Water tower owner comes a cropper from small print.

Oh dear, the Telegraph has reported that a first time buyer who paid £30,000 for a disused Ministry of Defence water tower to convert it into a dream home has found he can only legally access it by plane or helicopter.
The 60-year-old, 150ft tower at RAF Locking, near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, last month was snapped by by 20 year old Ashley Parsons for a mere £30,000 last month.

Mr Parsons now legally owns the tower but has no access to it from the public highway as the vendors have refused to grant access across the surrounding land which they retained.

We have to ask, didn't he have a solicitor?

This is not the first tower which can't get any access that BWTAS has heard of but we'd better not jeopardise ongoing negotiations by naming them.

More on the story and pictures from the Daily Mail

UPDATE 2/2/09

This is Bristol.co.uk reports Ashley Parsons is committed to proceed and sort out the legalities later. A legally trained mind advises BWTAS that if Mr Parsons does have access to undertake repairs and a conversion, what would stop him taking ten or twenty years to complete it? This is a common scenario in some countries that waive community taxes whilst houses are under construction. Net result: buildings are never officially finished!

BWTAS at Earls Colne

On Saturday 27th September, members of BWTAS showed up in force, well, seven of them, at the Earls Colne Heritage Museum at the former Atlas Works to admire their water tower. The museum is small but well stocked with artefacts about the history of the works and Earls Colne. Now we know who made all the brackets, wheels and shafts for thousands of belt-driven mills and factories around the world as well as the hand-powered grain milling machines still in use in many under-developed countries. Our thanks to Brian Alderman for opening especially for us. They don't know if the water tower was made on site. It is made of sand-cast iron plates in an unusual 3' x 4' size but it is more likely they were made by one of the specialst foundries on the Tyne. The museum is well worth a visit and there are lots of other things to do and see nearby, including a railway museum and a rather ironic town pump dedicated in thanks to the absence of cholera in the town.

Jumbo at 125

Saturday, September 27th, 2008: Brian Light shows a photograph taken September 27th, 1883 at the dedication of the Balkerne Water Tower 'Jumbo' to members of BWTAS attending Brian's guided tour of Colchester's historic sites.

Happy Birthday Jumbo!

We're sorry you've been so neglected and ignored in recent years but your many fans wish you many happy returns for your 125th birthday on Saturday 27th September. 

BWTAS will be sure to remember the occasion if no one else does when it gives a tour of historic Colchester starting at 1.30 PM on the Saturday, starting at your feet.

Best Wishes,

BWTAS

Colchester Zoo

The Bocking family took in a visit to Colchester Zoo last week.

In the zoo they noticed this structure and the notice affixed to it.

It's good to see that the zoo have taken the opportunity to make the most of every educational opportunity.

BWTAS event: Atlas Works and historic Colchester, September 27, 2008

BWTAS members Brian Light and Brian Alderman have kindly given their time to provide a day out for water tower and history enthusiasts. 

Firstly the Earls Colne Heritage Museum in Earls Colne in Essex will be opened specially for BWTAS at 11 AM on Saturday 27th September 2008. 

The museum in housed in the water tower of the former Atlas Works, a foundry making agricultural machinery. 

Address: The Old Water Tower, Reuben Walk, Earls Colne, Colchester, Essex, CO6 2SZ

ECHM MAP LINK

Later in the afternoon BWTAS will meet at 1.30 PM outside 'Jumbo' the water tower on Balkerne Hill, Colchester, for a guided tour of the historic centre by Brian Light, co-author of the guide available for £2 at local tourist information centres and an expert on the history of Colchester's water systems.

These events are free but a donation to ECHM would be gratefully apppreciated as would buying a beer or two for your guide afterwards!

DIRECTIONS

To get to 'Jumbo' from Earls Colne by car: take the A1124 southn towards A12 then take A133 to Colchester, then turn right at roundabout up Balkerne Hill A134. 

AERIAL MAP LINK

Go up Balkerne Hill to the large roundabout, do a complete circuit and down Balkerne Hill. Take the slip road to St Mary's multi-storey car park on the left. Walk over Balkerne Hill on the footbridge, go through the Balkerne Gate, approach Jumbo but turn right towards Church St. 

However, if coming direct to Colchester: come via A12, then down Ipswich Rd A1232, then right along Cowdray Ave A133, then up Balkerne Hill as above.

AREA MAP LINK

EATING

For lunch in Colchester, the Old Court House (labelled on map) near Jumbo is a pleasant cafe which does decent food.

TRANSPORT

To travel from the Atlas Works to Jumbo by public transport, you can take the 88 bus. Please go to Traveline or Google Maps and enter the postcode CO6 2SZ as the start and CO3 3AA as the destination. 

Travel time is about 45 minutes with five minutes walking at each end.

Cyclists might like to know that Earls Colne is 6.8 miles from Marks Tey rail station where there is ample car parking on weekends.

BWTAS meeting report

BWTAS met at the Star, Wenhaston on Tuesday, 9th September. Attending was Nat Bocking, Wilson Harvey (chair), new member Clare Johnson, Brian Light, Andy Norris and Ferrers Young. 

The Treasurer reported that finances remain healthy with an excess of £6oo in the bank and £20 in dues held by Nat are to be deposited.

The General Secretary reported membership stands at 119 with three new members since the last meeting, recruited by the BWTAS blog.

Talk at NIAS: Nat will give a brief talk on the history of water towers and Ferrers will talk about Norwich water towers and more specifically, those that have been recently demolished. After the talk, BWTAS members will repair to the pub next door if there is any desire from the audience to continue discussions as the room time is limited.

Colchester Tour: Wilson Harvey reported that his letters to George Braithwaite, the owner of Jumbo, have gone unanswered. It was agreed that Brian Light would contact Brian Alderman and arrange a visit to the Atlas Works at Earls Colne followed by a guided tour of historic Colchester (or vice-versa) including a stop outside Jumbo. This was tentatively scheduled for September 27th or October 25th depending on availability of the Atlas Works.

Henham Steam Rally: although very successful at recruiting members and gleaning information, all of the ctte. had various schedule conflicts for the weekend of 20/21 September so it was decided to skip the presence of BWTAS at the show this year. It was noted that sometime in the darkness of winter, BWTAS would update the exhibition map, information panels and photos.

Art Show: It was proposed that BWTAS hold an art exhibition in 2009, as 2008 was a rest from the very successful ones held in 2006 and 2007. The proposal was thoroughly seconded by Clare Johnson, an artist herself. Several venues (commercially sensitive) were proposed and members have been assigned to make enquires on their availability. Members thought it would be appropriate to widen the exhibition remit to include other structures so that the exhibition might present artists' responses to the built environment, working title; 'water towers and friends'. There could also be a talks and workshops combined with the exhibition. Members agreed to put word out on the grapevine to artists showing interest since the last shows and prepare a press release for Green Pebble as soon as a date can be set.

Following business, Clare Johnson showed her images of water towers taken on a recent trip to the USA in Chicago, Detroit, Gary and Ann Arbour. Ferrers showed his most recent images and details of several new finds not in the Barton database including an archive image of the Hunstanton WT being demolished.

No date set for the next meeting but to be annouced as soon as visit to Atlas Works confirmed.

Essex Water Towers For Sale

Not to be confused with the concrete tower which is the subject of phone mast protests, the 1889 water tower(s) at Colne Road, Halsted in Essex have been on the market for some time at £599,950. Rightmove listing here

They may have been sold by now but at time of posting were still for sale. If you fancy a tower with four bedrooms, 3 baths and and another water tower as a home/SME office, (is this a BOGOF offer?) then get onto Wright & Co at Sawbridgeworth.

A one-bedroom Victorian water tower in Braintree is also on the market with Connells for around £200,000

Heritage Open Days

Heritage Open Days this year are on 11-14th September.

This is a Govt. scheme (basically achieved by covering the cost of liability insurance) by which property owners can open places not normally open to the public although lots of regular attractions also take part and most have free entrance during the Heritage Days.

For water tower enthusiasts, the Earls Colne Heritage Museum will be open on 13 & 14 September.

The ECHM tell us although there isn't a water tower there, at the Museum of Power, Langford www.museumofpower.org.uk , there is a strong link with water and one of the enormous pump engines is still in situ and worth a viewing. The pump is one of several that was part of the water supply system to Southend. The museum has a wealth of items of interest, with free entry on Heritage Days.

image copyright Brian Alderman

High Acres Phone Mast Protest

This site is not the place for a debate over radiation safety but residents of Stourbridge in the West Midlands are calling for their local water tower to be demolished over health fears from the mobile phone masts on the water tower.

50% of the number of news alerts BWTAS gets on water towers turn out to be protests about phone masts. Stourbridge is not the only case. Residents of Halstead near Colchester, Essex have raised similar concerns.

The High Acres and Halstead water towers are not exceptional examples of reinforced concrete construction but their straightforward and honest appearance has been greatly disfigured by the accretion of masts and antennae. We think most members of BWTAS would object to putting phone masts on water towers on those grounds alone.

Dudley Metropolitan Council says:

"The water tower at High Acres on which the antenna are attached, and the land on which the water tower stands, are privately owned.

"All antenna currently on there are permitted developments. Any company wanting to install such equipment must provide a certificate to confirm emissions from their equipment is within guidelines set out by the International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

"We have carried out checks at the High Acres water tower and all the equipment meets the legal planning requirements. However, any additional equipment would need planning permission."

These water towers look similar to the Octel water tower on Anglesey which so far has escaped such vandalism, perhaps because of the location amidst stunning coastal scenery, although that does depend on which direction you look.









It does seem as if tower owners can put masts on towers with very little objection (and derive substantial income from doing so). But if planning permission is required to put masts on water towers, perhaps more vigorous objections on aesthetic grounds in the first place could be effective.

More German towers

In response to the posting on the Bocking's visit to Kevelaer on one of Ryanair's penny flights; BWTAS member David Blackburn sent in his pictures of a tower in Andernach (close to Koblenz so also accessible by Ryanair) which has an interesting past.

David is off soon to his Derbyshire home's twin-town of Sindlefingen in Germany where there are a couple of decent towers and he hopes to meet there Guenther Bosch, the dedicated enthusiast behind the Baden Wurtemburg water towers website.

As said here before, BWTAS is British in name but not British in outlook. We exist for people in Britain who are interested in water towers. Many German towers were built by illustrious Britons such as William Lindley.

It would be great to locate some examples in continental Europe of his work.

Tilbury Radar Tower

Thanks to Julieanne Savage for posting on Geograph and Flickr this striking image of a radar tower disguised as a water tower. That's a first. Water towers are often disguised as other things but this is the first structure we've heard of impersonating one.

Julieanne openly admits she supports trespassing on military ranges. Hmm, BWTAS can't condone that but sometimes that kind of civil disobedience has turned up information in the public interest to know and, as she says, she intends only to document things "before it's completely destroyed by over-zealous developers doing crap things like turning churches into sales offices, and historical parks into shitey quagmires."

Her caption said: "A short walk from Coalhouse Fort on the banks of the Thames is this derelict radar control tower, built deliberately disguised as a water tower to fool the Luftwaffe hovering over the Thames. The lower level of the tower is accessible to visitors, but warning signs tell of the dangers of climbing to the upper level. The tower is now derelict, although once contained a barrack room and a control room. There is much debris here including abandoned jetties and the remains of an electric light battery."

The Great Weeze Wheeze

Yesterday 06/08/08 Nat Bocking and his family flew to Germany because when Ryanair had a reverse price sale in June they found could fly to Niederrhein Airport (the former RAF Laarbruch) located at Weeze in Northern Germany for one penny each way. Yes, that is including the taxes.

There's a 7.15 AM flight out in the morning from Stansted and a 8.00 PM (7.00 PM GMT) flight back in the evening. The 50 minute flight time and a low volume of passengers at Weeze allows enough time for a day out in any of the surrounding towns and villages along the Dutch/German border. The landscape along the Rhine here is very flat and is dotted with wind turbines and water towers.

Ryanair advertise the route as Düsseldorf (Weeze) but Düsseldorf is over 70 km away but that's another issue.

In the town of Kevelaer, 10 km from the airport and accessible by a frequent and reliable shuttle bus service, they found this water tower in a residential area, just a few minutes walk from the centre of town and the train station. Built 1905, it is now converted into offices for the local water, sewerage and bus company. There is a delightful fountain (not shown) outside the front door.

It's not normally open to visitors but the staff were very pleased to hear of BWTAS and after some conversation they understood we had a genuine interest. They allowed us in to see some of the offices and a conference room, all recently refurbished, inside the tower but the tank room for now is off limits.

The plaque on the door says the tower is 54m high, has a capacity of 450 cubic metres and the tank was constructed on the 'Intze' system.

From the top of the 15m gantry of the 'Tyrannosaurus Rex' slide at the Irrland amusement park 7 km away, (also served by the same airport shuttle) the town's vista is dominated by the wasserturm and the church steeple.

More than 800,000 pilgrims, mostly from Germany and the Netherlands, visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Kevelaer every year. It has many other fine buildings and plenty of restaurants and good museums and good rail connections with half-hourly service between Krefeld and Düsseldorf. It is also twinned with Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, UK.

Thanks to the German Watertower Society for the information that Kevelaer had a water tower.









View Larger Map

Croydon Water Tower Blog

Croydon's water tower has its own twitter page!

It's very funny. This is another example of the symbolic power of a water tower in a community. (That comment has been noticed by Croydon's local paper).

Explanatory story here.

Link to the tower's official history here. Piemaster's comment below points out that the official history is completely wrong. He thinks they've got the information for the reservoir, not the tower. Yep, just goes to show. You've got to check everything, even the official sources.

When it was built it had a viewing platform at the top. It appears that now the tank and internals have been removed. Pity, although that means you could probably do a load of neat things with it now.

The twitter blog tells us the tower is very lonely. Well, maybe it will have some more friends soon.


Image from flickr

Andrew Motion: The Water Tower

The Water Tower

• Andrew Motion
• The Guardian,
• Saturday July 22 2000

If a drilling rig clanked inland
and made a stand
in some corner of a barley field -

its elephant legs

and pendulous cable-guts
cleaned up and bleached and thinned

by the massage of a summer wind

to four stocky struts,
its platform also stripped

to a whitewashed cell

with eyes turned everywhere at once -
if such a thing were possible

or worth imagining,
this water tower would be the best result.
Or maybe it dropped in from outer space.

Or then again maybe
its white and height are really like
a lighthouse that the sea

shrank back from then forgot.

That doesn't matter any more.
What does is how,

some forty years ago and recently

arrived to settle hereabouts,

I made this tower the furthest

fixed point of a walk

and stood where I am now,
four-square inside the circle

of its influence, and thought

these fields of silver-whiskered barley,

dog-rose hedges, gravel lanes

ash- and beech-tree spinnies

where the roe-deer live their secret lives,

would never seem so nearly

elements which made a grand design

if not for this: incomprehensible

and silent at the heart of things.

Except the silence broke.

It's over there! that's what I heard -

a joke against the ear

as if a bird had spoken, or the air

rubbed hard enough against itself

to squeak - a joke

I put to rest by saying carefully:

there must be men at work

inside the tower. It's over there!

The same words tumbled down again,

by which I understood I must be due

for home,

so barely heard them as I made my way

along those gravel lanes.

These gravel lanes, I mean -

the same today as then, although

I'm killing time in just a visit now,

not life at home

and what was over there

I reached and passed

and moved away from years ago,

and still can't see - as like the wind

parading through the barley

while I leave the shadow of the tower

and finish here

as anything: a single cat's paw

dabbing gingerly one minute,

then a solid blow

which batters down the heads so far

I think they won't recover.

• Commissioned by the BBC as part of Poetry Proms, a new series broadcast on Radio 3 during the interval of every Wednesday's Prom.

Andrew Motion photo © Antonio Olmos

L G Mouchel

Perhaps the most important and influential figure in water towers (and in Civil Engineering in general) was the incredibly prolific Louis Gustave Mouchel.

Both Gawthorpe and Newton le Willows were built by his firm after he introduced 'ferro-concrete' to Britain. This was one of the most influential and far-reaching inventions to shape 20th century civil engineering.

The engineering timelines website has a special feature on his life and work.

Incredible to think he did what he did in just eleven years before dying of stomach cancer at 56.

Gawthorpe

Gawthorpe Water Tower dominates the skyline and can be seen for miles around. It is located at the highest point of the Ossett-cum-Gawthorpe area, mid-way along Chidswell Lane in Gawthorpe. This huge concrete structure was constructed between 1922 and 1928 to store drinking water for the town, which was pumped from the Pildacre Water Works some 1.25 miles away. The 25-foot trough has a capacity of 200,000 gallons or nearly 1 million litres. The pinnacle of the tower is now also used to accommodate colinear mobile telephone aerials and they can be clearly seen in the picture. Read more here...

.... and a detailed history of the water suppy is here.

Decisions, Decisions: Greenham Common Tower for Sale

It's been a while since BWTAS heard from the architect Stephen Luxford. When Southern Water unloaded a portfolio of properties in 2004, he purchased at auction the Braithwaite water tower at the former Greenham Common airbase and then got planning permission to convert it into a house (first picture). That was a bit of a shock to the local council as they expected buyers would cut it up for scrap and put a traditional house on the plot.

(BWTAS members report that the rising price of scrap metal has hastened the demise of several old Braithwaite towers in Norfolk very recently.)

When Stephen contacted BWTAS, we were very pleased to be able to provide him with evidence of several similar tower conversions and we like to think that this eased his planning application or at least put his mind to rest that it wasn't such an impossible dream. There's nothing new in converting a Braithwaite water tower to become a house. This was done with the 'House in the Clouds' at Thorpeness in 1923 (very last picture below).

Stephen's orginal design created modules that were inserted through the beams, rather like the solution done with the Mouchel concrete tower at Ashford, as seen on Channel 4's Grand Designs (second from last below).

Stephen now reports that he has "now got planning permission for a slightly altered scheme which (you may see as unfortunate!) that clads the existing steel structure. I have however used the new cladding module to relate to the original Braithwaite system and windows to the lower parts punch between the existing cross bracing structure. The original scheme still has consent but it was proving a tricky construction route thus the revised scheme. Due to my own workload I have recently put the tower on the market for sale (with detailed planning consent) – so if one of your members fancies owning and converting their very own tower - let me know! Offers in the region of £100k at this stage. A build cost estimate is tricky because of unusual nature of the build but at £1200 to £1500/m.sq (quite a high rate). it would be in the region of £160k to £200k."











So it's now up to the client; expose the supports or clad them?

There's also another architectural treatment such a tower could have.














The site is listed with Buildstore www.buildstore.co.uk You have to be a member to view details though as it’s a website aimed at self-builder. There is a pack of information with drawings etc. that Stephen can send if people want to make contact directly.

stephen.luxford@luxfordarchitects.co.uk

Luxford Architects Limited

28 Lugard Road

London

SE15 2TD

T 020 7732 3718

M 0771 498 1978

Drew Leshko

...is an American sculptor who interprets the work of photographers and makes models of their subjects and rephotographs them. He was inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher to produce a series of water tower images. We want!

Broadstone Water Tower

Another informative local history site:

The history of Broadstone Water Tower is rooted in the latter half of the 19th century, indeed it formed an essential part of the then embryonic public supply to the wider conurbation of developing Poole. A brief résumé of the early history of Poole's public water supply is useful when considering the demands that brought about construction of the tower....

Stanton on the Wolds

It's quite rare to find a comprehensive history of a now demolished water tower so we are grateful to Stanton on the Wolds Parish Council for providing all the detail about their erstwhile concrete water tower that lasted from1933 to 1985.

Something for children

It seems that it is no longer on the original site but here is a drawing of a water tower that you can download (click on image) and colour in. There at lots of others at edupics.com




It looks a lot like a continental tower, something like you can find at Kevelaer in Germany which coincidentally is twinned with Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.












Here's some that were coloured in by visitors to the water tower art show.

The 1881 Metal Water Tower of Shanghai

Text collated from various sources.

Up to the late 19th Century the principal source of water supply in Shanghai had been the Whangpoo River or the Suzhou Creek. The water from wells was brackish and unfit for drinking purposes, and the water carried from river or creek in buckets to the various houses was muddy and subject to contamination from sewers or refuse. It was poured into large kongs or jars and settled by the use of alum. Then it was boiled, but even so there was considerable danger connected with using it for drinking purposes. Probably it was the cause, in many cases, of typhoid fever and cholera.



The first proposal for the introduction of a system of waterworks was brought forward at an early date by Dr. M. T. Yates, but largely owing to financial reasons it received no support. The subject was repeatedly discussed but nothing definite was done about it until 1880. The Shanghai Municipal Council then entered into terms with a venture capital consortium (its records of interests in tea plantations and US mines have been located) known as Drysdale, Ringer and Co. and the work of laying pipes was begun. A water tower was erected in Kiangse Road and the pumping of water began in April, 1883. The Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, who happened to be on a visit to Shanghai, accepted an invitation to take part in the ceremony of turning on the water.

It is not recorded where the tower's metal components were founded but in Japan the Kamaishi Iron Works had just been opened in 1880. It is just as possible that they were made in the UK as water towers of this size in wrought iron were starting to appear there and the water company's financiers were based in Britain. Records indicate several British conglomerates bid for the building of the water works, the pipe laying and sewer contracts and other ancillary construction.

Given its size, it was a remarkable example of a prefabricated wrought iron structure. This technology was developed for the rapid building of water towers and related structures needed for railways and was proven with the cast sections to produce the twin water towers for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The engineer/architect was John William Hart, M Inst C E who later settled at and greatly developed Kobe, Japan.

The tower was also remarkable for being some of the first usage of reinforced concrete in China where the foundations were set in a concrete plinth costing £4371 or £1 per square foot. After Hart gave a paper at conference about the project there was criticism that the usual iron pilings would have been cheaper but Hart said this was necessitated by the stratum of soft alluvial deposits about 20 feet below the surface which had led to the collapse of a new screw-piled bridge in Shanghai "before a passenger had set foot on it".


A year later the system was extended so as to meet the needs of the Chinese. The object was not philanthropic but based on the ground that disease among the Chinese might spread to the foreign community, and that better native health meant greater safety for the whole population.

Waterworks and other public health initiatives were an avenue the British used to consolidate and expand their power in colonial outposts. General A. De C. Scott addressed the Institute of Civil Engineers when Hart presented his paper with the remarks that "to his mind it was the engineer who stood the best chance of breaking through the crust of prejudice, distrust, and dislike which still formed a barrier to intercourse with Europeans (by the Chinese)".

At first there was no great eagerness on the part of the Chinese to avail themselves of this new source of supply. Their reluctance was due not only to there being a small tax on those who used the water, but to prejudice founded on ignorance. There were rumours that the water was poisonous, or spoiled by lightning, or that people had been drowned in the water tower, and the Mixed Court Magistrate was obliged to issue a reassuring proclamation.

In the beginning there were complaints that the company overcharged for its supply, and this caused dissatisfaction. Although in 1888 it was proposed that the Council should buy out the company, and take the matter of water supply into its own hands, as is generally the case in other cities of the size of Shanghai, it was found to be too expensive a project.



The waterworks have remained a private company known as the Shanghai Waterworks Company up to the present day, although negotiations have recently been completed for bringing the company under the control of the Municipality.

The waterworks were of great value not only for the health of the community but also in increasing the facilities for extinguishing fires, the firemen previously being dependent entirely on the fire wells sunk in various localities.

It appears from the photographs and plans that there was a viewing gallery around the outside of the tank accessed by the spiral staircase. It must have given excellent views over the city. It is said it dominated the skyline for years and was one of Shanghai's earliest skyscrapers. In 1887 the water tower was festooned with multicolored electric lights in celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

It could have still been a landmark during the childhood of J. G. Ballard as it seems to be marked on the 1928 map of Shanghai but a contemporary photo of it today hasn't yet been located to confirm it still stands. Google Earth indicates it must be a victim of redevelopment.

The Shanghai Water Tower with the water main pipes leading over the Suzhou creek. Erected 1881. Height 130 feet, contents one hundred seventy thousand gallons. Tank diameter 50' depth 12'3". Weight of water 670 tons. Cost of materials and construction £11,849. The makers proudly reported to the 'Civil Engineer' that it had withstood several typhoons and apart from the cost of painting, the maintenance cost was "entirely nil".

Further reading:

A Wilderness of Marshes: The Origins of Public Health in Shanghai By Kerrie L. MacPherson.

John William Hart's 1890 report with plates of the building of the waterworks and tower is deposited at the ICE and is available online with an Athens log in or payment of 24 USD.

Plans image from The Water Supply of Towns and the Construction of Waterworks by William Kinninmond Burton, a Scot who in 1877 was invited by the Meiji Government of Japan to become the first Professor of Sanitary Engineering and lecturer in Rivers, Docks and Harbours at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Read more about his amazing life here.