engineering

Job Abbott

Job Abbott is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Job Abbott rather than just read about it. In short: Job Abbott (August 23, 1845 – August 18, 1896) was an American-born Canadian civil engineer who helped pioneer the construction of steel bridges in Canada, including many for the Canadian Pacific Railway, such as the 3,400-foot (1,000 m) Lachine Bridge in Montreal. Early life Abbott was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1845.

Key takeaways

Job Abbott belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Job Abbott to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Job Abbott from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Job Abbott (August 23, 1845 – August 18, 1896) was an American-born Canadian civil engineer who helped pioneer the construction of steel bridges in Canada, including many for the Canadian Pacific Railway, such as the 3,400-foot (1,000 m) Lachine Bridge in Montreal.

Early life Abbott was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1845. His father was a farmer named Nathan Abbott, and his mother was Elizabeth Noyes. He went to high school at Phillips Academy and graduated from Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University in 1864.

Early career Abbott started his career working for the Manchester Locomotive Works before becoming an assistant engineer with the Long Island Rail Road at the Glen Cove branch. He then joined the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad as an assistant engineer, provided a layout for the town of Canton, Ohio, and became a civil and mining engineer. He also became a lawyer, joining the Ohio bar and specializing in patent law. In 1872, he became vice-president and chief engineer of Wrought Iron Bridge Company, a company that specialized in prefabricated bridges. In 1879, Canada introduced the National Policy which applied a 25 percent tariff on imported fabricated steelwork and ironwork. With the support of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, Canadian engineers created a new Canadian enterprise called Toronto Bridge Company, and Abbott became a minor shareholder and consultant. Toronto Bridge Company struggled to be profitable in its first year of operations, so Abbott was appointed as president and chief engineer. As president, company sales improved but were limited by having their headquarters in Toronto.

Dominion Bridge Abbott and his colleagues seized control of Toronto Bridge Company and formed a new company in Montreal on September 23, 1882, called the Dominion Bridge Company Limited. The company focused on manufacturing iron and steel, and building bridges throughout Canada, particularly railroad bridges for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Abbott was its president and chief engineer, and also a salesman for the company. Abbott designed the first through cantilever bridge in North America for Reversing Falls in Saint John, New Brunswick. Abbott also designed the Lachine Bridge in Montreal and the Grand Narrows Bridge on Cape Breton Island. In October 1887 Abbott took a temporary leave from the company for health reasons, but returned in March 1888. He left the company permanently in June due to his health.

Return to the United States, death and legacy Abbott moved to New York City in 1889 and continued as a director of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company. In 1889 he began working for the New York Rapid Transit Railway, and the following year he resigned as president of Dominion Bridge, but remained as a consultant to the company. He became the chief engineer for NY Rapid Transit and a consultant with other American railway companies. While working in Maine, Abbott's health declined again but he remained in the state for an additional year. He traveled back to Andover, and died there on August 18, 1896. In 1891, he was elected as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

References

Further reading Discovering heritage bridges on Ontario’s roads – D. J. Cuming, (Erin, Ont., 1983) ISBN 978-0919822610

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Job Abbott

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Job Abbott claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Job Abbott before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Job Abbott ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Job Abbott

In research: Job Abbott appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Job Abbott in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Job Abbott is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1845 births, 1896 deaths, 19th-century American civil engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Job Abbott outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Job Abbott in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Job Abbott means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Job Abbott out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Job Abbott in simple terms?

Why does Job Abbott matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Job Abbott?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Job Abbott.