James Henry Greathead

James Henry Greathead, engraving after a photo, 1896.The Mansell Collection/Art Resource, New York

James Henry Greathead,  (born Aug. 6, 1844Grahamstown, S.Af.—died Oct. 21, 1896London, Eng.), British civil engineer who improved the tunneling shield, the basic tool of underwater tunneling, essentially to its modern form.

Greathead arrived in 1859 in England, where he studied with the noted civil engineer Peter W. Barlow between 1864 and 1867. The tunneling shield invented by Marc Isambard Brunel and used to build the Thames Tunnel was large and unwieldy. Barlow designed a smaller shield, circular in cross section, which Greathead modified to complete the Tower Subway (1869) under the River Thames near the Tower of London. As the shield was pushed forward by screw jacks, the tunnel behind it was lined with cast-iron rings.

In 1886 Greathead began work to carry the City and South London Railway under the Thames near London Bridge, using a larger version of his shield, with which he bored twin tunnels about 10 feet (3 metres) in diameter. In this project he pioneered the use of compressed air in conjunction with the circular shield. His shield, compressed air, and the cast-iron rings used to line the tunnels came to be adopted generally in tunnel construction.