age-limit on 20 April 1897, and received the special thanks of the governor-general for his varied services. He was created C.S.I. in June 1897. On his return home, he bought a small property at Palmers Cross, near Elgin. He died suddenly of heart failure in London, on 2 April 1908, and was buried at Highgate.
Sir George Darwin, who first made Baird's personal acquaintance at Lord Kelvin's house in 1882, wrote of Baird's tidal work on his death, ‘In science he has left a permanent mark as the successful organiser of the first extensive operations in tidal observations by new methods. The treatment of tidal observations is now made by harmonic analysis in every part of the world, and this extensive international development is largely due to the ability with which he carried out the pioneer work in India.’
Baird married at Aberdeen, on 14 March 1872, Margaret Elizabeth, only daughter of Charles Davidson, of Forrester Hill, Aberdeen, and of Jane Ross. She survived him with a family of two sons and five daughters.
Besides the works cited, Baird was author of articles on the Gulf of Cutch, Little Runn, and Gulf of Cambay in the ‘Bombay Gazetteer’; ‘Notes on the Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations,’ published by order of the secretary of state (1872); ‘Auxiliary Tables to facilitate the Calculations of Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations’ (1897); ‘Account of the Spirit-Levelling Operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India’ (British Association, 1885). He was also joint author with Sir George Darwin of a report on the results of the ‘Harmonic Analysis of Tidal Observations’ (Proc. Roy. Soc. March 1885); and with Mr. Roberts of the Nautical Almanac Office of ‘Annual Tidal Tables of Indian Ports.’
[War Office Records; India Office Records; The Times, 10 April 1908; Men and Women of the Time, 1899; Proc. Roy. Soc., 1908, Obit. by Prof. G. H. Darwin; Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 172, part ii. 1908; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 47, part ii. 1878, account of the tidal observations in the Gulf of Cutch, compiled by Captain J. Waterhouse.]
BAKER, SIR BENJAMIN (1840–1907), civil engineer, born at Keyford, Frome, Somerset, on 31 March 1840, was son of Benjamin Baker and Sarah Hollis. His father, a native of county Carlow, became principal assistant at ironworks at Tondu, Glamorgan. After being educated at Cheltenham grammar school, Baker was for four years (1856-60) apprentice to H. H. Price, of the Neath Abbey ironworks. Coming to London in 1860, he served as assistant to W. Wilson on the construction of the Grosvenor Road railway bridge and Victoria station. In 1861 he joined the permanent staff of (Sir) John Fowler [q. v. Suppl. I], became his partner in 1875, and was associated with him until Fowler's death in 1898. As a consulting engineer he rapidly gained the highest reputation for skill and sagacity, and was consulted by the home and Egyptian governments, by the colonies, and by municipal and other corporations. The credit of the design and execution of the great constructional engineering achievements with which Baker's name is associated was necessarily shared by him with Fowler and many other colleagues, but Baker's judgment and resource were highly important factors in the success of these undertakings.
Baker early engaged on the underground communications of London. As assistant to Fowler, he was at the outset from 1861 employed on the construction of the Metropolitan (Inner Circle) railway and the St. John's Wood extension. In 1869 he became Fowler's chief assistant in the construction of the District railway from Westminster to the City. In a paper on 'The Actual Lateral Pressure of Earthwork,' for which he received in 1881 the George Stephenson medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers, he discussed some fruits of this experience (Proc. Inst. C. E. lxv. 140), and described the work itself in 1885 (ib. Ixxxi. 1). Subsequently Fowler and Baker acted as consulting engineers for the first 'tube' railway (the City and South London line, opened in 1890), and with J. H. Greathead were the joint engineers for the Central London (tube) railway, opened in 1900. In the construction of this line Baker carried out the plan suggested by him five-and-twenty years earlier, of making the line dip down between the stations in order to reduce the required tractive effort (see his articles on urban railways in Engineering, xvii. 1 et seq.). After Greathead's death in 1896 Baker also acted as joint engineer with Mr. W. R. Galbraith for the Baker Street and Waterloo (tube) railway.
From the early years of his career Baker studied deeply the theory of construction and the resistance of materials. For 'Engineering' he wrote a series of articles on 'Long Span Bridges' in 1867, and another, 'On the Strength of Beams,
