Dugald Clerk

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Dugald Clerk

Sir Dugald Clerk (born March 31, 1854 in Glasgow , † November 12, 1932 in Ewhurst , Surrey , England) was a Scottish inventor who developed the first two-stroke engine in 1878 . The engine was patented on February 11, 1879 under DRP No. 8745, in 1881 also in England.

This happened out of the need to circumvent the existing patent on the four-stroke engine that Nicolaus Otto had received in 1876. Although it only needed one crankshaft revolution for one work cycle, it was still a long way from today's two-stroke engines.

Its engine had a second cylinder for charging, which was simplified by Joseph Day in 1891 .

He started as a mechanic at the age of 14 and began studying chemistry 5 years later at Andersonian College in Glasgow with Thomas Edward Thorpe and at Yorkshire College in Leeds . A Lenoir gas engine sparked his interest in mechanical engineering.

From 1886 he lived in Birmingham , where he did research on gas engines and founded a successful consulting and patent agency with GC Marks. One of their customers was Frederick W. Lanchester , for whom he patented the starter in 1890.

During the First World War he developed a machine for the production of ammunition, for which he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1917 . In 1922 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About innovations in gas engines. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 247, 1883, pp. 145-153.
  2. ↑ http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/clerk_dugald.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/pss/768744
  4. ↑ http ://www. britica.com/EBchecked/topic/121330/Sir-Dugald-Clerk
  5. ↑ http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/info-fame_Sir_Dugald_Clerk.html
  6. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 17, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Clerk, Dugald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1932
Place of death Ewhurst , Surrey , England