Andrew Bowden
BOWDEN, Andrew Thomson, BScEng PhD AMIEAust AMIMechE MIMarE (1900-1968)
Born at Carnwath in Scotland on January 11, 1900, Bowden was educated at Kelso High School and worked as an apprentice with Menzies and Company, the shipbuilders in Leith between 1916 and 1923. He graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in Engineering.
After working with Sir Hudson Beare at Edinburgh University for three years, he became a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia in 1926, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1937. He also worked in the Department of Physics, University of Sydney on graphical techniques and linkages for computer systems. He returned to Great Britain with leave of absence in 1939 having been requisitioned by the British War Office. His role in the United Kingdom was an inspector of tanks. In 1944 he resigned his position of head of the Mechanical Engineering School at UWA to join C.A. Parsons as Research Director.
In 1931 he convened the inaugural meeting of the University Aero Club.
In 1935 he won the Akroyd Stuart prize from the Institution of Marine Engineers for a paper on the heavy oil engine. Jointly with a colleague, he received the James Clayton Prize of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1953 for his work on the combustion of heavy fuel oils and the prevention of fouling in gas turbines.
His published papers include:
- The origin and development of the heavy oil engine JIEA 5, 1933, p28;
- Some graphical aids to engineering calculations JIEA 8, 1936, p30.
He died at Sunderland, Northumberland, England in 1968.
References:
WWA 1994 p179; 1950 p102;
GUWA 4 ( 1 ) 1954, p18;
CAC;
Skevington, R.J. ‘Chairman‘s address, a brief history of engineering education in Western Australia‘ WA Division, IEAust, Perth, 1986.
