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GOOCH, SIR DANIEL

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 237 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOOCH, See also:SIR See also:DANIEL , See also:Bart. (1816-1889), See also:English See also:mechanical engineer, was See also:born at See also:Bedlington, in See also:Northumberland, on the 16th of See also:August 1816. At the See also:age of fifteen, having shown a See also:taste for See also:mechanics, he was put to See also:work at the See also:Tredegar Ironworks, See also:Monmouthshire. In 1834 he went to See also:Warrington, where, at the See also:Vulcan foundry, under See also:Robert See also:Stephenson, he acquired the principles of See also:locomotive See also:design. Subsequently, after passing a See also:year at See also:Dundee, he was engaged by the Stephensons at their See also:Gateshead See also:works, where he seems to have conceived that predilection for the broad See also:gauge for which he was afterwards distinguished, through having to design some engines for a 6-See also:foot gauge in See also:Russia and noticing the advantages it offered in allowing greater space for the machinery, &c., as compared with the See also:standard gauge favoured by Stephenson. In 1837, on I. K. See also:Brunel's recommendation, he was appointed locomotive See also:superintendent to the See also:Great Western railway at a See also:time when the engines possessed by the railway were very poor and inefficient. He soon improved this See also:state of affairs, and gradually provided his employers with locomotives which were unsurpassed for See also:general excellence and See also:economy of working. One of the most famous, the " See also:Lord of the Isles," was awarded a See also:gold See also:medal at the Great See also:Exhibition of 1851, and when, See also:thirty years afterwards, it was withdrawn from active service it had run more than three-quarters of a million See also:miles, all with its See also:original See also:boiler. In 1864 he See also:left the Great Western and interested himself in the problem of laying a See also:telegraph See also:cable across the See also:Atlantic. At this time the " Great Eastern " was in the hands of the bondholders, of whom he himself was one of the most important, and it occurred to him that she might advantageously be utilized in the enterprise.

Accordingly, at his instance she was chartered by the Telegraph Construction See also:

Company, of which also he was a director, and in 1865 was employed in the See also:attempt to See also:lay a cable, Gooch himself super-intending operations. The cable, however, See also:broke in See also:mid-ocean, and the attempt was a failure. Next year it was renewed with more success, for not only was a new cable safely put in See also:place, but the older one was picked up and spliced, so that there were two See also:complete lines between See also:England and See also:America. For this achievement Gooch was created a See also:baronet. Meanwhile the Great Western railway had fallen on evil days, being indeed on the See also:verge. of See also:bankruptcy, when in 1866 the See also:directors appealed to him to accept, the chairmanship of the See also:board and undertake therehabilitation of the company. He agreed to the proposal, and was so successful in restoring its prosperity that in 1889, at the last See also:meeting over which he presided, a See also:dividend was declared at the See also:rate of 71%. Under his See also:administration the See also:system was greatly enlarged and consolidated by the absorption of various smaller lines, such as the See also:Bristol and See also:Exeter and the See also:Cornwall See also:railways; and his appreciation of its strategic value caused him to be a strenuous supporter of the construction of the See also:Severn See also:Tunnel. His See also:death occurred on the 15th of See also:October 1889 at his See also:residence, Clewer See also:Park, near See also:Windsor.

End of Article: GOOCH, SIR DANIEL

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