Dugald Clerk

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Dugald Clerk was a Scottish inventor who joined Sir George Croyden Marks in 1888 to form the firm Marks & Clerk. During the war he advised the Air Ministry on engines and served on the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the Air Inventions Committee.[1]

He studied at Andersonian College in Glasgow and at Yorkshire College in Leeds. He invented a two-stroke engine in 1876 and patented it in 1881. He published a book in two volumes titled The Gas, Petrol, and Oil Engine (Vol. 1; Vol. 2).[2]

He also co-authored Water-Power in the British Empire, a report from the Water-Power Committee of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies.

According to his obituary in Engineering:[1]

Although 60 years of age at the outbreak of the War, Sir Dugald served as Director of Engineering Research at the Admiralty, and as a member of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and chairman of the Internal Combustion Engine Committee at the Air Ministry. He was also a member of the Air Inventions Committee, and of the Panel Board of Invention and Research. Among his minor activities, he took a keen interest in the development of the motor vehicle, and in addition to being a member of the Technical Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, was a judge at many of the trials organised by that body. His work on the determination of mixture strength by analysis of the exhaust gases is referred to by Wimperis in his book on the Internal Combustion Engine. He was appointed a director of the National Gas Engine Company, Limited, of Ashton-under-Lyne, in 1888, and retained this position until his death. In the same year, he entered into partnership with the present Lord Marks as consulting engineers and patent agents, and frequently attended the Courts as an expert witness in patent cases.

He was knighted in 1917.[2]



References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Grace's Guide
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Sir Dugald Clerk", Encyclopedia Brittanica.


Names Dugald Clerk
Birth date 1854-03-31
Death date 1932-11-12
Countries GB
Locations Glasgow
Occupations engineer, patent agent
Tech areas Engine, Propulsion
Affiliations Marks & Clerk, British Air Ministry
Wikidata id