CUBITT, Sir William (1785-1861), a distinguished English engineer, was born at Dilham in Norfolk, where his father was a miller. He received his early education at the village school, and subsequently profited greatly by the access he had to a clergyman’s library. While still very young he worked in his father’s mill, and served an apprenticeship of four years (1800-1804) as a joiner and cabinetmaker at Stalham. After working for a short time with his father, he became associated with an agricultural machine-maker, named Cook, who resided at Swanton. He now showed gr at talent in making accurate and highly finished patterns for the iron castings of horse threshing-machines and other implements. He turned his attention to windmills, which were, at that time, encumbered with sails so large that they proved ex eedingly difficult to manage during a storm. His investigations led him to the invention of self-regulating windmill sails, which were patented in 1807, and are now universally used. In 1812 he entered the important works of Messrs Ransome of Ipswich, of which he soon became chief engineer. He improved the port and gasworks of Ipswich, and ultimately became a partner of the Messrs Ransome, and remained with them till 1826, when his increasing interest in great engineering undertakings led to his removal to London. Meanwhile, the subject of the employment of criminals had been much in his thoughts; and the result was his invention of the treadmill, which he meant to be used for grinding corn, pumping water, &c., and did not contemplate as an instrument of punishment. Shortly after 1818 all the principal jails in the kingdom introduced the invention. In 1822 an account of the treadmill, “invented by Mr William Cubitt of Ipswich,” was issued by the Society for the Promotion of Prison Discipline. Mr Cubitt had been very busy, while in Ipswich, having issued reports in 1814, 1820, and 1822 on the Norwich navigation. In 1822 he first became intimate with Telford. After his removal to London he was almost constantly engaged in important engineering works, and was often requested to give his opinion and evidence on the improvement of canals, harbours, ports, and rivers, the making of railways, and designs for bridges. His face was well known in the committee rooms at Westminster. Among his works may be mentioned the Oxford canal, the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, the improvement of the River Severn, the Bate docks at Cardiff, the Black Sluice drainage and its outfall sluice at Boston harbour, the Middlesborough docks and coal drops in the Tees, and the South-Eastern Railway, of which he was chief engineer. His advice was often asked about proposed alterations on the Thames, Tees, Tyne, Ouse, Weaver, Nene, Witham, and Welland; and he submitted important reports on these rivers. He was a member of commission for the improvement of the Shannon, in which capacity he did good service. On the Croydon Railway he applied the atmospheric system of traction; and on the Great Northern Railway, constructed by his son Mr Joseph Cubitt, he effected many valuable improvements. On the Continent, too, his opinion was much valued. The Hanoverian Government consulted him about the harbour and docks at Harburg; the water-works of the city of Berlin were constructed under his immediate superintendence; his report on the proposed Paris and Lyons railway had much weight in determining what offer was to be accepted; and he was consulting engineer for the line of railway from Boulogne to Amiens. Among his later works we may mention two large floating landing stages at Liverpool, and the bridge for carrying the London turnpike across the Medway at Rochester.

In 1850 he was consulted by Sir Robert Peel in regard to a building in Hyde Park for the International Exhibition. His name is identified with the original plan; and he gave such high satisfaction that Her Majesty was graciously pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on him in 1852. Ultimately Sir Joseph Paxton’s plan was adopted, with the approval of Mr Cubitt. Public recognition, sometimes withheld in the case of literary men, is generally ample in the case of those who devote themselves to practical usefulness. Cibitt accordingly was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society in 1830; he was also a fellow of the Royal Irish Academy, a member of the Society of Arts, and of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he became successively a member of council in 1831, vice-president in 1836, and president in 1850 and 1851. In 1858, after a singularly arduous and successful career, he retired from public business; but he never ceased to take an interest in engineering work till his death, which took place on the 13th October 1861, at his house on Clapham Common, London.