Bindon Blood Stoney

Bindon Blood Stoney (13 June 1828 – 5 May 1909) was an Irish civil engineer, who served as the chief engineer of the Dublin Port and Docks Board from 1852 to 1898. In 1851, Stoney discovered the spiral galaxy NGC 5609. On 30 March 1835, Stoney and his siblings were was baptised at the Newman Street Catholic Apostolic Church in Marylebone.

In 1850, Stoney graduated for Trinity College Dublin with a BA and a diploma in civil engineering with distinction. There he accurately mapped the spiral form of the Andromeda Galaxy

On 1 March 1851 he discovered the spiral galaxy NGC 5609, which is the most distant visually observed galaxy in the NGC catalogue.

Engineering

Bindon's career in engineering commenced when he worked on surveys for the Aranjuez to Almansa railway in Spain from 1852 to 1853. Upon returning to Ireland in 1854, he was appointed as resident engineer under James Barton on the Boyne railway viaduct until its completion in 1855. This viaduct claimed to have the longest span in the world and had the world's longest girders at the time.

Bindon's groundbreaking work building a metal bridge with a span of such dimensions using shock-absorbent wrought-iron latticed bars instead of a continuity of plate with Barton was possibly the first of its kind. It was the basis for his later two-volume publication The theory of strains in girders and similar structures, with observations on the strength and other properties of materials (1866), nicknamed 'Stoney on strains' and reproduced in two further editions.

Bindon became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in January 1858 and a full member in November 1863.

In 1856, Bindon was appointed as assistant engineer to George Halpin Junior at the Ballast Board on Westmoreland Street and in 1859 he was appointed as Executive Engineer.

Bindon designed a large dredging plant and rebuilt nearly 7,000 ft of quay walls along both north and south banks of the River Liffey, replacing the tidal berths by deep water berths. Additionally, the northern quays were lengthened eastwards and the formation of Alexandra Basin begun in 1871 and was partially completed by 1885. In addition to harbour works, Stoney was in charge of the design and construction of two major bridges that crossed the River Liffey. In 1872–1875 he largely rebuilt Essex Bridge, designed in the 1750s by George Semple to his own flamboyant design; it was renamed Grattan Bridge after Henry Grattan. Towards the end of Bindon's career, he erected the North Bull lighthouse (1877–80) to replace the inadequate light on the Bull Wall marking the northern side of the Dublin port channel entrance opposite Poolbeg lighthouse before finally retiring in 1898.

Honours Bindon was admitted to the Royal Irish Academy in 1857. In 1874, he was awarded the Telford medal and Telford premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for a paper documenting his work on the northern quays. Stoney was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 2 June 1881.

Stoney Road in East Wall is named after Stoney.

Personal life Stoney married Susannah Frances Walker on 7 October 1879; they had four children. He is buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.