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The Grey Willow: a History Site

The Grey Willow: a History SiteThe Grey Willow: a History Site

Tom Paine's Bridge

 Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) is rightly known for his political writings,  particularly Common Sense (1776) which influenced America's bid  for independence, and Rights of Man (1791) which gave heightened  theoretical backing to the French Revolution and republican ideas. As a man with an analytical mind, his interests overlapped science  and politics, providing an example of how rational thought could  contribute to the advancement of mankind on this often confused  world. 

 Portrait of Thomas Paine. Engraving by William Sharp after George Romney, 1793.

© National Portrait Gallery, London.

  

He lived during the age of The Enlightenment, a period that saw a  flowering of new and inquisitive thinking about all aspects of life,  from philosophy to science, including natural history, economics,   engineering, manufacturing and politics. His restless and inquiring  mind made him fully part of this revolutionary age. Even though he never gained the success or financial security of his rich   contemporaries and friends who dominated intellectual life, he  enjoyed all the discussions of the age with relish, and contributed  more than most, corresponding with people like George Washington and  Benjamin Franklin.  


However, he is less well known for his ambitions in engineering, particularly bridge building, which he saw as a symbol of uniting  forces within the modern age.  It may perhaps have been his   boyhood training as a stay maker (stays were women's corsets  frequently made from the stiff but flexible whalebone called baleen)  that gave him an interest and understanding of engineering. But of  most importance is that fact that he saw the revolution in  engineering during the eighteenth century as parallel to the much  needed revolution in politics and society.


In the year 1779 he would have been aware that a new and revolutionary Iron Bridge had been constructed at Coalbrookdale over the River Severn, the birthplace of smelting iron and the heartland of the industrial  revolution. It was the first major bridge in the world to be constructed  entirely of iron, and it stood as an astounding beacon of the new industrial age, so much so that the town that grew up around it became known as Ironbridge.

 Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, opened  1779. 

  

Tom Paine's interest was sparked, and, being of a practical  nature, he would have understood that the new iron bridge was based on a sequence of five ribs forming a semicircle, and that the   semicircle was known throughout history to  be a secure, strong and stable way of bridging a gap.  Ever since Roman times the semicircle was  used, be it for the  vault of a roof or as a bridge over a river. The use of iron was  essentially a new and stronger yet lighter method of creating an   arch, more convenient and less labour intensive than the vast  quantities of heavy stone that had previously been used.


However, the main  drawback of a semicircle is that the width determines the height.  That is, the wider the gap, the higher the arch would be, making it lack flexibility. It could work in steep gorges like the Severn Gorge where the roadway   was high up, but most often it would result in an unpractically high arch, creating a hump-back bridge difficult for horses and carts to  get over.


The solution used by the Romans and most bridge builders of the medieval  and renaissance period was to use a sequence of small arches crossing a river step  by step. This was fine, but clumsy and too many small arches, each needing footings built into the river bed, was both an enormous amount of work and could restrict the flow of the river, as happened  with the old London Bridge, which had no less than nineteen arches to  get across the River Thames.


There was a need to create a method of spanning wider gaps with fewer individual arches. The first step towards this ambition was taken by  the Italian Renaissance architect Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511 - 1592)  who, with an artistic flourish worthy of a great mannerist, built the Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence (1567 - 1569),  which used  just three low elliptic arches to cross the River Arno and which was  the first of its kind in the world. Built of stone, it was a  remarkable achievement and pushed the boundaries of what could be  constructed with stone.

 Ponte Santa Trinita, Florence, 1567-1569, by Bartolomeo Ammannati.  Rebuilt after being destroyed during the Second World War.

Photo by Sailko, Wikimedia Commons.

  

However, Ammannati's bridge was a once off act of creative  genius, of artistic insight, and was designed in response to a particular situation.  It was so far ahead of its time that it was never going to be a formula that could be reproduced in different situations around the world.


The new material that emerged during the eighteenth century, cast and wrought iron, suddenly opened up the possibility of a more  rational and ambitious approach to bridge building. For the first  time consideration could be given to spanning wide rivers with  a single arch. 


Tom Paine's idea, which he evolved during the 1780s, was to adopt the new material, iron, but to go back to the arch based on a stable  circular form, and at the same time somehow give it the flexibility to be made  bigger or smaller, wider or narrower, higher or lower, as required  by the geography of the location, without the height being  predetermined, as it would be with a semicircle.  The solution was, he claimed, based on   his  observation  of a spider's web, a form derived directly from nature. He was keen  on the fundamental structures of nature being the basis for our own   human efforts at construction. 


Taking one section of a spider's web was like taking a small section across a circle, called in geometry a cord.  The bridge could be based on that cord. The  starting point is to draw a large imaginary circle, then draw a cord across a section of the  circle that matches the width of the river or gap one wishes to  bridge.  In the drawing  below the cord is marked A-B. The arc of the circle above the cord  becomes the arch of the bridge, and the roadway, marked C-D in the   drawing, can be placed on top. Any supporting struts can be placed  as radiuses, pointing towards the centre  of the original circle, making the structure very stable.

Modern sketch of Tom Paine's bridge idea. 

  

The key point is that the size of the circle can be  infinitely varied according to the width of the gap being bridged. Also, the exact position of the cord (A-B) can be moved up or down  so that there is a degree of flexibility and scope to match the width with the required height.  This means that a formula   could  be used to construct bridges over a wide variety of situations. His  insight would today be called an algorithm with universal  applications.


Tom Paine was so keen on his idea that in 1788 he took out a  patent on it, which was granted on 26th August 1788 as patent No. 1667. (See Appendix 1.)  This was aimed at constructing a   bridge over the River Don in Yorkshire, but  although he was awarded  the patent, nothing happened about actually building the bridge.  Paine was not a modest man, some considered him an egoist, so he did  publicise his ideas widely and gained the approval of people like Thomas Jefferson, who wrote warmly about the merits of the bridge. Paine even wrote to George Washington about it, but he still lacked  evidence that his concept really worked on the ground and it was  getting hard to obtain funding. 


In order to demonstrate the concept of his bridge, he decided to  make a large model, made of iron and over 100 feet wide, which would be open to the public to view for an admission fee.  The location he chose was at Lisson Green, a road junction at the edge of Paddington, north west   of London.  Here there was a well known pub called The Yorkshire Stingo,  which had a bowing green and fields around it, giving the space he needed for the display of his bridge.

  

Drawing of The Yorkshire Stingo.

© Westminster City Archive, London.

 In 1790 he moved into the Yorkshire Stingo and there constructed his model bridge.   So far as  we know it was on the Bowling Green behind the tavern,  seen in the map below. 

 Horwood's Plan of London, 1799, showing  the Yorkshire Stingo and the Bowling Green behind it. 

  

The iron components were manufactured by Thomas Walker of  Rotherham, and transported by ship to London.  Having already  attempted to sell his bridge idea in England, New York and Paris,   all without success, this model in Marylebonecould have been of great importance because it could demonstrate the viability and  solidity of his idea and gain the interest of the authorities.


However,  although people were interested in the bridge, there was no real response in terms of money or investment.  After a year the bridge was getting rusty and needed to be dismantled.  It is believed that the components were sold to Thomas Walker, the iron manufacturer in Rotherham, and sent north to become part of the  new Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland, which was the second iron bridge  to be built in Britain.  When it was opened in 1796 it was the   widest single span bridge in the world.  

Design for Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland, attributed to Thomas Paine. Ink and Watercolour, 1791. 
C

  

Design for Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland, attributed to Thomas Paine. Ink and Watercolour, 1791. 

Courtesy of the Trustees of Sir John Soane's Museum. Photo: Ardon Bar-Hama.

Wearmouth Bridge by J.M.W. Turner, 1817.
© Tate Britain, London.


Wearmouth Bridge by J.M.W. Turner, 1817.

© Tate Britain, London.

 The fact that Turner, the most highly regarded artist in Britain, chose to visit the site and sketch the  bridge indicates how noteworthy and revolutionary it was considered to be. Here below is a later nineteenth-century photograph of the Wearmouth  Bridge, capturing what is possibly the clearest photographic expression ever recorded of Tom Paine's idea. Tom did not see the bridge being built  and did not get any credit for it, all  of which went to local worthies, the iron manufacturer Thomas Walker and Rowland  Burdon, the local MP. 

  

Wearmouth Bridge, Sunderland.

This bridge was demolished in 1929 and   replaced with the present bridge.

© Courtesy of HES (Sir William Arrol   Collection)

Appendix 1

  

Tom Paine's Patent 


A.D. 1788  .  .  .  .  No 1667.
Constructing Arches, Vaulted Roofs, and Ceilings.
 

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS PAINE, send   greeting.
 

WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of August, in the Twenty-eighth year of His   reign, did give unto me, the said Thomas Paine, His special licence  that I, the said Thomas Paine, during the term of fourteen years  therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,  and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my  Invention of “A METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING OF ARCHES, VAULTED ROOFS, AND  CIELINGS, EITHER IN IRON OR WOOD, ON PRINCIPLES NEW AND DIFFERENT TO  ANYTHING HITHERTO PRACTICED, BY MEANS OF WHICH CONSTRUCTION ARCHES,  VAULTED ROOFS, AND CIELINGS MAY BE ERECTED TO THE EXTENT OF SEVERAL  HUNDRED FEET BEYOND WHAT CAN BE PERFORMED IN THE PRESENT PRACTICE OF   ARCHITECTURE;” in which said Letters Patent there is contained a  proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Paine, to cause a particular   description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my  hand and seal, to be inrolled in His Majesty’s High Court of  Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the  date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same  (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
 

NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas Paine, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A Method  of Constructing of Arches, Vaulted Roofs, and Cielings, either in   Iron or Wood, on Principles New and Different to anything hitherto  practiced, by means of which Construction, Arches, Vaulted Roofs,  and Cielings may be Erected to the Extent of several Hundred Feet  beyond what can be performed in the present practice of  Architecture, is described in manner following (that is to say):—
 

The idea and construction of this arch is taken from the figure of a spider’s circular web, of which it resembles a section, and from a  conviction that when nature empowered this insect to make a web she also instructed her in the strongest mechanical method of constructing it.
 

 Another idea, taken from nature in the construction of this arch,  is that of increasing the strength of matter by dividing and  combining it, and thereby causing it to act over a larger space than  it would occupy in a solid state, as is seen in the quills of birds,  bones of animals, reeds, canes, etc. The curved bars of the arch are  composed of pieces of any length joined together to the whole extent  of the arch, and take curveture by bending. Those curves, to any  number, height, or thickness, as the extent of the arch may require,  are raised concentrically one above another, and separated, when the  extent of the arch requires it, by the interposition of blocks,  tubes, or pins, and the whole bolted close and fast together (the  direction of the radius is the best) through the whole thickness of  the arch, the bolts being made fast by a head pin or screw at each  end of them. This connection forms one arched rib, and the number of  ribs to be used is in proportion to the breadth and extent of the  arch, and those separate ribs are also combined and braced together  by bars passing ’cross all the ribs, and made fast thereto above and  below, and as often wherever the arch, from its extent, depth, and  breadth, requires. When this arch is to be applied to the purpose of  a bridge, which requires more arches than one, they are to be  connected in the following manner (that is to say):—Wood piles are  to be driven into the earth; over each of those piles are to be let  fall a hollow iron or metal case, with a broad foot let into a bed;  the interspace between the case and the wood pile to be filled up  with a cement and pinned together. The whole number of those pillars are to be braced together, and formed into a platform for receiving  and connecting the arches. The interspaces of those pillars may be  filled with plates of iron or lattice work so as to resemble a pier,  or left open so as to resemble a colonade of any of the orders of  architecture. Among the advantages of this construction is that of  rendering the construction of bridges into a portable manufacture,  as the bars and parts of which it is composed need not be longer or  larger than is convenient to be stowed in a vessel, boat, or waggon,  and that with as much compactness as iron or timber is transported  to or from Great Britain; and a bridge of any extent upon this  construction may be manufactured in Great Britain and sent to any  part of the world to be erected. For the purpose of preserving the  iron from dust it is to be varnished over with a coat of melted  glass. It ought to be observed, that extreme simplicity, though   striking to the view, is difficult to be conceived from description,   although such description exactly accords, upon inspection, with the  thing described. A practicable method of constructing arches to  several hundred feet span, with a small elevation, is the  desideratum of bridge architecture, and it is the principle and  practicability of constructing and connecting such arches so as  totally to remove or effectually lessen the danger and inconvenience   of obstructing the channell of rivers, together with that of adding  a new and important manufacture to the iron works of the nation,  capable of transportation and exportation, that is herein described.  When this arch is to be applied to the purpose of a roof and ceiling  cords may be added to the arch to supply the want of butments, which  are to be braced to or connected with the arch by perpendiculars.
 

In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Paine, have here-unto set my  hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our  Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.

THOMAS (L.S.) PAINE. 


Sealed and delivered, being first duly
stamped, in the presence of


PETER WHITESIDE.
 

AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of September,  in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George  the Third, the said Thomas Paine came before our said Lord the King  in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all  and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above  written. And also the Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to  the tenor of the several Statutes made in the sixth year of the  reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so  forth, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third years of the reign of  His Majesty King George the Third.
 

MONTAGU.
 

Inrolled the said Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year last above written. 


From http://www.bartleby.com/184/209.html

Further Reading:


https://greatwen.com/2011/07/18/thomas-paines-london-bridge/

http://www.vqronline.org/essay/thomas-paine-bridge-builder

http://www.innovationgateway.org/content/tom-paine%E2%80%99s-bridge-1?page=showEdward 


G. Grey, Tom Paine's Iron  Bridge: Building a United States.

W. W. Norton & Company, 25  Apr 2016.


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