John Fleetwood Baker, Baron Baker OBE (19 March 1901 – 9 September 1985) was a
British scientist and structural engineer.
Early life
Baker was born in Liscard, Cheshire, a son of J.W. Baker and Emily Fleetwood. He was educated at
Rossall School and
Clare College, Cambridge and married Fiona Mary MacAlister Walker in 1928.
Career
After graduation, Baker worked with the
Air Ministry on structural problems of
airships. At 28, in 1929, he contracted tuberculosis. Upon recovering, he became a Technical Officer with the Structural Steel Research Committee, which was investigating why measured stresses in structural steel bore little resemblance to theoretical ones. During his time in this post, he developed the plastic theory of design, a revolutionary method of design of steel structures which gives a
lower bound on the collapse load, and is hence always safe. Until then, all design of steel structures was based on
elastic theory of design, which gives an
upper bound on the collapse load.
In 1933 Baker became Professor of Engineering at
Bristol University, after which he was
scientific adviser to the Design and Development Section of the
Ministry of Home Security from 1939 to 1943. In this time he created the
Morrison indoor shelter, using his plastic theory of structural analysis.
From 1943 to 1968, he was
Professor of
Mechanical Sciences and Head of Department at
Cambridge University Engineering Department. During this time the department more than tripled in size, from 24...
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