Record

Authorised form of nameFroude; William (1810 - 1879)
Dates1810 - 1879
NationalityBritish
Place of birthDartington, Devon, England, United Kingdom
Date of birth28 November 1810
Place of deathAdmiralty House, Simonstown, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Africa
Date of death04 May 1879
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
Naval cemetery, Simonstown, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Africa
OccupationMechanical engineer
Research fieldHydrodynamics
ActivityEducation:
Westminster School; Oriel College, University of Oxford, BA mathematics (1832), MA (1837)
Career:
Surveyor on the South Eastern Railway (1837); given responsibility for construction of a section of the Bristol and Exeter Railway by Brunel; Vicar's Warden at St Andrew's Church from (1842-1844); constructed bilge keels to prevent rolling in ships; studied resistance and propulsion in water; commissioned to determine the most efficient hull shape; JP for Devon; commissioned by the Admiralty to produce a machine capable of absorbing and measuring the power of large naval engines (1877), he invented, patented and built the world's first water brake dynamometer, sometimes known as the hydraulic dynamometer; died of dysentery; buried with full naval honours
Memberships:
MICE; AINA; MIMechE
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election02/06/1870
Age at election59
RSActivityMedals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1876
RelationshipsFourth son of the Ven Robert Hurrell Froude, Archdeacon of Totnes and Rector of Dartington; elder brother of James Anthony Froude, historian; father of Robert Edmund Froude (FRS 1894)
PublishedWorks'On the rolling of Ships' 1862
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB; Wikipedia
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc 1879 vol 29 pp ii-vi
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/45083093
CodeNA2850
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1870/02Froude, William: certificate of election to the Royal Society
RR/7/394Letter from William Froude, on a paper 'On rolling-friction' by Osborne Reynolds to the Secretary of the Royal Society7 July 1875
RR/7/484Referee's report by William Froude, on a paper 'On determining the depth of the sea without the use of the sounding-line' by Charles William Siemens20 April 1876
MC/9/94Letter from W [William] Froude, Chelston Cross, Torquay, to Dr [William] Sharpey, Secretary of the Royal Society10 June 1870
MC/10/86Letter from W [William] Froude, Chelston Cross, Torquay, to W [Walter] White, [Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society]16 March 1874
MC/9Volume 9 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1870-June 1873
MC/10Volume 10 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal SocietyJuly 1873-1876
AP/56/3Unpublished paper, 'The uniform wave of oscillation. An analysis' by John ImrayMarch 1874
AP/56/3/1Unpublished manuscript, 'The uniform wave of oscillation. An analysis' by John ImrayMarch 1874
RR/7/395Referee's report by William Froude, on a paper 'On rolling-friction' by Osborne Reynolds7 July 1875
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