Other professionals

The railways employed many other professionals: notably chemists, metallurgists, etc. Also key figures in railway prerservation.

Allen, G.H. Loftus
Head of LNWR Advertising and Publicity Department and of the LMS from 1927. He had joined the LNWR in 1913 and served as an RTO in France during WW1. From September 1923 he spent six months in the USA in connection with a scheme for goods representation of the LMS in the USA. Ellis. London Midland & Scottish. Charles Potter. In the offices of the LMS. Backtrack, 1998, 12. 454.

Archbutt, Leonard
Archbutt was appointed chemist by Samuel Johnson, the Midland Railway locomotive superintendent, in 1881. Archbutt became a major figure among railway chemists and held office for 40 years. Archbutt was possibly fortunate in marrying the daughter of the next locomotive superintendent of the Midland, R.M. Deeley, but whether it was because of his marriage or as a true reflection of his ability is unknown, although he was paid the extraordinary salary for the time of £1,000 per annum. However, his achievements were many and not all confined to railway chemistry. For example, in 1890 he was co-author of a paper on the Thermodynamics of the Vacuum Brake, then co-inventor with Deeley of a water softening process and joint author (again with Deeley) of a standard text book on Lubrication, first published in 1900. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry in 1888 and was a distinguished member of both the Society of Chemical Industry and the Institute of Metals. Wise Railway Research.

Armitage, William
Louth chemist and photographer who developed an explosive device which served as a detonator to warn locomotive drivers to stop. He and his family killed in an explosion at his home on 17 November 1849: see A.J. Ludham, Backtrack, 1999, 13, 385.

Brebner, J.H. [Jock]
Head of public relations and publicity at the British Transport Commission. Formerly with London Passenger Transport Board and before that the Post Office and with Ministry of Information from 1937. Credited with founding public relations and Gourvish credited him with a "textbook" which unless it is part of grey literature was a pamhlet issued in 1949 and again in 1969. Pearson Man of the rail recorded that Brebner had previously served Lord Ashfield in a similar capacity at the London Passenger Transport Board and before that had had a distinguished career at the Post Office. Jock Brebner was a tall, heavily-built man in his forties, with a ruddy complexion and a determined mouth. He was used to getting his own way, and when roused he had a very fierce aspect. Of course, behind it he was sentimental and kind, but in his business dealings he kept this hidden. He was especially knowledgeable about public relations, particularly in relation to the Press. He once told me that when he was appointed to the Commission he had been informed he would be functionally responsible for all the public relations and publicity of the Executives, as well as of the Commission itself. This was not the understanding, for example, that the Railway Executive had. They took the view that these matters were an integral part of management, for which they had been established by the Act of 1947. In no time there was friction, and Slim and Brebner and the members of the Executive and the Commission were involved. The arguments went backwards and forwards, and became bitter. The Railway Executive stood firm.

Cole, Sir Henry
Born Bath 15 July 1808. Educated Christ's Hospital. As well as being a civil servant he was a successful journalist on the Railway Chronicle and was greatly iinvolved in the Great Exhibition and the establishment of the museums in South Kensington based on the Exhibition's profits. In spite of being an untidy portly figure he clearly had influnce with Prince Albert. Creator of Brompton Boilers, the precursor of the Science Museum. Died in London on 18 April 1882. ODNB biography by Ann Cooper. See also Dunstone..

Dandridge, Cecil Gerald Graham
Born 29 August 1890, died 17 November 1960. Served WW1: Major Royal Engineers; included service in Russia. Married Princess Olga Galitzine.in 1924. District Traffic Superintendent, Anatolian Railway, Turkey, 1919; Assistant District Traffic Manager, GCR, Manchester, 1921; District Passenger Manager, LNER, Manchester, 1923; London District Passenger Manager, LNER, 1926; Advertising Manager, LNER, 1928; Assistant Passenger Manager, Southern Area, LNER, 1942, Passenger Manager, 1944; Chairman., Railway. Executive Passenger Committee, 1946–47; Acting Goods Manager, Southern. Area, LNER (in addition to Passenger Manager), 1947 Chief Commercial Manager, Eastern Region, British Railways, Liverpool St, 1948–55; retired 1955 CVO, 1948.

Dods, John
Swann was succeeded as chemist at Crewe Works by another Chester College student, John Dods, but hr left after three years and was succeeded by his assistant Joseph Reddrop. Wise Railway Research. Hunt LMS Journal (17) 37 spells name Dodds.

Fuller, C.J.F.
Chemist at Horwich Works: appointed in 1887. Wise Railway Research..

Green, Leslie William
Born in Hampstead; died aged 33 of tuberculosis. Architect of Edwardian London Underground buildings with Art Nouveau features especially in their distinctive ceramic work. Sheila Taylor's The moving Metropolis.

Lewis-Dale, Percy
Chief Chemist, LMS: see Paper 295 J. Instn Loco. Engrs. 1932, 22 (the chemist in relation to railway engineering)

Mervyn, Hermione (Muriel Hermione Marion)
Born Dublin 6 October 1897: daughter of the Rector of Clontarf, Spent some years in the office of the Director-General of Transport and Coal Controoler in Ireland; later transferred to Ministry of Transport in London; and awarded MBE for Government service during WW1. In 1926 became Assistant to Chief Lady Welfare Supervisor at Euston and promoted to top job in 1930 from which she resigned in 1937. Became mistress of Lemon: see Terry Jenkins Sir Ernest Lemon (portrait page 87) who hints that she may have bore him a son.

Reith, John Charles Walsham
Born on 20 July 1889 at Stonehaven; died on 16 June 1971 in Edinburgh. Famous as general manager and then director-general of the British Broadcasting Company, subsequently Corporation (BBC). In 1896 Reith entered at Glasgow Academy, but when aged 15 was sent to Gresham's School at Holt, in Norfolk. He did well at German and Latin, played at full-back for the school fifteen, and became a good shot, and could run extremely fast. His father, a Free Church of Scotalnd Minister, decreed he was no scholar and that instead of going to university he should be apprenticed to the North British Locomotive Company. The tedium and frustration of the next eight years were relieved only by his military interests. He joined the 1st Lanarkshire rifle volunteers, and in 1911 he was commissioned in the 5th Scottish rifles. Three years into his apprenticeship Reith  started his famous diary, which was to absorb a disproportionate an amount of his time and energy over the next sixty years. ODNB entry by Ian McIntyre. Terry Jenkins notes that Ernest Lemon called Reith "an old friend".

Rothery, Henry Cadogan
Born in London in 1817; educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in mathematics in 1840 and MA in 1845. After leaving the university he entered at Doctors' Commons (College of Advocates and Doctors of Law), and from 1842 was employed in the ecclesiastical and Admiralty courts. On account of the large experience he had gathered in the court of Admiralty, in 1876 Rothery was appointed by the government as commissioner to inquire into the causes and circumstances of wrecks, and to conduct investigations into casualties at sea. He made a number of important decisions concerning the prevention of maritime losses through the safe storage of cargo. He reported on the Tay Bridge disaster and his report differed from that by Barlow and Yolland in that he criticised Hutchinson who had performed the initial bridge inspection. He retired in the early summer of 1888, and died at Ribsden, Bagshot, Surrey, on 1 August 1888. ODNB entry by G. C. Boase, rev. Eric Metcalfe which does not mention the Tay Bridge connection for which see Nisbet, Backtrack, 2010, 24, 302.

Sherrington, Charles Ely Rose
Son of very famous father (medical scientist and Nobel Laureate) who shares same name. Probably an economist and statistician. Author of ODNB entry for Acworth and founder and head of Railway Reaserch Service, British Railways. This was based at the London School of Economics and funded by the four main line companies. It issued a monthly intelligence journal and an annual assessment of the world's railways. The LMS invited him to be a member of its Steel Rolling Stock Committee. Sherrington had large private document collection accessed by George Ottley page 23 (original volume prelims). Large number of Sherrington publications in Ottley. Terry Jenkins Sir Ernest Lemon contains a considerable amount of information about Sherry..

Smith, [Sir] Francis Petit
Inventor of a screw propeller, was born on 9 February 1808, probably at Copperhurst Farm, about 6 miles from Hythe, Kent. He was educated at a private school in Ashford and began work as a grazing farmer on Romney Marsh, but later moved to Hendon, Middlesex, still as a farmer. As a boy he built many model boats and displayed great ingenuity in developing their propulsion. He continued to devote much time to this subject and by 1835 he had built a model propelled by a screw, driven by a spring, which was so successful that he was convinced that this form of propeller would be superior to the paddle wheel, then universally used by steamships. Over a considerable period Smith was in contact with the Admiralty concerning screw propulsion and this eventually led to the construction of a demonstration vessel the Archimedes which performed well, but the Admiralty refused to recompense Smith. Although screw propulsion may seem far removed from locomotive development it is noteworthy that Smith worked amicably with Ericcson who also contributed to the development of screw propulsion as well as to locomotive development.
The Admiralty's decision not to purchase the Archimedes led to the failure of Smith's company and he was only partially compensated by his share of an ex gratia payment of £20,000 by the Admiralty in 1851, to be shared among all propeller designers. His patent expired in 1856 and he retired to Guernsey as a farmer, but Smith's many friends came to his assistance; he was awarded a civil-list pension of £200 in 1855, and two years later there was a subscription on his behalf as a result of which he received a service of plate and £2678; among the subscribers were Brunel and Lloyd. In 1860 he was offered the post of director of the Patent Office museum (now the Science Museum) and in 1871 he was knighted. He died in South Kensington on 12 February 1874. ODNB entry by David K. Brown who does not mention his great contribution to locomotive preservation which is considered by Dunstone..

Stewart, S.
Chemist at St. Rollox Works, Glasgow, from 1882. Wise Railway Research.

Swann, E.
Appointed at Crewe Works in 1864, former student of Chester College, as an analytical chemist at a salary of £2 per week. Swann was put to work in a hut in the works; his primary duties were in connection with the Bessemer plant, but he was soon involved in the analysis of other things, particularly oil, coal, coke, paint and non-ferrous metals. Water continued also to be an important problem especially when there were further outbreaks of cholera due to inadequate sewers. After one year Swann was given an assistant because of the volume of work, but in 1867. Railway Research. Hunt LMS Journal (17) 37 .

Stringemore, F.H.
Senior London Transport graphic artist. Reposnsible for pre-Beck maps of Underground, and also graphics for Stephenson Locomotive Society. See Fell and Hennessey Backtrack, 2009, 23, 646.

Turner, T. Henry
Appointed Chief Chemist & Metallurgist to LNER in 1931. Significant contributor to discussions of Institution of Locomtive Engineers. In discussion on Glascodine's (J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1936, 26 ,Paper 350) paper on buffing Turner advocated the use of rubber in shear. He could be very sharp in his response to what he regarded as poor metallurgical practice: for instance, he was highly crritical of some of the techniques advocated by Cox in his paper on Locomotive wheels, tyres and axles (J. Instn Loco. Enrgs, Paper 346) in a long contribution to the discussion where he noted the inappropriate use of copper, rather than zinc, as an interlayer between the tyre and rim and noted the destructive nature of molten white metal with hot steel where it cut like a knife. His interests were exceptionally broad: he contributed to a not very exciting paper on railcar development on British Railways noting that the front end should be sloping to avoid turbulence when two units passed at speed. He was also damning of the failure to employ Buck-eye couplings on the railcars.
said that the Author had omitted two conditions of operation which should be mentioned, in view of the statement that the public motor coach did "ride rather well" Surely there was no public motor coach in which a passenger could write at 60 m.p.h., as was done regularly in the ordinary mainline coaches of a train.
Discussion on Papers
Graff-Baker, W.S. Considerations on bogie design with particular reference to electric railways. J. Instn Loco Engrs., 1952, 42, 349-50. (Paper 513)
Discussion: 350-1: The Author had rightly said that the problem must be considered in regard to the bogie plus the rail. The road vehicle never had to go backwards for the same distance and at the same speed, and that was one of the features which had to be considered in the design of the bogie. The "toe-ing in" or castoring action possible with some other types of vehicle could not be considered in bogie design for rail vehicles. A train feature that applied to the electrical bogies for two-thirds of the systems in Britain was that thev must'conduct electricity. Four-rail systems were relatively few in Britain; so that the current was likely to flow through the components of the bogie.
Uneveness over rail joints and lateral track irregularities could both be reduced by butt-welding the rails. At the time he had joined the railway service, civil engineers had been afraid of lateral deformation of the track and catastrophic deformation of the track in hot weather. It had been definitely proved that they were dangers about which there need be no worry, where long welded rails were used. He knew of no case where the long welded rail had been catastrophically deformed. The only rails that had so deformed, in railway experience, were those in which there were expansion joints. From French work which had been done on the subject, it would be seen that use of the expansion joint was courting catastrophic deformation under thermal expansion in the hotter parts of the year. Hence, there was no reason why rail joint bumps should be considered inevitable. The Author had spoken of axles having lasted longer than they should have done according to theory. Probably that was due to the absence of corrosion. Experience had shown that the average mainline axle would fail by corrosion fatigue in a relatively few years, if it weFe machined. Experience equally showed that thorough painting would preserve it for very many years. Corrosion could shorten the service life to a quarter of what it might have been. Before very expensive pneumatic tyres were adopted, with their greatly increased friction, he hoped that Mr. Tritton’s recommendation would bear fruit, and that the rubber-spring wheel-centre would be considered. With that there was little friction and little unsprung weight. Four or five years previously, when he had approached the biggest rubber undertaking in Britain, they had seen no reason why the success which had been achieved in the tramcars in the United States, Switzerland, and Sweden should not be matched in largerscale wheels, or why the trouble with heat from braking should not be overcome.
The lateral stability of the bogie deserved further experiment. Vertical rigidity was obviously necessary, but by design of the sides so that the one would contract and the other expand (which was possible), he was certain that the winding up which took place in the frame at the expense of abrasion of the rail could be avoided. If roller bearings were used, however, provision would have to be made in the shops to ensure that electric currents did not pass, because it was clear that, in certain of the electrified lines, arcing had been occurring from the race to the rollers.
Wise, S. Why metals break. Rly Div. J., 1971, 2, 182-3.
T. Henry Turner, M.Sc. (182-3) raised the following points:
1. Transverse Fissures. The slide of a rail fracture shown by the Author, concerning which Professor A. G. Smith had asked for information, should be classified as a transverse crack or two-stage failure. (Four illustrations typical of these failures can be seen on page 25 of the Rail Failures booklet that Mr. Turner produced in 1944 to standardise reporting, description and classification. The printed booklet was later issued to all British Railways' civil engineers by the Railway Executive in 1948.) This transverse fissure had a smooth, round or kidney-shaped patch which sometimes exhibited a silvery centre. Its nucleus may be a 'shatter crack' or inclusion, or the fissure may be associated with wheel burn or weld deposit.
2. Clinks. Mr. Wise's illustration that interested Professor Smith was comparable with the 'clink' rightly feared by steelmakers and engineers. Turner had worked with the huge masses of steel needed for the electrical generator 'rotors' in the early 1920s. Cooling from molten state and forging to machine shop temperatures, the outside steel solidified and hardened while the middle of the mass had still to lose heat and shrink. Thus it sometimes happened, if the cooling was not very slow indeed, that contraction stresses, concentrating on ingot centre impurity weaknesses, caused the formation of an internal, transverse, convexo-convex lens-shaped fissure by a sudden 'clink'. This could occur when the large steel forging was at rest, and was in no way affected by external forces. Consequently the practice of trepanning a three-inch hole right through the centre of the longitudinal axis was adopted. If the core came out in one piece there was probably no clink, but to add certainty they developed a long-range microscope that was subsequently named a boroscope.
American rails had so many of these transverse, at first invisible, fractures that special railcars were made by Sperry to detect invisible fissures in rails in their tracks so that they could be removed before fracture. Continental rails had less of this type of rail failure, their rail heads having relatively smaller masses of steel. In Britain where rails were mainly made from open-hearth steel, and where climatic extremes of temperature were less on steelmaker's rail banks than in America, there were extremely few transverse fissures in steel rails.
3. Nature of Metals. When puzzling about why metals break engineers must try, like metallurgists, to have in mind the fundamental nature of metals. With the very rare exception of noble metals like gold, the Creator made our metals to have strong affinity for oxygen, sulphur and other elements. Found in nature as earthy material compounds of several elements together, metals were only extracted with much difficulty from their earthy or stoney ores. Metals used by engineers naturally reverted to brittle compounds; dissolving in acids, corroding in moisture, tarnishing and blackening in sulphur fumes, oxidising at flame temperatures. Although nickel and copper differed in their modes of straining, the Author had rightly concentrated on what he had observed in steels because most mechanical engineering was steel, ca~t) iron or their alloys.
4. Rail Bolt Hole. The Author's illustration of a fracture at a steel mil fish-plate bolt hole could be a memorable lesson. The civil engineer had drilled a hole in the rail web leaving a sharp edge that concentrated rail impact stresses. More important it concentrated corrosion because moist sulphurous air corroded the sharp-edged steel from both sides. It was foolish to expect paint, tar or oil to sit protectively on any sharp edge. Smoothly rounding-off the bolt hole edge increased the life of the essential zinc, paint or other anti-corrosive, and so reduced the loss of steel at a stress concentration area that was no longer a point. That was an important lesson, but since 1933 we have known that flash-butt welding of rails avoids bolt-hole corrosion, stress concentration and 70 per cent of rail failures.
5. The Environment Matters. In considering "Why Metals' Break", Turner said engineers must now remember that during the past 30 years many outstanding advances in practice have been brought about by altering the environment in which metals work.
There is much less metal loss in furnaces and machine shops because control of furnace atmospheres has revolutionised heat treatment of metals.
Control of boiler water chemical treatment made Mr. Bulleid's famous locomotives' steel fireboxes last for more than a dozen years instead of failing in six months. Control of ships' boiler waters greatly increased the availability of warships and merchant vessels. Control of the chemical treatment of land boilers made possible the present giant electricity generating plant boilers on which we all depend.
Control of anti-corrosive in summer as well as winter coolants for internal combustion engines has done more than anything else to increase the useful life of road vehicle motors. Control of air pollution brightened towns, increased their sunlight and also appreciably reduced the atmospheric corrosion of our metals.
Robson, A.E. Railcar development on British Railways.. J. Instn Loco Engrs., 1962, 52, 113-114. refers to Renault railcars and its influnce on A4 and bluntness of BR product, also it lack of Buckeye couplers.

Papers
Boiler water treatment: a general review. Corrosion Prevention & Control, 1956, 3, 37-40..

Wise, Sam
"Sam", as he preferred to be known, was born in London on 1 August 1917 and attended the Dulwich Hamlet London County Council School. From there he won a Junior County Scholarship in 1928, which took him to Sloane School for the next five years. On matriculating at the end of this period, he moved to the Crewe Locomotive Works of the  LMS as an engineering apprentice where he did the usual round, gathering experience in the various workshops undertaking the building and repair of steam locomotives. Between the years 1933-1938 he also acquired both Ordinary National Certificate and Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering, studying at Crewe Technical College and Manchester College of Technology, before taking up an appointment as assistant to the Works Engineer at Crewe for three years and then as Assistant Works Metallurgist, LMS, at Crewe between 1941 and 1944. At the same time he was again studying at night school, this time diversifying into welding and metallurgy and acquiring City and Guilds Certificates.
In 1944 he moved to Ashford as Assistant Head of the Physical Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Research Department, Southern Railway, where he was involved in a wide range of work including developments in non-destructive testing and experimental stress analysis, which both featured to a considerable extent in his later work. The LMS and Southern Railway Research Departments were combined in 1951 at which point Sam became Senior Engineering Assistant, BR Research Department, Ashford, for two years before moving to Derby as Senior Scientific Officer and then Senior Principal Scientific Officer in charge of the Strength of Materials Group up until 1961.
As Assistant Director (Mechanical) of the Engineering Division of British Railways' Research Department from 1961 to 1972 Sam was responsible for a wide range of activities including, at different times, Strength of Materials, Structures, Metallurgy, Non-destructive Testing, Instrumentation, Drawing Office, etc. Between 1972 and 1982 Sam was Materials and Inspection Engineer and later Quality Assurance Manger, British Rail, in the Director of Mechanical and Electrical Engineer's Department where he oversaw the transition from traditional methods of Inspection to Suppliers' Quality Assurance.
After retirement in 1982, he acted as a Senior Mechanical Engineering Consultant on behalf of Transmark. As a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Sam was very active in Railway Division affairs as evidenced by his winning the George Stephenson Prize for papers in 1960, 1970 and 1973. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Non-destructive Testing and a Member of the Institution of Metallurgists. During his retirement Sam continued his involvement with all three institutions and at the same time commenced writing his book on the history of Railway Research in the UK. After his death in November 1992 it was decided that the book as far as he had completed it, was much too valuable as a source document to lose. As a mark of respect to a dedicated Railway Engineer, his work was collated and edited by colleagues and is published in Railway research..

Woodcroft, Bennet
Bennet Woodcroft was born 29 December 1803 at Heaton Norris, near Stockport. Both parents had come from Sheffield, but by 1800 his father John Woodcroft was established as a merchant and manufacturer of silk and muslin. He accumulated a large fortune which was subsequently dissipated by speculation in railway shares. Bennet Woodcroft was apprenticed to a silk weaver at Failsworth, near Manchester, and subsequently studied chemistry under John Dalton. Woodcroft made his first successful patent application in 1827 for inventing a method of printing yarn before weaving—a process of great commercial value. He joined his father in partnership about 1828, but had parted company before 1840. Woodcroft's other patents were one of 1838 for improved tappets for looms—his most successful invention—and a series of increasing pitch screw propellers, patented in 1832, 1844, and 1851. He was one of several inventors working to improve propellers, as marine engines came into use in naval vessels, who were persuaded to pool their claims upon the Admiralty; Woodcroft was a witness at the hearings and shared in the £20,000 parliamentary reward.
Whilst in Manchester Woodcroft joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, where he developed friendships with the leading engineers of the town, including Joseph Whitworth, James Nasmyth, Richard Roberts, Eaton Hodgkinson, and Richard Fairbairn. About 1843 he set up as a consulting engineer and patent agent, moving in 1846 to London. In April 1847 he was appointed professor of machinery at University College, London, but found teaching uncongenial and resigned in June 1851.
When the Patent Law Amendment Act was passed in 1852 Woodcroft was appointed assistant to the commissioner of patents, responsible for specifications. This position brought him into close contact with Prince Albert, who, following the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851, was encouraging manufacturers to take advantage of the new patent law to improve their designs and products. As a consulting engineer Woodcroft realized that the major obstacle to a modern patent system was the difficulty of seeing earlier specifications and the lack of indexes. In the space of five years he published 14,359 specifications granted between 1617 and 1852, together with indexes, which the commissioners bought from him for £1000. He also prepared classified abridgements and various ancillary technical documents. Copies were presented to more than a hundred free public libraries as well as to many foreign and colonial libraries, and were freely on sale. Thus it is appropriate that the City of Yarmouth Library holds a copy of Bennet's Alphabetical index of patentees of inventions, 1617-1852. Sadly, the collection of patent literature was lost in a bombing raid during WW2 and reparation from Germany was not sought.
To assist in dealing with the patents, Woodcroft amassed, largely at his own expense, numerous technical books, which he handed over to form the nucleus of the Patent Office Library, opened to the public in 1855 and later incorporated in the British Library. He collected portraits of inventors and, perhaps inspired by collections held in the United States patent office, gathered models of inventions from the Society of Arts and elsewhere. He also rescued from oblivion in Edinburgh the first marine engine, that invented by William Symington. These historic items went in 1857 to the new South Kensington Museum and were later transferred to the Science Museum. Woodcroft was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1859. He retired on 31 March 1876 and died at his home in  South Kensington on 7 February 1879, and is buried in Brompton cemetery. Based on ODNB entry by Anita McConnell.

Alphabetical index of patentees of inventions, 1617-1852