Christopher Cockerell: Difference between revisions
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===Career=== |
===Career=== |
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He began his career working for the W. H. Allen & Sons of Bedford. After returning to Cambridge in 1934 to study Radio and Electronics, he went to work at the Radio Research Company. |
He began his career working for the W. H. Allen & Sons of Bedford. After returning to Cambridge in 1934 to study Radio and Electronics, he went to work at the Radio Research Company. In 1935, he went to work at the [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]] company; and soon afterwards, he married Margaret Elinor Belsham (4 September 1913 - September 1996)<ref>http://www.tolliss.com/gedview/family.php?famid=F14635&ged=Tolliss.ged, accessed 4th January 2012</ref>. He remained here until 1951, during this time, he worked on many systems, including [[radar]].<ref>''Cockerell, Christopher'', in [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] (Oxford University Press, 2004)</ref> After the war, his work was more directed towards improved radio systems. It was in this time that he filed 36 patents. |
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At [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]], he worked on teams that developed very sophisticated equipment, including radio location technology, and the first equipment used by the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] in Alexandria Palace. |
At [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]], he worked on teams that developed very sophisticated equipment, including radio location technology, and the first equipment used by the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] in Alexandria Palace. |
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Revision as of 17:46, 4 January 2012
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) |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| Known for | The Hovercraft |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society, RDI |
| 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.
Life
Cockerell was born in 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.
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 in Hampshire.
Career
He began his career working for the W. H. Allen & Sons of Bedford. After returning to Cambridge 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 improved radio systems. It was in this time that he filed 36 patents.
At Marconi, he worked on teams that developed very sophisticated equipment, including radio location technology, and the first equipment used by the BBC in Alexandria Palace.
The hovercraft
After he left the Marconi company, he bought a small Norfolk boat yard 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 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 channeled 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 boat building 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.
The hovercraft was indeed seen to have defence potential, and so the hovercraft was classified. But the leaders of the defence groups were not interested in providing funding. It remained classified until ___, when, hearing of similar developments on the continent, declassified it. Being Harold Wilson's White Age of Technology, 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 the 11th of 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 successful crossed the English Channel between Calais and Dover on the 25th July 1959[5], 50 years to the day after the historic crossing by Berliots.
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
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 4th January 2012
- ^ Cockerell, Christopher, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)
- ^ Evans, Eric, British History (Bath, Parragon Books, 2002) p. 305
External links
- Information about Sir Christopher at the Hovercraft Museum website
- hovercraftsomerleyton.org.uk Detail of commemorative events at the birthplace of the Hovercraft including The Hovercraft Column at Somerleyton in Suffolk.
- Christopher Cockerell profile at findagrave.com
- Christopher Cockerell at About.com
- Christopher Cockerell in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography