Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey

[1] In the last years of his studies Sankey started as research-assistant of the Royal Commission on Railway Accidents making calculations and experiments on railway-brakes and trails.

From 1879 to 1882 he was instructor at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Canada, and from 1882 to 1889 back in England working for the Ordnance Survey Establishment at Southampton.

[2] In World War I Sankey volunteered serving as a staff officer at the department of the Director of Fortifications and Works.

[4] Sankey gave the following explanation how to read the image: Originally created by Charles Joseph Minard (for the Russian campaign of 1812) to show the number of Napoleon's soldiers going to and from Russia, Sankey adapted[citation needed] the method for energy flow.

acknowledged, that the heat distribution of the then modern steam engine was best shown by the use of the so-called "Sankey Diagram".