Henry Drury Harness
|
Sir Henry Drury Harness KCB |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
29 April 1804 Harrow, London |
| Died | 10 February 1883 (aged 78) Barton End, Headington, Oxfordshire |
| Service/branch | Army |
| Rank | General |
| Unit | Corps of Royal Engineers |
| Awards |
|
| Spouse(s) | Caroline Edmonds |
General Sir Henry Drury Harness KCB (29 April 1804 – 10 February 1883) was a British soldier who held several notable civil posts during his career.
Henry Drury Harness was son of John Harness, M.D., commissioner of the Transport Board; William Harness was his elder brother. Henry Drury Harness graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1825, but had to wait two years for a commission. During this interim period he studied mining engineering at silver mines in Mexico.
After he was named second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 24 May 1827, Harness returned to England and went through the usual course of study at Chatham. In 1828, he married Caroline, daughter of Thomas Edmonds of Cowbridge, Glamorganshire, and in 1829 went with his company to Bermuda. He was promoted to lieutenant on 20 September 1832 and, on his return home in 1834, was appointed an instructor in fortification at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He remained there for six years. During this period he compiled a textbook which became referrd to as the "Harness Papers" and formed part of the course of study at the academy for the next twenty years. In 1836-7, he contributed new passenger maps to the survey of Irish railways and, in 1840, he was appointed instructor in surveying at Chatham. he was subsequently promoted to second captain on 30 June 1843. In 1844, Harness returned to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a professor of fortification.
In 1836-7, while still Instructor of Fortification at Woolwich, he was appointed to support the Irish Railways Commission in drawing maps of population and traffic maps. He used surveys to gather data from constabularies throughout Ireland, and developed a set of maps of flows that were unique at the time and may have influenced later developers of these techniques such as Petermann. Although reported in the Royal Geographic Society at the time, no further mention of his approach was noted for almost 100 years, although Robinson credits Harness with several cartographic innovations, including the first examples of graduated circles for city population, urban and rural populations on the same map, density of population, flow lines to show movement and the dasymetric technique.
...
Wikipedia