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Men Worth Knowing.

15th June 1905, Page 15
15th June 1905
Page 15
Page 15, 15th June 1905 — Men Worth Knowing.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Mr. J. D. Siddeley.

Mr. J. Davenport Siddeley, who was born in the year 1866, has been associated with the automobile movement since the year 1899, at which time he was managing director of the Clipper Pneumatic Tyre Co., Ltd. He joined the Automobile Club in this year and drove a 6h.p. Parisian Daimler through the 1,000-miles trial of two, in which competition he secured a silver medal and a special prize. lIe took part in the Glasgow Trials of 1901, but not as a competitor, using on this occasion a 12h.p. English Daimler. At the end of 1901, Mr. Siddeley assisted to form the Midland Automobile Club, and was elected chairman of the committee, which position he occupied until he left the Midlands to reside in London a couple of years later. In 1902, he was elected a member of the Club committee and of the executive committee of the Automobile Club, in which connection he has been most selfdenying and unsparing of his time. As honorary secretary for the observers in connection with the Automobile Club Reliability Trials for 19o2, Mr. Siddeley was indefatigable, as he was again in the following year. both these competitions radiating from the Crystal Palace. Mr. Siddeley entered the motorcar business in the autumn of 1902, his name being associated with several very successful cars. In November, 1903, he drove one of his 6h.p. cars in the Club's toomiles trial, accomplishing a speed performance up Dashwood Hill which has only been exceeded by two large fourcylinder cars since, one of these being an 18h.p. Siddeley, which performed the trip in the following spring. Mr. Siddeley has been a consistent supporter of the Automobile Club's trials, one of his 6h.p. cars securing a gold medal at the Heieford trials in 1904, whilst one of his t2h.p. cars accomplished the world's record for reliability in a 5,000-miles trial conducted by the Club early in 1905. It is not surprising to learn that Mr. Siddeley has recently entered the ranks of those who are handling commercial motors, and we congratulate him on his having accepted the post of general sales manager to the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co., Ltd., of Adderley Park Works, Birmingham, and Crayford, Kent, in which capacity his business acumen will had ample scope. Mr. Siddeley has continued a member of the Club and executive committees of the A.C.G.B. and I. since his first election thereto.

Mr. J. D. Siddeley.

Mr. W. Worby Beaumont.

As chairman of the Expert and Technical Committee of the Automobile Club, which committee will be primarily responsible for the September trials, Mr. Worby Beaumont's name will be prominently before our readers during the next few months, even more than it naturally is from his leadingposition as a consulting engineer. Mr. Worby Beaumont was born at Manchester in the year 1848. He served his time with the Reading Ironworks Company, in whose service he gained a general all-round knowledge of steam engines, winding engines, traction plant, agricultural implements, and gas engines. Completing his time in 1867, he went as improver to Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Jefferies, of Ipswich, under the cegis of his grandfather, Mr. William Worby, who was the inventor of the first portable steam thrasher. Here the subject of our sketch was engaged in erecting steam engines and machinery, whilst he also passed through the drawing office. In 1872 he became assistant, and soon afterwards chief assistant, to the late Mr. Robert Mallett, M.Inst.C.E., F.R.S., where his general engineering knowledge was added to by practical work upon railway, dock, and foundry undertakings. In 1874 he carried out the intensity survey of all the area affected by the great gunpowder explosion on the Regent's Canal, and about this date he was extensively engaged upon research work in various branches of physics, including seismological investigations a n d thermo-dy namics having a mechanical engineering bearing. In the year 1876 Mr. Worby Beaumont was awarded the Watt medal and Telford premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for his paper on " Causes of Fracture of Railway Tvres." For several years he was joint editor of "The Engineer," a position which he resigned early in 1896, in order that he could devote all his time to his consulting practice. Some 12 years ago he designed and carried out the erection and equipment of the woodworking, machinery, and timber conversion works of Messrs. Broadwood's large piano factory at Westminster. He recently designed and carried Out the large new works at Old Ford, where the arrangement of the machinery, driven both by steam and electricity, and of the processes are of a unique character, and such as to make a visit to the factory, which is one of the largest in the world, extremely interesting. Apart from structural work of this kind at present occupying his time, Mr. Beaumont is extensively engaged as consulting adviser to many motor vehicle undertakings, including the London and Dis. trict Motor Bus Co., Ltd., and the Car and General Insurance Corporation, Ltd. He also numbers amongst his clients Tillings, Ltd., the London General Omnibus Company, Ltd., and the Road Car Company, Ltd., and is frequently called upon to act as arbitrator in engineering matters and in patent and other litigation. His earliest services to commercial motoring date back to September gth, 1896, when he addressed members of the Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic Association and the Liverpool Incorporated Chamber of Commerce on the subject of" Motor Vehicles for Heavy Traffic," but before that, in 1895, he gave the first series of "Cantor Lectures on Motor Vehicles." Mr. Beaumont drew up the regulations for the first motor trials in this country—those announced by "The Engineer" to be held early in 1897. Mr. W. Worby Beaumont.


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