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MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | MILNE, JohnBorn: 1802Engineer | |||||
Natal's first harbour engineer. Born in Scotland. He published his observations on the tidal currents at Leith with plans for the improvement of the port (31p, with map) in Edinburgh in 1835. A second edition appeared the same year (See Worldcat). He emigrated to Natal from Edinburgh in 1852 and settled in Durban, where he worked under the harbour master as Natal's first harbour engineer. In 1854 he issued regulations governing public access to the harbour works. After a detailed study of the sand bar across the harbour entrance he proposed that the harbour mouth be narrowed by building a 600 m long pier from the Point, and a parallel but shorter breakwater from the Bluff. This recommendation rested on the assumption that tidal scouring would deepen the mouth from an initial two metres to about eight meters. The necessary work was started, but the new Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, John Scott, dismissed Milne in 1857 and abandoned the plan. Scott's own attempts to improve the harbour were costly and futile. Milne also built a drain to clear the Eastern Vlei of surplus water. Known as Milne's Drain, it carried flood water into the bay when the Umgeni River bursts its banks and flooded the vlei. For many years imported timber off-loaded from ships at high tide was floated up Milne's Drain to the timber yards near the east end of Smith Street. Although not known as an architect he had titled himself as a 'teacher of architecture' in his publication of 1835, and he drew up rough plans for the Natal Bank, Durban, with James Brickhill, the manager of the Bank, in about 1865 (Natal Witness 1 May 1984). When the NATAL GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS line from Durban into the interior was started in 1876, two routes were considered. One of these had been proposed and provisionally surveyed by John Milne in 1868. From Durban it ran some 26 km along the valley of the Umhlatuzana River and then switched over to the valleys of the Umlazi and Umadodo Rivers before reaching its highest point a few kilometers north-west of Camperdown and proceeding over more elevated terrain to Pietermaritzburg. Though some 32 km shorter than the alternative route, it was rejected because of the possibility that the line would be flooded in the river valleys, and because it ran far from existing roads.Around 1875 a committee of enquiry chaired by advocate Harry Escombe (later Chairman of the Natal Harbour Board) consulted Milne, then in his seventies, on the improvement of the harbour, but owing to financial constraints no action was taken.,/p> The tugboat John Milne was named after him in 1895. [Text added after Plug (RCF 2018 08 05)]. All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. List of projects With photographs With notes
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