John Alexander Brodie

John Brodie (1858-1934)

City engineer and the inventor of the goal net.

Plaque at 28, Ullet Road, Liverpool, L17.

John Brodie, Liverpool City Engineer, was best known as the designer of the Mersey Tunnel but he was also a town planner and the inventor of the goal net, first used in a football match in 1890.

The idea occurred to him while watching a match at Everton football ground in 1889 when a dispute erupted over whether the ball had passed through the goal posts or not.

His net 'pocket', attached to the goal posts, was first used in a game between Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers the following year and was an instant success. The FA soon made it compulsory.

Between 1898 and 1926 Brodie served as a City Engineer in Liverpool and made several proposals for improving the city's roads, including the scheme for the inner ring road - Queen's Drive.

A pioneer of prefabricated houses, he built prefabricated tenements in Eldon Street, Liverpool, and also lectured at Liverpool University on road design, traffic sanitation, hygiene and housing.

He was also the City Engineer for the building of New Delhi and the only City Engineer to be appointed as President of the UK Institute of Civil Engineers, a great honour along with other great inventors and engineers of the era.

But Brodie's greatest engineering achievement was undoubtedly the Mersey Tunnel completed in 1934 following nine years in the making. Brodie died that year aged 76. http://www.merseysiderollofhonour.co.uk/get2.php?cwgc=900971