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Francis, James Bicheno 1815-92
US engineer and inventor

Born in South Leigh, Oxfordshire, England, in 1833 he emigrated to the USA, working first on railroad construction. By 1837 he had been appointed chief engineer to the 'Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River', and when they decided to develop the river's power potential in 1845 he began to work on the design of an inward-flow turbine that now bears his name. He is also remembered for the 'Francis formula' describing the flow of water over weirs.