skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin

1833–85

Engineer and university teacher. Studied natural philosophy at Genoa. Apprenticed at Fairbairn’s works, Manchester, 1851. Worked as a draughtsman and marine telegraph engineer in London from 1855. Carried out important experiments on the resistance and insulation of electrical cables with William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin). Largely occupied in the fitting out of submarine telegraph cables, 1858–73. Appointed professor of civil engineering, University College, London, 1866; professor of engineering, Edinburgh University, 1868. Promoted the formation of a sanitary association, Edinburgh, 1877–8. Wrote miscellaneous papers on literature, science, and political economy. FRS 1865.

Source

ODNB.

Bibliography

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

letter