John Alexander Brodie (1858 – 1934) was an English civil engineer. He was especially known for his contribution to town planning in Liverpool, notably as one of the engineers who led the design of the Mersey Tunnel under the River Mersey He is also known for inventing the netting for soccer goals in 1891. Prior to that there were no nets and there were constant arguments on whether a goal was actually scored.[1]
Early life
John Alexander Brodie was born in Bridgnorth on 1 June 1858. His father, James Brodie, was a Scottish man from Kettins. Brodie served his apprenticeship in 1875, working in the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board engineering department under Chief Engineer George Fosbery Lyster. In 1879, he won scholarships to study mathematics at Owen's College in Manchester. After graduation, he served a three-year traineeship in the office of Sir Joseph Whitworth.
Civil engineering career
After a short spell working for the Liverpool City Engineer's Department, he set up a private consultancy and spent some time working in Bilbao, Spain. He returned to Britain in 1884.[1][2]
Brodie was a keen sportsman and played rugby and golf. In 1889 he invented the goal net for use in football matches, and he said that this was the invention of which he was the most proud.[2][3][4]
Brodie returned to Liverpool in 1898 as the city engineer suggesting several improvements for the town such as the UK's first ring road, electric trams and the East Lancashire Road, the UK's first intercity highway.[1]
Cross-section illustration of Brodie's proposals for a dual carriageway with a central segregated tram track in Liverpool (1914)
Brodie was at the forefront of pre-fabricated housing technology, promoting the use of pre-cast reinforced concrete slabs as a means of building houses quickly and cheaply; he presented an example of this technique to the Cheap Cottages Exhibition at Letchworth Garden City. The design attracted attention from across the world and he is known to have influenced Grosvenor Atterbury who used a similar technique to build the houses at Forest Hills Gardens.[1]
Brodie was also interested in town planning and this was recognised in 1912 when he was asked to help select the site of and plan New Delhi. He visited India twice for this purpose and in 1931 was invited to the official opening ceremony by the viceroy owing to the high regard that Edwin Lutyens, the chief planner had for him.[1]
Brodie designed the Queensway Road Tunnel under the River Mersey (opened 1934)
Brodie's greatest engineering achievement was the Mersey Tunnel. Brodie worked on this project jointly with engineer Sir Basil Mott and the tunnel was completed in 1934 following nine years in the making. Running from Liverpool city centre under the River Mersey to emerge in Birkenhead, the tunnel was originally conceived with a tramway for Liverpool Corporation Tramways which would run along a lower section beneath the roadway, but this plan was later abandoned. At the time of its construction it was the world's longest underwater road tunnel, a title it held for 24 years, and remains to this day the UK's largest municipal engineering project.[9][10][11]
Personal life
Brodie married Aimée Freeland, the daughter of Hugh Freeland from Uddingston, in 1897 in Glasgow. They had two sons and two daughters.
_(14782417514).jpg){kind=spacer}
.jpg)
