Background
He was born on July 22, 1830 in Tarlton, Pickaway County, Ohio, United States, the son of Sooy and Ann (Hedges) Smith. His father was a local magistrate.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Report On The Intercepting Sewer And Outlet Of The City Of Buffalo William Sooy Smith, E. S. Chesbrough, J. Herbert Shedd The Courier Co., printers, 1882 Technology & Engineering; Environmental; General; Sewerage; Technology & Engineering / Environmental / General; Technology & Engineering / Hydraulics
https://www.amazon.com/Report-Intercepting-Sewer-Outlet-Buffalo/dp/1275988598?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1275988598
He was born on July 22, 1830 in Tarlton, Pickaway County, Ohio, United States, the son of Sooy and Ann (Hedges) Smith. His father was a local magistrate.
William worked his way through Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, graduating with distinction in 1849. He immediately obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1853, ranking sixth in his class.
On June 19, 1854, he resigned his commission to become an assistant on construction for the Illinois Central Railway, but his career was soon interrupted by a desperate illness and he subsequently spent two years teaching in Buffalo, New York.
Resuming engineering practice in 1857, he organized the firm of Parkinson & Smith, and made the first surveys for an international bridge at Niagara Falls. In 1859 he began the construction of a large bridge over the Savannah River for the Charleston & Savannah Railroad. Finding the method cumbersome and ill-suited to his requirements, he made many fundamental changes in the design of apparatus and in construction procedure. The project was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War, whereupon Smith immediately returned to his native state and enlisted in the volunteer army.
On June 26, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 13th Ohio Infantry, and on April 15, 1862, he was made a brigadier-general. He served with distinction until 1864, when a serious attack of inflammatory rheumatism completely disabled him.
Resigning from the army July 15, 1864, he regained his health slowly, occupied as a farmer at Oak Park, Cook County, Ohio, and it was not until 1866 that he again took up civil engineering practice.
His next project was that of building a protection for the Wagoschance lighthouse on the Straits of Mackinac. In 1876 he prepared plans for a tunnel under the Detroit River, which he proposed to build by sinking a continuous series of pneumatic caissons across the river. His plan received the approval of the advisory board of engineers, but it was too far in advance of the times to secure financial support. For the next twelve years, Smith specialized in bridge construction and deep foundations. He was successively engaged, either as chief engineer or consulting engineer, on important railroad bridges over the Missouri River at Omaha, Leavenworth, Boonville, Glasgow, Plattsmouth, Sibley, and Kansas City.
About 1890 Smith settled in Chicago and gave most of his professional attention to the subject of building foundations, which presented an extraordinarily difficult problem in that vicinity because of the great depth of rock and bad soil conditions. He was consulted in regard to the foundations of nearly all the large buildings constructed in Chicago during the period from 1890 to 1910, in which year he retired from active practice. He was president of the Western Society of Engineers from 1877 to 1880, and thereafter for a number of years chairman of its committee on iron and steel. He was also an influential member of a similar committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. To this society he contributed two important papers: "Pneumatic Foundations" (1874) and "The Hudson River Tunnel" (1882).
The remainder of his life he spent quietly in the village of Medford, Oregon, where he died in 1916.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
He was married in 1854 to Elizabeth Haven of Buffalo, New York, by whom he had one son, Charles Sooysmith. His first wife died in 1860, and in 1862 he married Anna Durham of Bowling Green, who died in 1882; in 1884 he married Josephine Hartwell of St. Catharines, Ontario, by whom he had a son.