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James Howden (29 February 1832 – 21 November 1913) was a Scottish engineer and inventor who is noted for his invention of the Howden forced draught system for steam boilers.
James Howden | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 29 February 1832 |
| Died | 21 November 1913 (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | Engineer and inventor |
Howden was born in Prestonpans, East Lothian, in 1832,[1] the son of James Howden and his wife, Catherine Cowden,[2][3] and was educated at the local parish school.[4] His first marriage was to Helen Burgess Adams, with whom he had one daughter, Catherine Spence Howden (1873–1925),[5] and his second to Allison Moffat Hay, with whom he had two sons, James Howden (1883–1908) and William Hay Howden (1884–1943).[6][3] His two wives both predeceased him,[3] and he died in Glasgow in 1913.[1]
Howden served as an apprentice from 1847 with James Gray & Co., a Glasgow engineering firm,[1][7] passing through the various departments and eventually becoming chief draughtsman.[4] Having finished his apprenticeship he started work first with Bell and Miller, the civil engineers, then with Robert Griffiths, who designed marine screw propellers.[1]
In 1854, Howden launched himself as a consultant engineer and designer, his first major invention being a rivet-making machine. The selling of the patent rights to a company in Birmingham[3] for this secured him financially and James Howden & Co. was established as a manufacturer of marine equipment.[1] In 1857, Howden began work on the design and supply of boilers and steam engines for the marine industry;[8] his first contract was with Hendersons to supply the Anchor Liner Ailsa Craig with a compound steam engine and water boilers, using steam at 100 lb pressure.[1][3] That same year, together with Alexander Morton of Glasgow, he was awarded a patent for the "invention of improvements in obtaining motive power."[9] On 28 February 1859, he applied for a patent for the "improvements in machinery, or apparatus for cutting, shaping, punching, and compressing metals."[10] In 1860 he patented a method of preheating combustion air;[8] his patent was granted for the invention of "improvements in steam engines and boilers, and in the apparatus connected therewith".[11] In 1862, he decided to construct main boilers and engines to his own design and started manufacturing in his first factory on Scotland Street in Glasgow's Tradeston district.[12] A breakthrough came in 1863 when he introduced a furnace mechanical draught system which used a steam turbine driven axial flow fan.[8]
Howden is chiefly remembered as the inventor of the Howden forced draught system, which forced heated waste gases into the combustion chamber by means of a fan and ductwork and which appeared in the 1880s.[7] This system dramatically reduced the amount of coal used in ships' boilers. Howden patented this device in 1882 as the 'Howden System of Forced Draught'[8] and during the 1880s more than 1000 boilers were converted to this specification or constructed to Howden's patent.[12] The first vessel to use the system was the New York City, built in 1885.[1] Amongst the liners to use the Howden system in their boilers were the Lusitania[13] and Mauretania,[13] the fastest liners in the world when they were built.
Howden's original Glasgow factory being too small for his expanding operation, he had a new, larger one designed by Nisbet Sinclair at 195 Scotland Street, down the road from his original factory. This opened in 1898 and featured overhead cranes, handling equipment and central-heating (a rarity at the time).[12] As a result of an overflowing order book, the factory was enlarged, first in 1904, and again in 1912, to a design by Bryden & Robertson.[12] As of 2009, this redbrick factory – "one of the last remaining Victorian heavy engineering works in Glasgow", and the place where the tunnel boring machines used in the excavation of the Channel Tunnel were made[12] – lies empty.
In the 1900s, Howden designed a fully enclosed high-speed marine steam engine. This was later modified for use in land-based systems as the Howden-Zoelly steam turbine.[1] At the onset of the First World War, a year after Howden's death, the Admiralty ruled that all ships were to be fitted with Howden "blowers" so that they could outrun U-boats.[12]
Amongst the projects that Howden worked on were assisting the St Helena Whaling Company, quarrying marble in Greece and working on the design of a recoilless gun for the Admiralty.[1]
Howden was the last surviving founder member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, founded in 1857.[1] Although he was a lifelong Liberal, he took no part in politics or public life.[4]
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