Quick Facts
- Born:
- 1787?, London, Eng.
- Died:
- Aug. 11, 1863, Balham Hill, Surrey
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Joshua Field
British civil engineer
Joshua Field (born 1787?, London, Eng.—died Aug. 11, 1863, Balham Hill, Surrey) was an English civil engineer. He joined Henry Maudslay’s noted engineering firm, which soon became Maudslay, Sons, and Field. In 1838 they completed a pair of powerful combined steam engines that applied power to a paddle-wheel shaft by a crank (rather than cogwheels) and installed them on I.K. Brunel’s Great Western. On its maiden voyage it crossed the Atlantic in only 131/2 days, and it became the first regular transatlantic steamer. He was a cofounder of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1818).
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