Charles Atherton (1805 – 24 May 1875) was a British scientific engineer from Calne, Wiltshire. He was appointed as Chief Engineer and Inspector of Steam Machinery at Her Majesty's Woolwich Dockyard in 1847; and a second time between 1851 and 1862. He served in the same capacity at Her Majesty's Devonport Dockyard between 1848 and 1851.
Early life
Atherton was born into a wealthy landowning family from Wiltshire. He was the third son of Nathan Atherton (1775–1831), a solicitor who practiced in his home town of Calne, Wiltshire. His mother was Charlotte Adam (1776–1826).
Atherton attended Queens' College, Cambridge from the age of nineteen and undertook a four-year course fit for the engineering profession.
Career
Atherton became a scientific engineer, at a time when the practice of the profession was not formalised, and exact principles were still to be laid down. His focus was marine engineering, when steamships were comparatively in their infancy.
After graduation he entered the employ of the engineer Thomas Telford as a wrangler, on St Katharine Docks in London. Upon these works being completed in 1830, he was sent to Edinburgh, to superintend the erection of the Dean Bridge. He contributed an account of its construction to the Encyclopedia Britannica, which is quoted by Thomas Telford in his "Life and Works".
During 1832, Atherton transferred to Glasgow, initially to superintend as resident engineer the construction of Glasgow Bridge by John Gibb. Subsequently, upon recommendation of James Walker, he was appointed by the Trustees of the River Clyde as their resident engineer.
He prepared a plan for extending a wooden wharf on the south side of the Broomielaw Harbour. However, in 1834, he resigned from his appointment under the Trustees of the River Clyde, to take on the management of the old-established business of Claude Girdwood and Co, iron founders and engineers, in Glasgow, where he remained until 1837. It was here that Atherton was able to focus on steam machinery design and build. He was responsible for several marine engines, notably for the steamer RMS Don Juan, being constructed in Liverpool for the Peninsular Steam Company.
Atherton collaborated on an infrastructure engineering project on the Dyle River in Mechelen, Belgium. Thereafter, he relocated to North America, and was engaged for two years under the Canadian Colonial Government, conducting operations for the improvement of the navigation of the St. Lawrence River, along with deepening of the Lachine Canal, to allow heavier ships to pass through, since hydraulic power was introduced to the industries located on its banks. Atherton also carried out surveys and investigations of Lake Saint Pierre. It was during this time that Canada was established under the Act of Union. Upon leaving Canada, he spent a year working in the United States, returning to England in 1845.
In 1846 he was appointed Assistant to the Chief Engineer in Woolwich Dockyard, and assumed the role of Chief Engineer on 6 April 1847. In the preceding decade the dockyard had found a new lease of life as a specialist yard for marine steam engineering (a relatively new technology which was being developed commercially at nearby Millwall). Immediately prior to Atherton’s tenure, new buildings were constructed for steam manufacturing and maintenance, including a boiler shop for manufacturing boilers, foundries for brass, copper and iron work, and an erecting shop for assembling the steam engines; by 1843 all had been integrated into a single factory complex, with a single large chimney drawing on all the various forges and furnaces by way of underground flues. Integral to the creation of the steam factory was the conversion of two mast ponds (which lay to the north of what is now Ruston Road) into steam basins, where ships could moor alongside the factory while their engines and boilers were fitted. One of these basins was provided with its own dry dock (No. 1 Dock). Although the steam factory was part of the dockyard, it had a high degree of independence: it was accessed by its own gate (known as the West Gate or Steam Factory Gate) and overseen by its own official, the Chief Engineer.
As Chief Engineer of Woolwich Dockyard, Atherton was called upon to give evidence before various Parliamentary Committees appointed to inquire into Dockyard affairs. Records show that his recommendations in 1847 were proposed to George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland and subsequently endorsed, making way for expansion in build capacity and use of new technology at the dockyard.