James B. Francis , 
 
 Engineer. 
 

 
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JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS. 
 
 By HIRAM F. MILLS. 
 
 Read to the Corporation of the Institute of Technology, December 14, 1892. 
 
 Our friend, and the friend of this institution, whose name has for 
 five years stood first in the list of members of this corporation, passed 
 on to his new field of usefulness on the 18th of last September. 
 From its organization for twenty-seven years Mr. James B. Francis 
 has attended the meetings of this board, worked on its committees, 
 advised and encouraged the Faculty of the Institute, and has been 
 a personal and professional aid to many of its graduates. 
 
 Born at Southleigh, Oxfordshire, England, on May 18, 1815, Mr. 
 Francis, like his loved friend, Mr. Hoadley — whose memory we all 
 revere — began the work which led on to his profession at the early 
 age of fourteen. Mr. Hoadley at that age began work in a machine 
 shop, and Mr. Francis began assisting the engineer in constructing 
 harbor works in Porth Cawl in South Wales, of which his father was 
 superintendent. Two years later, in 1831, he was employed on the 
 construction of the Grand Western Canal in Devonshire and Somer- 
 setshire. In the spring of 1833, before he was eighteen years old, he 
 emigrated to this country, and soon found employment as an assistant 
 engineer under William Gibbs McNeil and George W. Whistler, on 
 the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad. 
 
 In 1834 Mr. Francis went with Major Whistler to Lowell, and 
 began his work there by making working drawings of the details of 
 one of the locomotives built by Stephenson for the Boston and Lowell 
 Railroad, for reproduction in the machine shop of the Proprietors of 
 Locks and Canals on Merrimack River. He remained as assistant 
 engineer under Major Whistler until 1837, when the latter left Lowell 
 and soon after went to Russia to introduce railway construction in that 
 country, and Mr. Francis, at the age of twenty-two, was made chief 
 engineer of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, 
 which position he held for forty-eight years. 
 
 In 1845 be was invited by Mr. Storrow to assist him in developing 
 the water power of the Merrimack River at what is now Lawrence, 
 
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 but the Proprietors of Locks and Canals concluded that they needed 
 him more at Lowell ; they consequently increased his salary, and on 
 September 27, 1845, appointed him their agent and engineer, and for 
 the following forty years he had the management of the water power 
 there, and the construction of the numerous improvements that have 
 been made in the works connected with it. His duties also included 
 the position, without name, of consulting engineer to the various man- 
 ufacturing corporations at Lowell. Seeing that the performance of 
 these duties in a manner satisfactory to him required greater prelimi- 
 nary training in mathematics and applied mechanics than his early 
 education had afforded, he applied himself assiduously to the study of 
 these subjects, taking by himself, in the leisure hours of a very busy 
 life, an advanced course of study in these subjects, which put him 
 abreast of the best educated engineers of his generation. 
 
 His habits of thought were methodical. He was often asked by 
 the directors of his ^company, or by the agents of the manufacturing 
 companies, in regard to questions concerning their peculiar depart- 
 ments of business, in such variety that no one not in the special 
 business could be expected to give advice ; but he, taking the question 
 definitely in mind, went to his office and began a page of his calcula- 
 tion book with “Mr. wants to know” so and so. He would then 
 
 write out in full whatever of value he could find published upon that 
 subject, together with his conclusions, and when he met his questioner 
 again was ready to discuss the subject in all its bearings and give 
 intelligent advice. From this habit of thoroughly investigating the 
 subjects that came before him, and writing out his data and conclu- 
 sions in form for convenient future reference, he came to be rightly 
 acknowledged as an authority on a great variety of subjects. 
 
 The experiments of Eaton Hodgkinson on the best form for cast- 
 iron beams had been published three years previously, but before using 
 the results in an important position Mr. Francis preferred to try 
 beams made of the full size required, and of iron commonly used for 
 such purposes in Lowell. He accordingly had a beam constructed 
 having a span of nineteen feet and a depth of fifteen and one eighth 
 inches, and on January 7, 1845, broke it with 69,821 pounds applied 
 at the center. He then altered the pattern and broke another beam 
 with a load of 1 14,000 pounds. These are the earliest experiments 
 I have found upon large beams of American iron. 
 
 In 1846 Mr. Francis made designs for the enlargement of the 
 water nower at Lowell, and constructed the grand canal with its river 
 
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 wall thirty-six feet in height, the body of which is a dry stone wall 
 *with joints perpendicular to the battering face, and having a water 
 tight lining of small stones in cement on the canal side. He here 
 introduced vertical screws for hoisting the head gates with nuts driven 
 by a turbine. The entire cost of these improvements, amounting to 
 $530,000, very slightly exceeded his estimates. In constructing the 
 guard dam at the head gates of this canal, in 1847, he determined 
 the proper height by investigating the past great freshets that had 
 occurred on the river, and concluded that the guard dam and lock at 
 the old canal required to be raised. They were built to the height 
 of the new guard dam in 1848. Then Mr. Francis concluded that 
 the lock gates were insufficient to withstand such a freshet as occurred 
 in 1785, and recommended the construction of a great gate twenty- 
 seven feet wide and twenty-five feet high. This was accordingly built 
 in 1850, and hung high in the air over the lock. The need of this gate 
 was beyond the comprehension of most of the people, and it was not 
 uncommonly spoken of as Francis’ folly. Only two years later, in 
 April, 1852, a freshet arose higher than ever before above the dam 
 until there was imminent danger of destroying an immense amount 
 of property. 
 
 Mr. Francis, in writing of the great freshets in the Merrimack 
 River, modestly says : “ The great gate in the guard lock was hung in 
 1850, two years only before the freshet of 1852, when it was dropped. 
 This is the only occasion when it' has been of service, but it is kept 
 in readiness for use at any time. The new gate was placed across the 
 lock about forty-six feet below the old gates, which were not changed, 
 but were supposed to be sufficient to hold until the water attained the 
 height it was in 1785, or to about thirteen and a half feet above 
 the top of the dam ; but it proved to be otherwise. At three o’clock 
 in the morning of April 22, 1852, the water found its way round the 
 heel post of the westerly gate, the height of water at the time being 
 eleven feet ten and a quarter inches above the top of the dam. 
 Preparations were immediately made to drop the new gate, which 
 was done half an hour afterwards. The water continued to rise 
 until one o’clock the next morning, rising in the interval two feet 
 two and three quarters inches, or to the height of fourteen feet one 
 inch above the top of the dam, which was the maximum height 
 attained in this freshet, or indeed of any other of which we have 
 any record or tradition.” 
 
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 The day after the gate was dropped, but before the water began 
 to recede, the Lowell Journal said : “ Lowell has probably escaped 
 a great calamity by the wise foresight and timely precaution of one 
 eminently practical man — James B. Francis, Esq., Agent of the Pro- 
 prietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River. Mr. Francis, a 
 few years since, anticipating the possibility of an event such as we 
 have just realized, and foreseeing that the strong works at the ‘Guard 
 Locks * might fail in such an emergency, caused to be constructed 
 a massive, higher and stronger gate, which has ever since been kept 
 in a position to be lowered to its place at a moment’s notice. Early 
 yesterday morning it was clearly evident that the safety of the Com- 
 pany’s works, and consequently of a goodly portion of the city, re- 
 quired the lowering of the huge gate to its post of duty. It was 
 promptly done, and danger from that source was no longer within 
 the range of possibilities.” 
 
 The Boston Daily Advertiser a few days later said : “ It is cer- 
 tainly somewhat remarkable that a freshet occurring only once in a 
 century should happen only two years after special preparation had 
 been made for it, and the inhabitants of Lowell, as well as the propri- 
 etors of the mills, have great cause to thank the gentlemen who so 
 promptly decided to take measures to guard against what every one' 
 considered a very remote contingency, and what many considered a 
 useless expenditure of money. 
 
 “ It is awful to think of what would have been the inevitable result 
 if the new works had not been constructed. Every vestige of the 
 old guard gates would have been carried away, and a mighty and 
 uncontrollable river would have swept through the heart of Lowell, 
 destroying everything in its course.” 
 
 A few years later citizens of Lowell presented to Mr. Francis a 
 service of silver “in token of their admiration of his foresight and 
 sagacity in constructing a gate at the Guard Locks, thereby effectu- 
 ally protecting the city of Lowell against those casualties to which, 
 as the freshet of 1852 fully demonstrated, it must be exposed.” 
 
 In 1849 Mr. Francis was sent to England by the manufacturing 
 companies of Lowell to observe the methods in use there for preserv- 
 ing timber from decay, which resulted in the construction of works at 
 Lowell for kyanizing and for burnettizing timber with experiments 
 upon wood so treated, some of the results of which are published in 
 the transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 
 
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 Among other notable engineering works at Lowell are his ingen- 
 ious and skillful application of hydraulic lifts to the guard gates of the 
 Pawtucket Canal, designed in 1870, and the reconstruction of the Paw- 
 tucket Dam across the Merrimack River in 1875-76. 
 
 A prominent part of Mr. Francis’ duty at Lowell was to distribute 
 the water power among the several corporations in accordance with 
 their respective rights ; this has called for the execution of many 
 original hydraulic experiments on a large scale. Selections from those 
 made from 1847 t° 1852 on hydraulic motors and on the flow of water 
 over weirs and in short canals of uniform rectangular section were 
 published in 1855, in the work entitled Lowell Hydraulic Experi- 
 ments. In the second edition, published in 1868, were extensive 
 additions upon the subject of the flow of water in open canals from ex- 
 periments made from 1856 to i860, and very interesting results of 
 experiments made in 1854 upon the flow of water through submerged 
 orifices and diverging tubes. The third and fourth editions were 
 issued in 1871 and 1883. 
 
 This work forms an era in the engineering literature of America as 
 well as in the growth of the profession. The extreme accuracy of the 
 work and the care with which all interfering circumstances were 
 avoided and the dearness and fullness with which all of the actual 
 conditions &re presented give it a character which younger engineers 
 have been proud to emulate, and it has had a remarkably great influ- 
 ence in the growth o.f the engineering profession in America. 
 
 Mr. Francis was elected Fellow of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences, November 13, 1844. On February 14, 1865, his 
 memoir, On the Strength of Cast-Iron Pillars with tables for the use 
 of Engineers , Architects and Builders , was presented to the academy, 
 Prof. Daniel Treadwell, addressing the academy, said : “ Mr. Francis has 
 made a most thorough examination of all the experiments that have 
 been published, or that came within his reach, with the conclusions 
 which have been drawn from them, together with the formulas and 
 rules that have been proposed for practical constructions. Proceeding 
 thus he has, after a careful and patient examination of the experiments 
 and the reasoning of the several investigations, selected such of the 
 conclusions and formulas as have appeared to him quite trustworthy, 
 and from combining and in some cases modifying these he has 
 calculated a most elaborate set of tables, by which the architect or 
 practical workman can find a column suited to any structure, and 
 
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 which may be relied upon as safe for all purposes, ordinary, or even 
 extraordinary. I consider the paper thus produced by Mr. Francis 
 as of great value, and believe that it will become a work of the first 
 authority and of constant reference for the builder.” 
 
 This paper was worked out to supply a need in the profession 
 shown by the fall of the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, January io, 
 i860, an account of which was published by Mr. Francis in the Journal 
 of the Franklin Institute immediately after. 
 
 In the same journal maybe found important papers by Mr. Francis : 
 in 1867 on experiments on the evaporation of steam boilers used for 
 heating purposes, a description of cofferdam at Turner’s Falls and 
 formulas and tables for the shafting of mills and factories; in 1870, 
 experiments on the evaporation of a Corliss boiler; and in 1875, report 
 on a test trial of a Swain turbine water wheel. 
 
 Mr. Francis was elected a member of the American Society of 
 Civil Engineers at its first meeting, November 5, 1852, and was pres- 
 ident of the society from November 3, 1880, to January 18, 1882, and 
 on the 5th of April, 1892, was elected an honorary member. To this 
 society he contributed many valuable papers, and joined in many of 
 the discussions. Among the papers containing additions to the knowl- 
 edge of the profession are his “ Experiments on the Deflection of 
 Continuous Beams,” “ Experiments on the Flow of Water over Sub- 
 merged Weirs,” “ Experiments on the Preservation of Timber,” and 
 “ Experiments on the Percolation of Water through Portland Cement 
 Mortar,” contained in his paper on “ High Walls or Dams to Resist 
 the Pressure of Water.” He also contributed reports on the failure 
 of the dam on Mill River, and on the cause of the failure of the 
 South Fork Dam ; also papers on durability of cast-iron water mains, 
 the Provincetown dike, translation of Darcy’s results on flow of water 
 through cast-iron pipes ; on the cause of the maximum velocity of 
 water flowing in open channels being below the surface ; distribution 
 of rainfall over New England during the great storm of October 3 
 and 4, 1869 ; experiments on the Humphrey turbine water wheel ; 
 stoppage of flow in a water main by anchor ice ; and on the effect of 
 a rapidly increasing supply of water to a stream on the flow below 
 the point of supply. And in his address as president of the society, 
 delivered at Montreal in 1881, he gave the result of his observations 
 on the formation of anchor ice. 
 
 Mr. Francis became a member of the Boston Society of Civil 
 Engineers July 3, 1848, and was its president in T874. To the_meet- 
 
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 ings of these societies of engineers he was always heartily welcomed, 
 and was listened to with profound respect. His character as an inves- 
 tigator seeking only the truth, as a skillful engineer adopting the best 
 means to accomplish the end desired, and as a pure minded, honorable 
 man, impressed his associates ; and with the greatest confidence in his 
 integrity there was added the enjoyment of his geniality and helpful 
 kindness. 
 
 He received from Dartmouth College, in 1851, the honorary degree 
 of Master of Arts, and in 1858 the same degree was conferred by 
 Harvard College. He was a member of the American Philosophical 
 Society of Philadelphia, and from 1864 to 1868 a member of the 
 Boston Society of Natural History. He was also honorary member of 
 Winchester Historical and Genealogical Society, of the Arkwright 
 Club, of the Trinity Historical Society of Dallas, Texas, and of the 
 American Society of Irrigation Engineers of Salt Lake City, Utah. 
 
 Mr. Francis has had a wide practice throughout the country as 
 consulting engineer in hydraulic work, in which department he has 
 been regarded as the head of his profession in this country. Among 
 the more important subjects on which he has given advice are fifty 
 water powers in nine States and two provinces, including a: plan for 
 preventing the recession of St. Anthony’s Falls on the Mississippi 
 River, and designs for reconstruction of the Holyoke Dam; also 
 water works in eighteen cities of five States and one province, includ- 
 ing a report on the design for the Quaker Bridge Dam on Croton 
 River ; also many foundations of important structures, including that 
 of Trinity Church tower in Boston; also upon irrigation in California. 
 He has been employed as an expert in a great number of cases at law. 
 
 Mr. Francis resigned the office of agent and engineer of the Pro- 
 prietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, January r, 1885, 
 which he had held from September 27, 1845. This was fifty years 
 after he entered the service of the company, and his friends — the sec- 
 ond generation of directors during his service — then presented to him 
 a beautiful service of silver, and to their expressions of trust and 
 friendship added the declaration, “To the eminent ability and wisdom 
 which have distinguished your administration, the marked success 
 of the Lowell manufacturers has been largely due.” He was then 
 appointed consulting engineer of the company, which position he 
 held at the time of his death, September 18, 1892. 
 
 Outside of his profession he was held in the highest esteem by the 
 community for his sterling integrity and kindliness. Everybody had 
 
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 the utmost confidence in his judgment, in his fairness, in his unselfish- 
 ness and in his great executive ability. He served one year in the 
 State Legislature, five years in the city government, four years on 
 the school committee, two years as director of the city library, one 
 year as president of Middlesex MechaSfcsLAssociation, twenty years 
 as president of Stony Brook Railroad, thirtyfctwo years as director of 
 the Railroad National Bank, and forty-three years as director of the 
 Lowell Gas Light Company. 
 
 He was frequently appointed a commissioner to decide important 
 cases, in which his professional knowledge and his judicial mind would 
 give advantages over others. Among the more important of these 
 commissions were those to assess damages for the diversion of Sud- 
 bury River by the city of Boston, in 1876, and to report on method 
 of preventing floods in the valley of Stony Brook, in 1886 ; also to 
 design and construct for the State of Massachusetts the Provincetown 
 Dike, in 1867-69. 
 
 By the will of his friend, the eminent engineer Uriah A. Boyden, 
 Mr. Francis was made one of the trustees of a fund, amounting to two 
 hundred and thirty thousand dollars, to establish an observatory, or to 
 help others to maintain an observatory for astronomical research “ at 
 such an elevation as to be free, so far as practicable, from the impedi- 
 ments to accurate observations which occur in the observatories now 
 existing, owing to atmospheric influences.’ ’ To determine where best 
 to expend this money Mr. Francis visited, principally at his own ex- 
 pense, nearly if not quite all of the observatories of this country. The 
 trustees finally transferred the property to the president and fellows of 
 Harvard College, to be used for the purpose intended with other funds 
 of the observatory, resulting in the establishment of an observatory 
 near Arequipa in Peru, at an altitude of more than eight thousand 
 feet above the sea. 
 
 With the unsurpassed activities of his wonderfully useful life, in 
 which he illustrated the noble Christian virtues, he yet had time and 
 thought and activity to devote to the interests of St. Anne’s Church, 
 of which he was member, warden and vestryman, and an interested 
 director of their orphanage. 
 
 In all the relations of life he was the faithful, single-minded, cour- 
 ageous, reliable, earnest, far-sighted, honorable man. His memory is 
 a blessing to his country. 
 
 Lawrence , December u , i8q2. 
 
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