XI Reunião Internacional da História da Náutica e da Hidrografia and VIII Jornadas de História Ibero-Americana, in Portimão; published in "translation" by Instituto de Cultura Ibero-Atlântica, in As novidades do mundo; conhecimento e representação na época moderna, Colibri, Lisbon 2003). A "translation" was sent for approval a few weeks before publication, and contained some 250 errors that changed the meaning of the text. The published result was hardly better. The author wishes to dissociate himself from the published version.
LINKS TO UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
Offers for publication considered.
Papers provided for participants at Max Planck Institut workshop on Shipbuilding practice and ship design methods from the Renaissance to the XVIII century, Berlin, held in November 2001.
The first three items are now available in Preprint 245, ed. H.Nowacki
and M.Valleriani, Berlin 2003, from Max Planck Institut)
Whole-moulding:
a preliminary study of early English and other sources
A
Venetian ship drawing of 1619
Cradles
of Navigation re-visited (an
enlarged and revised version of the text in Selected Papers, above)
Abstract:
Ragusan
shipbuilding in the mid-sixteenth century: some evidence for tonnage measurement
Iron Ships in Green Fields.
Paper presented at Anglo-French Maritime History conference, Greenwich,
April 2001.
Abstract
Comment on: Blue et al, "The Vattai fishing boat", in South Asian Studies, 14, 1998. Editor states by e-mail (5 Jan 2000) that there will be no mechanism in place in the immediate future to publish comments on papers - but regretted.
Comment on: McGee, "From Craftsmanship to draftsmanship" in Technology and Culture, April 1999. Committee declined to publish because points raised were "very specific to the area of expertise in question": e-mail from Editor, 23 Oct 1999.
Mariner's Mirror: Partial index for personal interests, substantially complete for Vols 1-51 (1965). File is 137KB. Note: Chatham Publishing are producing (for SNR) a CD for Volumes 1-80 in full.
International Journal for
Nautical Archaeology. Partial index,
major items only Vols 1-27 (1998).
Note: Nautical Archaeology Society published a disc for Vols 1-25
in 2002.
Paro-Parao-Prahu. Note submitted to Mariner's Mirror on the enigma of just what boat types paraos were, which are recorded in Portuguese chronicles from their first arrival in India, but are not traceable by that name elsewhere.
Portuguese fish names - translations. Restaurant menus can be entertaining - best to date, somewhere on the Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, was "Half Saint Peter with chips". This summary list of fish names may help.
Selected Texts for Shipbuilding,
etc. Texts appearing here will
have been used in published papers.
William Bourne, A Treasure for Travellers,
1578. Displacement.
Form
of ships
Richard Hawkins,
Observations.....(1593),
1622. Teredo.
(Teredo-modernised)
Walter
Raleigh, A Discourse of the Invention of Shipping (modernised
text).
Walter
Raleigh, Excellent Observations......Royal Navy and Sea-service (modernised
text).
Lusonautica: Data and Terminology.
Barrels,
materials, cargoes - selected data for
real barrels, mostly 1800 +/-; and tonnage measurement.
Leitão
& Lopes - Addenda. Proposal towards
up-dating a Portuguese maritime dictionary.
Carbonell
Pico.Sorted list of terms (only) occurring in Terminologia Naval Portuguesa.
Four
glossaries. Sorted list of terms (only)
occurring in Quirino da Fonseca, Pimentel Barata, etc.
Glossaries,
Boxer et al. Sorted list of terms occurring in miscellaneous glossaries.
Barros
- Décadas da Ásia - Selective index for artillery
and shipping.
Oceanos (CNCDP) -
List of contents, Vols.1-49.
List of translations into
English. These could be made available
to individual researchers in principle, but by personal agreement and not
in electronic form.
WEBSITES OF ORGANISATIONS
Fountain Society http://www.fountainsoc.org.uk(new address Jan 2001)
International Committee for the History of Nautical
Science and Hydrography
http://www.terravista.pt/nazare/2259/
Nautical Archaeology Society http://www.nasportsmouth.org.uk
Ordnance Society http://freespace.virgin.net/ordnance.society/index.htm
Society for Nautical Research http://www.snr.org
Max Planck Institut, Berlin, Workshop November 2001
and SHIP project
http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/SHIP/program.html
Background image: from Fragments of Ancient English Shipwightry f14
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