already built or about to be built on the rail network. Fairbairn conducted some of the first serious studies of the effects of repeated loading of wrought and cast iron girders, showing that fracture could occur by crack growth from incipient defects, a problem now known as fatigue. He built large-scale testing apparatus for the studies, and was partly funded by the Board of Trade. He also conducted experiments on pressurized cylinders of glass and was able to show that the highest stress in the wall occurs around the diameter. It is known as the hoop stress and is twice the value of the longitudinal stress which occurs along the length of the cylinder. The precise value depends only on the wall thickness and the internal pressure. His work was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and was of great help in analysing failures in steam boilers and pipes. In 1854 he founded the Manchester Steam Users' Association, which quickly became recognised as setting national standards for high-pressure steam boilers. As the "Associated Offices Technical Committee" of British insurers the MSUA remains a national certification authority. Honours Fellow of the Royal Society elected 1850 (Gold Medal 1860) President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1854–1855. President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (1855–1859) Elected in February 1860 to the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers Appointed Baronet, (of Ardwick), 2 November 1869; he had declined a knighthood in 1861 A statue stands in Manchester Town Hall Conferred with Honorary Membership of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1859. President of the British Association 1861 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1862 Inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2017. Fairbairn is one of several notable engineers to be buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Prestwich. The number of people present at his funeral was estimated at from 50,000 to 70,000. Works Experiments to determine the effect of impact, vibratory action, and long continued changes of load on wrought iron girders, (1864) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London vol. 154, p311 Further reading The Life of Sir William Fairbairn, Bart., (ed. W. Pole, 1877) See also Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company McConnel & Kennedy Mills References External links 1789 births 1874 deaths Fairbairn, William, 1st Baronet British naval architects British structural engineers Scottish civil engineers