INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

The 'Institution of Mechanical Engineers' (IMechE) is the British engineering society concerned with mechanical engineering.

Overview

'Vision statement:' ''"Improving the World through Engineering". Its Purpose is "To lead and promote professional engineering"
In 1818 the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded. At that time the word "civil" was used to distinguish them from Military engineers and included all the fields of engineering, not just construction as it does today. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was founded on January 27 1847 in the Queen's Hotel next to Curzon Street railway station in Birmingham by the railway pioneer George Stephenson and others^[1]. The Institution of Electrical Engineers was founded later in 1871.^[2]
The head office is located at 1 Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London, SW1H 9JJ

The beginning

The events that lead to the formation of the IMechE began in the early autumn of 1846. A discussion between six or seven men, not all of whom were engineers, ended with the decision to try and gain support for an institution for "mechanics and engineers". Exactly where this discussion took place is open to debate. At the opening of the present headquarters in Birdcage Walk, London in 1899 a commemorative pamphlet was issued to members stating that the meeting took place in a house in Cecil Street, Manchester. Namely the house of a Charles Beyer, the manager of Sharp Brothers' locomotive works. Although Beyer was very much involved in the formation of the IMechE, it is more likely that the meeting was no more than a conversation among friends.
More probably, the venue of the discussion that led to the first meeting was the Lickey Incline near Bromsgrove on the Bristol and Birmingham railway. James McConnell was until 1846, locomotive superintendent of this line, known earlier as the Birmingham and Gloucester railway. It appears that McConnell had invited several engineers to view locomotive trials at Lickey, where there is a 1 in 37 gradient. It remains one of the steepest parts of the British railway network today.
In one account of the event a shower of rain sent the party running for cover. They found shelter in a trackside platelayers' hut, and it was in this hut that the discussion may have turned to the formation of an institution for mechanical engineers. It is quite probably that both the rain and the hut are a myth. It is more likely that the engineers returned to McConnell's house at Blackwell, less than half a mile away where the discussion began.

George Stephenson

More than a decade later Samuel Smiles, in his biography of George Stephenson suggested that the IMechE was formed out of a sense of justifiable rage. Smiles wrote that the engineers present at the Lickey Incline were angry that Stephenson, the most famous mechanical engineer of the age had been refused membership to the Institution of Civil Engineers, unless he sent in "a probationary essay as proof of his capacity as an engineer". According to Smiles, Stephenson declined to submit to this indignity and as such the other engineers decided to form their own institution, that would not only include Stephenson, but put him at their head.
It took over a century to expose Smiles's account as a complete myth, or at least an exaggeration. In the 1950s after the centenary of the IMechE had made the story public, engineers at the Institution of Civil Engineers checked their records and found that although there had been a definite coolness between Stephenson and some prominent members of the ICE (Stephenson retained a distaste for London based consulting engineers compared to "practical Northerners") there is no evidence that he ever applied for membership or that if he did, it was refused. The story appears to have been invented by Smiles some years after Stephenson's death perhaps as an illustration of the hardships faced by the early engineering establishment or to provide some drama to his work.
As well as McConnel and Bayer, Richard Peacock, superintendent of the Manchester and Sheffied railway and later a member of parliament was present at the meeting at Lickey along with George Selby and Archibald Slate from the Birmingham tube company and Charles Geach, a Birmingham Banker. The result of the meeting was a letter, that was sent to all the prominent engineers across Britain. It read:
''"To enable Mechanics and Engineers engaged in the different Manufactories, Railways and other Establishments in the Kingdom, to meet and correspond, and by mutual interchange of the ideas respecting improvements in the various branches of Mechanical Science to increase their knowledge, and give an impulse to inventions likely to be useful to the world. We hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at a Meeting of Promoters of the above on Wednesday 7th October at 2pm at the Queens Hotel, Birmingham"''
The letter was signed by McConnell, Bayer and Slate and also by Edward Humphreys of the firm Rennie's in London. Although not present at the meeting the use of his name gave the endorsement of a London Engineer, to add to the Birmingham and Manchester men, and Rennie's was an illustrious name to attach to the new institution.
On the 7th of October the meeting was held. The preliminaries appear not to have taken too long. The four signatories of the letter, plus Peacock, William Buckle from Boulton and Watt, John Edward Clift and Edward Cowper were elected to form the committee and draft the rules, with McConnell as Chairman and Slate as honorary Secretary. The meeting however was followed by a dinner. The list of toasts, beginning with Queen Victoria and the Prince consort and including a toast to the Institution of Civil Engineers, to the memory of James Watt, to George Stephenson and his son Robert, to Brunel and the health of McConnell and Slate as well as others suggest that the evening slid into genial, less than sober, sentimentality.^[3]

Presidents

As of 2006, there has been 122 presidents of the Institution, who since 1922 have been elected annually for one year. The first president was George Stephenson, followed by his son Robert. Joseph Whitworth, John Penn and William Armstrong are the only persons to have served two terms. Pamela Liversidge in 1997-98 was the first – and so far only – woman president.
'Past presidents include:'

No.	Years	Name	Sphere of Influence
1	1847–1848	George Stephenson	railway engineer
2	1849–1853	Robert Stephenson	railway engineer, MP
3	1854–1855	William Fairbairn	manufacturer, trader, ironmaster, bridge, mill wheels, ships, later made baronet.
4	1856–1857	Joseph Whitworth (''First term'')	pioneer of machine tools, precision engineering
5	1858–1859	John Penn (''First term'')	Marine Steam engines
6	1860	James Kennedy	Marine engines and locomotives
7	1861–1862	William George Armstrong (''First term'')	Industrialist and inventor, primarily of armaments. Pioneer of domestic electricity
8	1863–1865	Robert Napier	Ship building and Marine engines
4	1865–1866	Joseph Whitworth (''Second term'')	pioneer of machine tools, precision engineering
5	1866–1868	John Penn (''Second term'')	Marien Steam Engines
7	1868–1869	William George Armstrong (''Second term'')	Industrialist and inventor, primarily of armaments. Pioneer of domestic electricity
9	1870–1871	John Ramsbottom	railway engineer
10	1872–1873	Sir William Siemens	Metallurgist and electrical engineer
11	1874–1875	Sir Frederick Joseph Bramwell	Steam engines and boilers
12	1876–1877	Thomas Hawksley	water and gas engineer
13	1878–1879	John Robinson	Steam Engines
14	1880–1881	Edward Alfred Cowper	Metallurgist, inventor of Cowper pot
15	1882–1883	Percy Graham Buchanan Westmacott	Hydraulic machinery
16	1884	Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell	Iron master
17	1885–1886	Jeremiah Head	Steam powered agricultural machinrey
18	1887–1888	Sir Edward Hamer Carbutt	Iron and steel making
19	1889	Charles Cochrane	Iron and steel making
20	1890–1891	Joseph Tomlinson	Locomotive Superintendent
21	1892–1893	Sir William Anderson	Bridges and factories
22	1894–1895	Prof. Alexander Blackie William Kennedy	Professor of engineering, University College London
23	1896–1897	Edward Windsor Richards	Iron master
24	1898	Samuel W. Johnson	Chief Mechanical Engineer, Midland Railway
25	1899–1900	Sir William Henry White	Naval architect
26	1901–1902	William Henry Maw	Editor, ''Engineering''
27	1903–1904	Joseph Hartley Wicksteed	Testing machines and machine tools
28	1905–1906	Edward Pritchard Martin	Iron and steel making
29	1907–1908	Tom Hurry Riches	Chief engineer, Taff Vale Railway
30	1909–1910	Sir John Audley Frederick Aspinall	Chief Mechanical Engineer, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
31	1911–1912	Edward Bayzard Ellington	Hydraulic machinery
32	1913–1914	Sir Hay Frederick Donaldson	Royal Ordnance
33	1915–1916	William Cawthorne Unwin	oil engine research
34	1917–1918	Michael Longridge	Chief Engineer
35	1919	Edward Hopkinson	Electric Traction
36	1920–1921	Cpt Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey	Military engineering, oil engines and wireless telegraphy
37	1922	Dr Henry Selby Hele-Shaw	Prof. Mechanical Engieering at Liverpool University
38	1923	Sir John Dewrance	Inventor
39	1924	William Henry Patchell	Electricity supply
40	1925	Sir Vincent Raven	Chief Mechanical Engineer, North Eastern Railway
41	1926	Sir William Reavell	Compressor manufacturer
42	1927	Sir Henry Fowler	Chief Mechanical Engineer, Midland Railway and London Midland and Scottish Railway
43	1928	Richard William Allen	Pumps and Marine equipment
44	1929	Daniel Adamson	Gears, cranes and cutting tools
45	1930	Loughnan St Lawrence Pendred	Editor of ''The Engineer''
46	1931	Edwin Kitson Clark	Locomotive Engineer
47	1932	William Taylor	Lens Manufacturing
48	1933	Alan Ernest Leofric Chorlton	Pumps and Diesel engines, MP
49	1934	Charles Day	Steam and diesel engines
50	1935	Major-General Alexander Elliott Davidson	Mechnised military transport
51	1936	Sir Nigel Gresley	Chief Mechanical Engineer, London and North Eastern Railway
52	1937	Sir John Edward Thornycroft	Ship building and motor vehicle design
53	1938	David E Roberts	Iron and steel manufacture
54	1939	E. Bruce Ball	Motor Vehicles and hydraulic valves
55	1940	Asa Binns	Engineer
56	1941	Sir William Stanier	Chief Mechanical Engineer, London, Midland and Scottish Railway
57	1942	Col Stephen Joseph Thompson	Boilers
58	1943	Frederick Charles Lea	Engineering Professor at Birmingham and Sheffield
59	1944	Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo	Automotive engineer. Founder, Ricardo Consulting
60	1945	Andrew Robertson	Prof. Mechanical engineering at Bristol Uni
61	1946	Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid	Chief Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railway
62	1947	Lord Dudley Gordon	Refrigeration Engineering
63	1948	E. William Gregson	Marine Engines
64	1949	Herbert John Gough	Engineering Research
65	1950	Stanley Fabes Dorey	Chief Engineer Surveyor
66	1951	Arthur Clifford Hartley	Chief engineer, Anglo-Iranian Oil co. Inventor, Pluto and Fido
67	1952	Sir David Randall Pye	Air Ministry research engineer
68	1953	Alfred Roebuck	Engineering Metallurgy
69	1954	Richard William Bailey	High temperature steel and materials research
70	1955	Percy Lewis Jones	Marine engines and ship building
71	1956	Thomas Arkle Crowe	Marine Engines
72	1957	George Nelson	Chairman English Electric
73	1958	Air Marshal Sir Robert Owen Jones	Aircraft Engineer
74	1959	Herbert Desmond Carter	Diesel Engines
75	1960	Sir Owen Alfred Saunders	Prof. Mechanical Engineering Imperial College
76	1961	Sir Charles Hague	Chairman, Babcock & Wilcox
77	1962	John Hereward Pitchford	Internal Combustion engines
78	1963	Roland Curling Bond	Railway engineer
79	1964	Vice-Admiral Sir Frank Mason	Engineer in chief, Royal Navy
80	1965	Harold Norman Gwynne Allen	Power Transmission
81	1966	Lord Christopher Hinton of Bankside	Pioneer of nuclear power
82	1967	Hugh Graham Conway	Aero-engines and gas turbines
83	1968	Sir Arnold Lewis George Lindley	Chairman of GEC
84	1969	Donald Frederick Galloway	Manufacturing and machine tool engineer
85	1970	John Lamb Murray Morrison	Prof. Mechanical engineering Bristol Uni
86	1971	Robert Lank Lickley	Aircraft Engineer
87	1972	Lord Donald Gresham Stokes	Chief executive, British Leyland
88	1973	Sir John William Atwell	Steel industry and pump manufacture
89	1974	Sir St John de Hold Elstub	Metals
90	1975	Paul Thomas Fletcher	Process plan and nuclear power plant
91	1976	Ewen McEwen	Chief engineer Lucas
92	1977	Sir Hugh Ford	Professor of mechanical engineering, Imperial College London
93	1978	Diarmuid Downs	Internal Combustion Engines
94	1979	James Gordon Dawson	Chief Engineer, Shell
95	1980	Bryan Hildrew	Managing Director, Lloyds register of Shipping
96	1981	Francis David Penny	Director National engineering Laboratory
97	1982	Victor John Osola/Vaino Junani Osola	Process engineer, safety glass
98	1983	George Fritz Werner Adler	Research Director, British Hydromechnical research association
99	1984	Waheeb Rizk	Gas Turbines at GEC
100	1985	Sir Philip Foreman	Aerospace Engineer
101	1986	Sir Bernard Crossland	Prof. Mechanical Engineering Queen's Uni Belfast
102	1987	Oscar Roith	Chief Engineer department of industry
103	1988	Cecil Charles John French	Internal Combustion engines
104	1989	Roy Ernest James Roberts	Director GKN
105	1990	Michael John Neale	Tribology
106	1991	Duncan Dowson	Prof of Fluid Mechanics, Leeds uni
107	1992	Tom D. Patten	Offshore engineering
108	1993	Anthony Albert Denton	Offshore Engieering
109	1994	Brian Hamilton Kent	Design and engineering management
110	1995	Frank Christopher Price	Technical Director
111	1996	Robert William Ernest Shannon	Inspection Engineering
112	1997	Pamela Liversidge	Powder Metallurgy
113	1998	John Spence (engineer)
114	1999	James McKnight (engineer)
115	2000	Denis E. Filer
116	2001	Tony Roche
117	2002	John McDougall
117	2003	Chris Taylor
119	2004	William Edgar^[4]
120	2005	Andrew Ives^[5]
121	2006	W Alec Osborn MBE^[6]^[7]
122	2007	John Baxter FREng

References

1. Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and West Central England: Wales and West Central England, 2nd Edition, , Roger, Cragg, Thomas Telford, 1997,
2. A History of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1847–1947
3. Progress through Mechanical Engineering (1847-1997)
4. http://www.imeche.org.uk/about/pdf/Biography%20of%20William%20Edgar%20CBE.pdf Biography pdf
5. http://www.imeche.org.uk/about/pdf/Andrew_Ives_%20Biography.pdf Biography pdf
6. http://www.imeche.org.uk/about/pdf/alec_osborn_presidential_address_2006.pdf Presidential Address pdf
7. http://www.imeche.org.uk/about/pdf/Alec%20Osborn%20Biography.pdf Biography

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INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

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The beginning

Presidents

See also

References

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