GORDON

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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.. / UK -.. 1904 Dartmouth/ UK

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Robert George Gordon's life is not well recorded. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE in 1874 at a time when he was active in the Public Works Department of Henzada, British Burma. In 1889, Gordon resigned his position as consulting engineer to the Burma Ruby Mines Company, and accepted an engineering commission in Thailand. He returned to England in 1890 after having initiated works for a project on the 165 miles long Bangkok-Korah railways. Gordon retired from ICE in 1901. He had a letter contact with Henry Bazin (1829-1917), the famous French hydraulician.

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Gordon's 1875 work highlights hydrometrical methods developed on the Irrawaddy River which were similar to those applied by the Americans Humphries and Abbot on the Mississippi River in their 1860 campaign. In total, Gordon reports of 7,000 series of measurements to define both vertical and streamwise velocity distributions in rivers. These series had been collected with the double float method, corresponding to two floats attached by a cord to account not only for the free surface but also for a velocity approximately at half depth. A detailed account on the simple double-float method by Henry Bazin (1829-1917) in 1884 demonstrated the limitations. The other large data collection from Indian Rivers was compiled by Alan Cunningham (1842-1928), who measured similarly as did Gordon and arrived at results that were notable at the time, but subject to correction after hydraulic laboratories were installed.

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_{Bazin, G. (2005). Robert Gordon. Henry Bazin: 197. Editions Clea: Dijon.}

_{Gordon, R. (1875). On the theory of the flow of water in open channels. Public Works Secretariat: Rangoon, Burma.}

_{Gordon, R. (1883). Notes on subjects connected with works in the Irrawaddy circle, with records of experiments on the double float and Woltman meter current measurements. Government Press: Rangoon, Burma.}

_{Gordon, R. (1883). Discussion on Recent hydraulic experiments, by A. Cunningham. Minutes}

_{Institution Civil Engineers 71(1): 65-94.}

_{Gordon, R. (1884). Description of the apparatus used for testing current-meters, at Admiralty Works at Torquay for experimenting on models of ships. Proc. IME 35: 190-195.}

_{Gordon, R. (1885). The Irawadi River. Proc. Royal Geographical Society 7(5): 292-331. Gordon, R. (1893). Hydraulic work in the Irawadi Delta. Minutes ICE 113(3): 276-313.}