WEBB, EDWARD BRAINERD #

English engineer, for whom see memoir in Min.Proc.Inst.CE 57 (1878-79, Pt. III), 311-315. Edward Brainerd Webb came to Ireland in 1846 as acting engineer for the contractors on the Londonderry & Coleraine Railway. As such he was responsible for a variety of works: a long sea embankment, a land reclamation embankment, rock blasting and the construction of several tunnels. One of these, the memoir notes, '280 yards in length, was laid out on a curve with neither shaft nor side -heading. The accuracy with this was ranged was such that the boring-bars of the miners working on the opposite faces of the heading literally met in the rock.' In 1851 he assisted JAMES ABERNETHY  JAMES ABERNETHY in preparing a report on the improvement of the Bann Navigation.

Webb left Ireland for Brazil towards the end of 1852 and spent the rest of his extremely active career in England and South America.

Inst.CE: elected member 7 December 1858.(1)

(1) Noted in DB 1, 1 Oct 1859, 127.