- William Handyside
William Handyside (1793–1850) was a Scottish engineer who was involved in several important construction projects in
St. Petersburg .Born in
Edinburgh on25 July 1793 , to merchant Hugh Handyside and his wife Margaret, he was the eldest brother ofAndrew Handyside and nephew of Charles Baird. On a visit to Scotland in 1810 Baird invited William, then a trainee architect, to join his flourishing business in St. Petersburg and live in his household. Later, in 1829, Handyside married Sophia Gordon Busch and had four children.His first projects included installing machinery at the imperial
arsenal and glassworks and helping build the "Elizaveta" steamship, launched in 1815. He was a talented engineer and contributed to the development of Baird Works'steamship and steam engine manufacturing. He developed a gas lighting system for the factory and the sugar refining process conceived by Baird. When the company started working withWilhelm von Traitteur andPierre Bazaine on the first Russiansuspension bridges in the 1820s, Handyside designed a machine to test the chains which is described in Traitteur's writings.Most famously, Handyside worked with
Auguste de Montferrand on theAlexander Column andSt. Isaac's Cathedral . His experience was the basis for a paper presented to theInstitution of Civil Engineers describing "methods of hauling large s". [Biog. Dic. of Civil Engineers] In 1835, a "communication" was read to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh describing" ...the cutting and erection of the great Pillar at St Peterburgh in memory of Alexander the I, Emperor of Russia, by Wm. Handyside, Esq. Engineer, St Petersburgh, who was engaged on that occasion, and more particularly in the casting of the Bronze work." (original spelling) ["The Scotsman",28 March 1835 ]Handyside had a leading role in designing the large iron structure of the cathedral dome, gilding it and casting the bronze ornamentation, though
Francis Baird oversaw the later stages of this process. He worked on the ground level colonnade of pillars and the columns supporting the dome and devised special machinery to help with construction.After Baird's death in 1843, William and Andrew Handyside both returned to the
UK though other Handyside brothers remained in Russia. William retired, while taking some part in the proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers which he had belonged to since 1822. He died on26 May 1850 at his mother's Edinburgh home, where she had died the previous month.References
* [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jeOMfpYMOtYC|A.W Skempton, M.M. Chrimes, R.C.Cox, P.S.M.Cross-Rudkin, R.W. Rennison, E.C. Ruddock, "Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol 1" (London 2002)] ISBN 072772939X
*"Oxford Dictionary of National Biography"
* [http://archive.scotsman.com "Scotsman" archives]ee also
*
Moika River
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
