engineering

John Grantham

John Grantham 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 John Grantham rather than just read about it. In short: John Grantham (1809–1874) was an English engineer, born in Croydon Surrey, who was involved in marine, railway and tramway engineering. He was the second son of another John Grantham.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

John Grantham (1809–1874) was an English engineer, born in Croydon Surrey, who was involved in marine, railway and tramway engineering. He was the second son of another John Grantham. After leaving school, John (junior) worked with his father surveying routes for projected railway lines in England.

To Ireland His father, John Grantham (1774-1833), was appointed as John Rennie's assistant to survey the River Shannon. He introduced steam navigation to the inland Shannon in 1827 and his steam boats plied the Shannon and the Grand Canal and were taken up by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. He is buried in the cathedral at Killaloe where there is a commemorative wall tablet. His son assisted him in the work.

Return to England

Mather, Dixon and Company Returning to England, he joined Mather, Dixon and Company in Liverpool and later became a manager and partner in the firm.

Naval work Mather, Dixon and Company closed in 1843 and Grantham began a practice as a Naval Architect and Consulting Engineer. He was involved in the design of several large iron sailing and steam ships, including Sarah Sands, Pacific, Antelope and Empress Eugenie. He became Engineer to the Whitehaven Steamship Company, and other companies, and was involved in the construction of vessels for Australia and Egypt. In 1859 he left Liverpool for London, where he continued to do work for the mercantile marine.

Railways and tramways In 1860, became Engineer to the Buenos Aires Northern Railway, Argentina. In 1863, he created the first tramway in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1872 he designed a steam tramcar. This was a four-wheel double-deck car with two vertical boilers in the centre. The boilers were of the Field type and each was 18 inches diameter and 4 ft 4 in high. The engine, placed under the floor, had two cylinders, each 4" diameter and 10" stroke. These drove a single pair of driving wheels, 30" diameter. The car could be driven from either end. The car was built in 1873 by the Oldbury Carriage and Wagon Company and the steam machinery was supplied by Merryweather & Sons. The car was tried out in London, at West Brompton and in Vauxhall Bridge Road, but it was not a great success. Edward Woods modified it, by fitting a single Shand Mason boiler in place of the twin Merryweather boilers, and it was then used on the Wantage Tramway from about 1876 to 1881. The car re-appeared on the Portsdown and Horndean Tramway about 1903 and was derelict when that line closed in 1934.

Innovations In 1830, Grantham won a prize from the London and North Western Railway for a design for pulling up passenger carriages from Lime Street to Edge Hill Station, Liverpool, by stationary engines. He took out several patents for screw propellers and invented a system of sheathing iron-built ships with wood and copper, to prevent fouling in tropical climates.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Grantham

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Grantham 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 John Grantham 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 John Grantham 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 John Grantham

In research: John Grantham 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 John Grantham 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: John Grantham is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1809 births, 1874 deaths, 19th-century English people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Grantham 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.

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How to study John Grantham in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Grantham 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 John Grantham out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Grantham in simple terms?

John Grantham (1809–1874) was an English engineer, born in Croydon Surrey, who was involved in marine, railway and tramway engineering. He was the second son of another John Grantham.

Why does John Grantham 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 John Grantham?

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 John Grantham.