Edmund Bruce Ball FRSE (21 May 1873 – 17 June 1944) was an English hydraulic engineer.[1] He specialised in the storage and distribution of water.

Life

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He was born in Thetford in Norfolk. He was educated in Thetford and then apprenticed as an engineer to Charles Burrell & Sons in that towns. His talent won him a scholarship to study engineering at Manchester Technical School.[2] On completion of this apprenticeship in 1895, Ball was elected a Whitworth Exhibitioner[2] and also received a Queen’s Prizeman for Science.[3]

He had a very successful career, starting as Chief Designer for Benjamin Goodfellow & Co in Hyde, Manchester. Thereafter he served as Works Manager for Reavell & Co in Ipswich, Technical Director for San Georgio Co in Genoa, Technical Director for Samuel & Co Ltd in Shanghai and Manchuria, Works Manager at D Napier & Son in Acton, and Managing Director of Glenfield & Kennedy in Kilmarnock.[4] His last position also gave him control of two subsidiary companies: British Pitometer and Hydrautomat.

He served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers from 1939 to 1940,[5] the same year he was President of the Whitworth Society.[2] He was also President of the Institute of Water Engineers. He was an Honorary Life Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

He died of a heart attack at his home, Eldo House, in Monkton, Ayrshire in 1944.

References

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  1. ^ "Former RSE Fellows 1783-2002" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  2. ^ a b c The Whitworth Register. The Whitworth Society. 2008. p. 100.
  3. ^ "Past Presidents of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers". www.imeche.org. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  4. ^ C D Waterston; A Macmillan Shearer (July 2006). "Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J)" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. ^ Lane (1971), p. 232