Editing Alexander Mitchell (engineer)

{{Short description|Irish inventor and engineer (1780–1868)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=October 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox engineer
| name              = Alexander Mitchell
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MICE}}
| image             = AlexanderMitchellWithDundalkBayInRearGround Portrait 1873 OilOnCanvas ByRobertHooke BelfastHarbourCommissioners.jpg
| caption           = 1873 portrait of Mitchell, by Richard Hooke, with Dundalk Bay and lighthouse to rear
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1780|4|13}}
| birth_place       = [[Dublin]], [[Kingdom of Ireland]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1868|6|25|1780|4|13}}
| death_place       = Near [[Belfast]], Ireland
| education         = [[Belfast Royal Academy]]
| known_for         = [[Screw-pile lighthouse]]
| notable_works     = {{ubl|[[Maplin Sands#History|Maplin Sands Lighthouse]]|[[Wyre Light]]|[[Spit Bank Lighthouse]]}}
| awards            = [[Telford Medal]] (1848)
| discipline        = [[Civil engineering]]
| significant_design = [[Screw piles]]
}}
'''Alexander Mitchell''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MICE}} (13 April 1780 – 25 June 1868) was an Irish [[engineer]] who from 1802 was [[blindness|blind]].<ref name="blaney">{{cite journal|url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/alexander-mitchell-1780-1868-belfasts-blind-engineer/ |journal=History Ireland |issue=  3 | volume= 14 |author= Jim Blaney |title=Alexander Mitchell (1780–1868): Belfast's blind engineer |date=June 2006 |access-date=23 February 2016}}</ref> He is known as the inventor of the [[screw-pile lighthouse]].

==Early life==
Born in [[Dublin]], his family moved to Belfast while he was a child,<ref name="ejDotIe">{{cite web |url = http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2015/06/30/alexander-mitchell-blind-irish-engineer/ |publisher = Engineers Journal Ireland |date = 30 June 2015 |title = Alexander Mitchell: the blind Irish engineer who enabled seafarers to see in the dark |author = Kenneth L Mitchell |access-date = 23 February 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190128005224/http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2015/06/30/alexander-mitchell-blind-irish-engineer/ |archive-date = 28 January 2019 |url-status = dead }}</ref> and he received his formal education at [[Belfast Royal Academy]], where he excelled in [[mathematics]].

==Career==
[[File:Belfast Lough Screwpile Lighthouse.jpg|thumb|upright|Plan from the late 1840s of Mitchell's lighthouse in Belfast Lough]]
[[File:Hopper barge apparatus 2.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Mitchell's screwpile method]]
Originally working in brickmaking in [[Belfast]], he invented machines used in that trade, before patenting the [[Screwpiles|screw-pile]] in 1833, for which he would later gain some fame.<ref name="boi">{{cite web|url=http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/Surveys/Buildings/BuildingoftheMonth/Archive/Name,1402,en.html |publisher=Buildings of Ireland: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage |title=Building of the Month – Spit Bank Lighthouse, Cobh, County Cork |date=November 2009 |access-date=23 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Alan J. |last=Lutenegger |title=Historical development of iron screw-pile foundations, 1836–1900 |journal=International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology |publisher=[[Newcomen Society]] |volume=81 |year=2011 |pages=108–28 |doi=10.1179/175812109X12547332391989 |s2cid=109521534 }}</ref> The screw-pile was used for the erection of [[lighthouse]]s and other structures on mudbanks and shifting sands, including bridges and piers. Mitchell's designs and methods were employed all over the world from [[Portland, Maine|Portland]] breakwater to [[Bombay]] bridges. Initially it was used for the construction of lighthouses on [[Maplin Sands]] in the [[Thames Estuary]] (the first light application, in 1838), the [[Wyre Light]] at [[Fleetwood]] in Lancashire (the first such beacon lit) completed, in 1839), and at [[Belfast Lough]] where his lighthouse was finished in July 1844.

In May 1851 he moved to [[Cobh]] to lay the foundation for a [[Spit Bank Lighthouse|lighthouse on the Spit Bank]];<ref name="wales">{{cite journal|url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/spitbank-lighthouse/ |journal=History Ireland |author= Jane Wales |title=Spitbank Lighthouse |issue=  2 | volume = 18 |date=April 2010 |access-date=23 February 2016}}</ref> the success of these undertakings led to the use of his invention on the breakwater at [[Portland Harbour|Portland]], the viaduct and bridges on the [[Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway]] and a broad system of Indian telegraphs.

While in Cork, Mitchell became friendly with [[astronomer]] [[John Thomas Romney Robinson]], and [[mathematician]] [[George Boole]].

==Awards and honours==
In 1848, he was elected a member of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] and received the [[Telford Medal]] the same year for a paper on his invention.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.piertech.com/blog/blog/historic-figure-spotlight-alexander-mitchell.html |title= Historic Figure Spotlight: Alexander Mitchell | publisher= PierTech.com |access-date = 23 February 2016}}</ref>

==Death==
Mitchell died at Glen Devis near Belfast on 25 June 1868.<ref name="ejDotIe"/> His wife and daughter had predeceased him.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Alexander Mitchell (engineer)}}
* [https://www.dib.ie/biography/mitchell-alexander-a5835 Mitchell, Alexander - Dictionary of Irish Biography - 2009] {{doi|10.3318/dib.005835.v1}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Alexander (engineer)}}
[[Category:1780 births]]
[[Category:1868 deaths]]
[[Category:Engineers from County Dublin]]
[[Category:Irish engineers]]
[[Category:Irish inventors]]
[[Category:Lighthouse builders]]
[[Category:People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy]]
[[Category:Irish blind people]]
[[Category:Scientists with disabilities]]
[[Category:Engineers from Belfast]]


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