One is attracted by the biography of an individual who has given his name to that all
too familiar 'temporary' structure, the Nissen Hut. Fred McCosh has been tireless
in researching an obscure character in order to present this biography; to discover
origins and then to follow a none too clear trail, but to what end?
Lt. Col. Peter Nissen was undoubtedly a man of many parts; a fascinating character.
An inventor and an adventurer with several careers based on opportunities that came his
way. By any standards he proved a poor business man, lacking salesmanship and
poor at financial management - but that has not been unusual at any time for the most
original inventors. His upbringing and career took him across North America, to
South Africa, and by Great Britain to Europe in the First World War, where it all
happened.
Fascinating as it may be to a few readers, the biography traces in too much and
largely irrelevant detail of Peter Nissen's parentage and family. We find his father,
originally from Norway, to be a wanderer to such a degree that there are doubts as to
where Peter was born in 1871. His youth in North Carolina with a mediocre education at
Trinity College led to a Mining Course in Kingston Ontario, which he failed to complete
but here it was that the young Nissen first noted a structure supported by a curved, arch-like
frame. When he should have been completing his course in mining, Nissen is up
and off to an Art College or 'Exploring'. The author rightly acknowledges on page 51
that he may have strayed from the theme of the biography; this is true and the results of
his research have been set out so fully that the points pertinent to the core subject have
not been clearly identified for referencing in the narrative of Nissen's greatest
achievement: the Hut.
Chapter 4 is given over to the development of the stamp mill, used in the extraction
of ore (in Rhodesia, amongst other places). Although interesting to a mining engineer,
this is of less interest to those who are seeking the history of the Nissen Hut and its
designer.
And so to Chapter 5 where we learn that the arched form of the hut is not an original
idea, but is inspired by the roof of the Drill Hall at Nissen's college in Kingston Ontario
some 20 years previously. This does not detract from the 'originality' of Nissen's use of
the form, for all forms used in buildings have been tried and tested previously. Credit to
Nissen for realising the functional quality and strength with economy of the form that he
was to adopt for the new Hut. But for chance the opportunity would not have come his
way as at 43 he had difficulty in entering the British Army; first becoming a temporary
officer in an infantry regiment and then transferring to the Royal Engineers when his
talent as an engineer had been noted. Even then his initiative in designing a curious
semi-circular hut' was not readily accepted by the regular engineer officers, but the
overwhelming accommodation problems in Flanders allowed the prototypes to be built
and tested. Its potential would appear to have been readily accepted as others were quick
to lay claim and credit for the design or its development.
The credit to Nissen for the invention is established by a memo of 16 April 1918
from Gen Liddell, Deputy Engineer in Chief. By the end of the war some 100,000 huts
were produced for 2,500,000 pounds (2 pounds 10 shillings each)! We learn that the two basic types were
27ft X 16ft X 8ft high and the 'hospital hut' of 60ft x 20ft x 10ft high. Significant is the
role of the principal draughtsman Robert Donger, not only in developing the Hut and its
variants, but also for his role in the development and production of the Nissen Hut
between the wars.
Nissen, ever the inventor, then developed a drying hut, shower baths, sheet iron
stoves to heat the huts, an oven (field cooker) and mudpunts to transport shells to the
artillery from the dumps. On demobilisation Nissen became a naturalised British citizen
and the biography then endeavours to trace the subsequent development of the Nissen
Hut through to the Second World War and its use in the Falklands in 1982. This is rather
thin and although some space is given to description of variations on the theme of the
original hut, the wide use in World War Two is not described; even the total number
produced does not appear. Nissen died in 1930, but his original draughtsman Robert
Donger lived until 1952. But the story of the 'Hut' dies away in spite of the many
variants and its trial use in post-war housing. The conclusion is that Peter Nissen's poor
business acumen and unfortunate choice of business partners led to an unhappy period
from 1920 onwards. Quite probably the military development of the hut showed only
limited change as it would have been in the hands of RE personnel.
As an inventor Nissen continued to pursue new ideas, whereas the original concept,
although not an architectural 'gem', does lend itself to wider application and
development than appears to have been the case.
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