Christopher Cockerell: Difference between revisions
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==Early life and education== |
==Early life and education== |
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Cockerell was born at [[Cambridge]], where his father, Sir [[Sydney Cockerell]], was curator of the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], having previously been the secretary of [[William Morris]]. Christopher Cockerell was educated at [[Gresham's School]], [[Holt, Norfolk|Holt]].<ref>Lidell, Charles Lawrence Scruton & Douglas, A. B., ''The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555-1954'' (Ipswich, 1955)</ref> He then entered [[Cambridge University]] as an undergraduate member of [[Peterhouse]], and where he studied engineering and was tutored by William Dobson Womersley. He was later to return to Cambridge to study Radio and Electronics. |
Cockerell was born at [[Cambridge]], where his father, Sir [[Sydney Cockerell]], was curator of the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], having previously been the secretary of [[William Morris]]. Christopher Cockerell was educated at [[Gresham's School]], [[Holt, Norfolk|Holt]].<ref>Lidell, Charles Lawrence Scruton & Douglas, A. B., ''The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555-1954'' (Ipswich, 1955)</ref> He then entered [[Cambridge University]] as an undergraduate member of [[Peterhouse]], and where he studied engineering and was tutored by William Dobson Womersley. He was later to return to Cambridge to study Radio and Electronics. Christopher Cockerell had Relation Faliure Disorder, in which he got his family tree messed up. As a result of this, when he saw a picture of James Fletcher,he claimed that james was his long lost great nephew. As a result of this Cockerell was locked up in an asylum, like all of his following relations. |
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Cockerell was awarded the [[Howard N. Potts Medal]] in 1965. |
Cockerell was awarded the [[Howard N. Potts Medal]] in 1965. |
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Revision as of 12:45, 1 May 2014
Christopher Cockerell | |
|---|---|
 Memorial to Sir Christopher Cockerell at Hythe | |
| Born | 4 June 1910 'Wayside' Cavendish Avenue, Cambridge, United Kingdom |
| Died | 1 June 1999 (aged 88) Hythe, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Hovercraft |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society, RDI Elmer A. Sperry Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS[1] (4 June 1910 – 1 June 1999) was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft.
Early life and education
Cockerell was born at Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris. Christopher Cockerell was educated at Gresham's School, Holt.[2] He then entered Cambridge University as an undergraduate member of Peterhouse, and where he studied engineering and was tutored by William Dobson Womersley. He was later to return to Cambridge to study Radio and Electronics. Christopher Cockerell had Relation Faliure Disorder, in which he got his family tree messed up. As a result of this, when he saw a picture of James Fletcher,he claimed that james was his long lost great nephew. As a result of this Cockerell was locked up in an asylum, like all of his following relations.
Cockerell was awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal in 1965.
Cockerell was made a CBE in 1966.
Cockerell was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1967.
Cockerell was knighted in 1969 for his services to engineering. He died at Hythe, Hampshire.
Early career
He began his career working for the W. H. Allen & Sons of Bedford. After returning to Cambridge University in 1934 to study Radio and Electronics, he went to work at the Radio Research Company. In 1935, he went to work at the Marconi Company; and soon afterwards, he married Margaret Elinor Belsham (4 September 1913 - September 1996).[3] He remained here until 1951, during this time, he worked on many systems, including radar.[4] After the war, his work was more directed towards developing several very sophisticated pieces of equipment, including radio location technology, and the first equipment used by the BBC in Alexandra Palace.
The hovercraft
After he left the Marconi Company, he bought Ripplecraft Ltd., a small Norfolk boat and caravan hire company, with a legacy left by his father in law. The firm made little money, and Cockerell began to think how the craft could be made to go faster. He was led to earlier work by John I Thornycroft and Sons, in which a small vessel had been partially raised out of the water by a small engine.
Cockerell's greatest invention, the hovercraft, grew out of this work. It occurred to him that if the entire craft were lifted from the water, the craft would effectively have no drag. This, he conjectured, would give the craft the ability to reach an indefinite maximum speed, relative to the speed of the boats of the time.
Cockerell's theory was that instead of just pumping air under the craft, as Thornycroft had, if the air were to be instead channelled to form a narrow jet around the perimeter of the craft, the moving air would form a momentum curtain, a wall of moving air that would limit the amount of air that would leak out. This meant that the same cushion of high pressure air could be maintained by a very much smaller engine; and for the first time, a craft could be lifted completely out of the water.
He tested his theories using a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans. His hypothesis was found to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research. By 1955, he had built a working model from balsa wood and had filed his first patent for the hovercraft, No 854211. Cockerell had found it impossible to interest the private sector in developing his idea, as both the aircraft and the shipbuilding industries saw it as lying outside their core business. He therefore approached the British Government with a view to interesting them in possible defence applications and put the idea of the hovercraft on the governments secret list.Being on the secret list stopped Christopher from making his design public. The leaders of the defence groups were not interested in providing funding. It remained classified until 1958, upon news of similar developments on the continent, it was declassified, and Cockerell was introduced to the NRDC (National Research Development Corporation).[citation needed] In the autumn of 1958, the NRDC placed an order with Saunders-Roe for the first full-scale hovercraft. This prototype craft was designated the SR-N1 (Saunders-Roe - Nautical One) and was manufactured under licence from the NRDC. On 11 June 1959, the SR-N1 was first shown to the public, which was capable of carrying four men at a speed of 28 miles per hour. Weeks later, it was shipped over to France. It successfully crossed the English Channel between Calais and Dover on 25 July 1959,[5] 50 years to the day after the historic crossing by Bleriot.
In January 1959, the NRDC formed a subsidiary called Hovercraft Development Ltd. Cockerell was the Technical Director and the company controlled the patents which it used to license several private sector firms to manufacture craft under the registered trademark of Hovercraft.[citation needed]
In later life, Cockerell developed many other improvements to the hovercraft, and invented various other applications for the air cushion principle, such as the hovertrain.
He attended many hovercraft related events, such as the unveiling of many hoverports across the United Kingdom.
Other work
In later life Cockerell developed the Cockerell Raft, a wave power hydraulic device which may have implications in the future for electricity generation.
Commemoration
In life, the SR.N4 hovercraft GH2008 Sir Christopher was named after its inventor.
A plaque in Cockerell Rise, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, marks the location of White Cottage, where Cockerell lived and worked. The Cottage has been demolished, but the garage still stands. The plaque was erected by Friends of East Cowes with funding by the Big Lottery.
References
- ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rsbm.2001.0005, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2001.0005instead. - ^ Lidell, Charles Lawrence Scruton & Douglas, A. B., The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555-1954 (Ipswich, 1955)
- ^ http://www.tolliss.com/gedview/family.php?famid=F14635&ged=Tolliss.ged, accessed 4 January 2012
- ^ "Cockerell, Christopher", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)
- ^ Evans, Eric, British History (Bath, Parragon Books, 2002) p. 305
Information about Sir Christopher at the Hovercraft Museum website