engineering

Rowland Mason Ordish

Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish rather than just read about it. In short: Rowland Mason Ordish (11 April 1824 – 1886) was an English engineer. He is most noted for his design of the Winter Garden, Dublin (1865), for his detailed work on the single-span roof of London's St Pancras railway station, undertaken with William Henry Barlow (1868) and the Albert Bridge, a crossing of the River Thames in London, completed in 1873.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Rowland Mason Ordish (11 April 1824 – 1886) was an English engineer. He is most noted for his design of the Winter Garden, Dublin (1865), for his detailed work on the single-span roof of London's St Pancras railway station, undertaken with William Henry Barlow (1868) and the Albert Bridge, a crossing of the River Thames in London, completed in 1873.

Biography

Born in Melbourne, Derbyshire, Ordish was the son of a land agent and surveyor. He worked with Charles Fox, who was responsible for the construction of Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, in 1851. He subsequently supervised its re-erection in Sydenham, south London. His other projects included:

Farringdon Street Bridge, London Holborn Viaduct, London (1863–1869) Derby market hall (1866) Franz Joseph I Suspension Bridge, over the Vltava, Prague (1868, bombed 1941, demolished in 1947) Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore (1869) Esplanade Mansions, Mumbai, India (1869) dome of Royal Albert Hall, London (1871) He died in 1886 and was buried in a family grave on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.

Bridge design

In 1858 Ordish patented a bridge suspension system, which he later used in the design of bridges across several European rivers that include Neva at St Petersburg. The system, which consists of a rigid girder suspended by inclined straight chains, was known as Ordish's straight-chain suspension system. The Ordish–Lefeuvre Principle is named after him and his partner William Henry Le Feuvre (1832–1896) from Jersey (together the pair submitted plans for the department store De Gruchy's in St Helier, Jersey).

References

External links Prosser, Richard Bissell. "Ordish, Rowland Mason" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 243–244.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rowland Mason Ordish

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish

In research: Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish 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: Rowland Mason Ordish is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1824 births, 1886 deaths, 19th-century British civil engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Rowland Mason Ordish in simple terms?

Why does Rowland Mason Ordish 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 Rowland Mason Ordish?

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 Rowland Mason Ordish.