Edgar de Normanville
 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (June 2021) |
Captain Edgar Joseph de Normanville R.E. (1882–1968) was a British engineer who became a successful inventor and a technical journalist.
Biography
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Born 13 October 1882 in Leamington Spa, the eldest son of William de Normanville (1843–1928), a civil engineer, and his wife born Elizabeth Simonds[1][2] he was educated at Ampleforth College and completed an engineering apprenticeship.
Clear view screen
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As a schoolboy he developed the idea of a rotating disc to clear drops of water from a windscreen, the clear view screen becoming a design popular in ships.[3]
Journalist
Fascinated by the development of motor vehicles he joined the editorial staff of the weekly motoring magazine The Motor in 1908. Following service with the Royal Engineers in the first world war he became motoring correspondent of The Daily Express and later The Chronicle.[3]
Laycock-de Normanville
He designed an epicyclic four-speed gearbox produced by Humber during the 1930s but is best known for his epicyclic overdrive manufactured from the 1940s by Sheffield's Laycock Engineering. His design made it possible to shift instantly from overdrive to direct drive and back again without a break in the drive.[3]
Death
He died on 17 January 1968,[4] his widow in 1978.[5]
References
- 1882 births
- 1968 deaths
- 20th-century British inventors
- People from Warwickshire (before 1974)
- 20th-century British engineers
- Royal Engineers soldiers
- British Army personnel of World War I
- British male journalists
- Motoring journalists
- 20th-century British journalists
- 20th-century British male writers
- People educated at Ampleforth College