Ordish, Rowland Mason

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Ordish, Rowland Mason (1824–86). English civil engineer. He made most of the working-drawings for Charles (later Sir Charles) Fox (1810–74), who was responsible for the construction of Paxton's Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London (1851), and supervised the reerection of the Palace at Sydenham. He patented a type of suspension-bridge with the roadway consisting of a rigid girder suspended by inclined straight chains, known as ‘Ordish's straight-chain suspension system’ (1858). His works include Farringdon Street Bridge, Holborn Viaduct, London (1863–9), St Pancras Train-Shed roof, London (1866–8—with W. H. Barlow), the Albert Hall roof, London (1867–71), the Franz-Josef Suspension Bridge, Prague (1868), and the Albert Bridge, Chelsea, London (1872–3).

Bibliography

D&M (1985);
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)