Frederick W. Lanchester
Personal information
Name
Frederick W. Lanchester
Nationality
English
Birth date
October 23, 1868
Birth place
Lewisham, London
Date of death
March 8, 1946
Work
Significant advance
automotive engineeringaerodynamics
Green plaque to Frederick Lanchester on his home in Moseley, Birmingham
Frederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS (October 23, 1868 - March 8, 1946) was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research.
He was also a pioneer British motor car builder, a hobby he eventually turned into a successful car company, and is considered one of the "big three" English car engineers, the others being Harry Ricardo and Henry Royce.
Biography
Lanchester was born at Lewisham, London to Henry Jones Lanchester, an architect, and his wife Octavia, a tutor. He was the fourth of eight children. When he was a year old, his father moved the family to Brighton, and young Frederick attended a preparatory school and a nearby boarding school, where he did not distinguish himself. He himself, looking back remarked that, t seemed that Nature was conserving his energy. However, he did succeed in winning a scholarship to the Hartley Institution, in Southampton, and after three years won another scholarship, to, what is now, part of Imperial College, Kensington. He supplemented his instruction in applied engineering by attending evening classes at Finsbury Technical School. Unfortunately, he ended his education without having obtained a formal qualification.
When he completed his education in 1888, he took a job as a Patent Office draughtsman for ?3 a week. About this time he took out a patent for an isometrograph, a draughtsman instrument for hatching, shading and other geometrical design work.
In 1919, at the age of fifty-one, Lanchester married Dorothea Cooper, the daughter of Thomas Cooper, the vicar of St Peter Church at Field Broughton in Lancashire. The couple moved to 41 Bedford Square, London, but in 1924 Lanchester built a house to his own design (Dyott End) in Oxford Road, Moseley. The couple remained there for the rest of their life together but had no children.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1922, and in 1926 the Royal Aeronautical Society awarded him a fellowship and a gold medal.
In 1925 Lanchester founded a company called Lanchester Laboratories Ltd. This was to carry out industrial research and development work. Although he developed an improved radio and gramophone speaker, he was unable to market it successfully because of the recession. He carried on, overworking, until in 1934 his health failed and the firm was forced to close. He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson disease.
He was awarded gold medals by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1941 and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1945.
Lanchester, who had never been commercially successful, lived out the rest of his life in straitened circumstances, and it was only through charitable help that he was able to remain in his home. He died at his home, Dyott End, on 8 March 1946.
Work
Gas engines
Near the end of 1888, Lanchester went to work for the Forward Gas Engine Company of Saltley, Birmingham as assistant works manager. His contract of employment contained a clause stating that any technical improvements that he made would be the intellectual property of the company. Lanchester wisely struck this out before signing. This action was prescient, for in 1889 he invented and patented a Pendulum Governor to control engine speeds, for which he received a Royalty of ten shillings for each one fitted to a Forward Engine. In 1890 he patented a Pendulum Accelerometer, for recording the acceleration and braking of road and rail vehicles.
After the death of the current works manager, Lanchester was promoted in his place. He then designed a new gas engine of greater size and power than any produced by the company before. The engine was a vertical one with horizontal, opposed poppet valves for inlet and exhaust. The engine had a very low compression ratio, but was very economical to run.
In 1890 Lanchester patented a self-starting device for gas engines. He subsequently sold the rights for his invention to the Crossley Gas Engine Company for a handsome sum.
He rented a small workshop next to the Forward Company works and used this for experimental work of his own. In this workshop, he produced a small vertical...(and so on) To get More information , you can visit some products about wicker dining chair, round cutting board, . The Custom Kitchen Set products should be show more here!
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