Louis Harper

Louis Harper was a civil engineer from the north-east of Scotland who designed a number of suspension footbridges towards the end of the 19th century.

His father John Harper came from Turriff in Aberdeenshire, and worked as a fencer in Edinburgh and Glasgow before starting the family firm in Aberdeen in 1856, which became Harpers Ltd in 1885. John Harper patented a mechanism for straining wire, used both to make fences and later also for the cables of bridges. His son John took charge of the business until 1887, while his second son Louis served an apprenticeship with Jenkins & Mar, Civil Engineers.

Louis set up his own firm in 1889, later collaborating with the contractors James Abernethy & Co. In addition to his bridge projects, he assisted Aberdeen Council in surveying their town water scheme. He became an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1893, resigning in 1921. [Archives of the Institution of Civil Engineers, including Louis Harper's application for membership as A.M.I.C.E.]

The firm's early bridges included suspension bridges at Aboyne, spanning 300 feet, and at Shocklach in Cheshire, both built in 1871. Neither bridge exists today. The early bridges had wooden towers, although these were replaced in later bridges by structural steel or cast iron members.

Later bridges

* Monymusk, 1879 over the River Don, Aberdeenshire, 107 feet span
* Burnhervie, circa 1880, near Kemnay, collapsed 1979
* Birkhall, 1880, Royal Deeside, 60 feet span
* Cromdale, 1881 over the River Spey, collapsed and replaced by road bridge in 1922
* Nairn, 1887, first bridge by Louis Harper
* Crathorne Hall, 1888, 55 feet span, collapsed 1930 in flood
* Bandon, County Cork, 1890, 120 feet span
* Larbert, 1893 over the River Carron, 90 feet span
* Feugh, 1893 near Banchory
* Trentham, Staffordshire, 1893, 70 feet span, replaced in 1930s
* Grimsby, 1894, three bridges
* Sellack Boat, 1895, near Ross-on-Wye ( [http://www.brantacan.co.uk/wyebridges.htm#Sellack Pictures at Brantacan] )
* Doveridge, 1898, replaced by a bridge by David Rowell & Co. ( [http://www.bridgemeister.com/bridge.php?bid=2151 Picture at Bridgemeister] )
* Keswick, Cumbria, 1898 over River Greta, demolished 1979
* Narva, Estonia, circa 1898, 260 feet span
* Newquay, 1900, about 100 feet span ( [http://www.bridgemeister.com/bridge.php?bid=800 Picture at Bridgemeister] )
* Chovar Gorge, Nepal, 1903

A number of other bridges are proposed as having been designed by Louis Harper at the Harper Bridges website, although in the absence of clear documentary evidence, they are not listed above.

External links

* [http://www.harperbridges.com/index.html?id=1 Harper Bridges]

References