Frederic Eliot Duckham, MICE and the Millwall Docks (1868-1909)

A talk by Edward Sargent.

Says Edward of his talk: “Frederick Eliot Duckham became the Clerk of Works to the Millwall Dock in 1867 and shortly afterwards became the Engineer in Chief.  He stayed with the Company for the rest of his working life and he became the General Manager in 1899.  He retired in 1905 due to ill-health.  He developed new equipment for the dock and took out several important patents.  One of these was for a hydraulic weighing machine.  His most significant inventions were for the grain trade where he patented pneumatic grain elevators.  He made other significant improvements at the docks that were often highly innovative.  These included a dredger with a pneumatic discharge system and devising a way of impounding water into the docks from the Thames without bringing in mud with it.  He was also responsible for the installation of a timber transporter made…