The Postcard
A postcard that was published by PFB.
The card was posted in Ramsbury, Wiltshire on Friday the 24th. August 1917 to:
Miss Chris Rigler,
31, Palmerston Road,
Boscombe,
Bournemouth.
The enigmatic message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"How are you getting on?
Edie is quite alright but
giddy, I have got to look
after her.
Hope you are not having
any more nice experiences,
so you know I have made
something like the girl on
the other side.
With much love from
Nell."
Dennis James
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 24th. August 1917 marked the birth in Jersey City, New Jersey of the American television personality Dennis James, host of television game shows 'Cash and Carry' and 'The Price Is Right', in Jersey City, New Jersey. Dennis died in 1997.
Ruth Park
Also born on that day was the New Zealand children's author
Ruth Park. Ruth, who was born in Auckland, was the author of 'The Harp in the South' and 'Playing Beatie Bow', as well as the popular radio and book series of 'The Muddle-Headed Wombat.' Ruth died in 2010.
Sir Dugald Clerk
Also on the 24th. August 1917, Dugald Clerk was knighted.
Dugald Clerk KBE, LLD, who was born in Glasgow on the 31st. March 1854, was a Scottish engineer who designed the world's first successful two-stroke engine in 1878 and patented it in England in 1881.
He was a graduate of Anderson's University in Glasgow (now the University of Strathclyde). He formed the intellectual property firm with George Croydon Marks, called Marks & Clerk.
Dugald Clerk - The Early Years
Dugald Clerk was the son of Donald Clerk, a machinist, and his wife, Martha Symington. He was privately tutored, then apprenticed to the firm of Messrs H. O. Robinson & Co. in Glasgow.
From 1871 to 1876 he studied engineering at Anderson College in Glasgow before going to the Yorkshire College of Science in Leeds. In the Great War he was Director of Engineering Research for the Admiralty.
Dugald Clerk's Work on the Internal Combustion Engine
Clerk began work on his own engine designs in October 1878 after modifying a Brayton engine with a spark plug. Brayton engines were made from 1872 until 1876, and were one of the first engines to successfully use compression and combust fuel in the cylinder.
Prior to this time the engines available had been the Lenoir engine from 1860, a non-compression engine which worked on a double-acting two-stroke cycle, but spent half of each stroke drawing gas into the cylinder.
The Hugon engine was a slightly improved version, but both were quite inefficient (95 and 85 cubic feet of gas per HP hour respectively).
The next engine available (from 1867) was by Otto & Langen, a non-compression, free piston engine, which used atmospheric pressure for the power stroke, and consumed about half the gas of the Lenoir and Hugon engines.
It was in May 1876 that Otto developed his engine using the single-acting four-stroke cycle with compression in the cylinder.
Clerk decided to develop an engine using compression, but with a two-stroke cycle, as he could see benefits to both weight and smoothness of operation through having twice as many power strokes.
Clerk's engine used compression and a novel system of ignition, one of which was exhibited in July 1879. However it was not until the end of 1880 that he succeeded in producing the Clerk engine operating on a two-stroke cycle, which became the commercial product. Clerk states:
"The Clerk engine at present in the market was
the first to succeed in introducing compression
of this type, combined with ignition at every
revolution; many attempts had previously been
made by other inventors, including Mr. Otto, but
all had failed in producing a marketable engine.
It is only recently that Messrs. Crossley have
made the Otto engine in its twin form and so
succeeded in getting impulse at every turn."
Dugald Clerk was the author of 3 comprehensive books covering the development of the oil and gas engine from its early inception, and including details of his own work in this area.
Clerk's original design did not allow the construction of smaller engines, as it required an additional pumping cylinder for each working cylinder.
The crucial simplification of the concept, that made possible small yet powerful two-stroke engines for mass markets, was patented by Joseph Day in 1894.
The Private Life and Death of Sir Dugald Clerk
Dugald married Margaret Hanney in 1883.
Sir Dugald died at the age of 78 on the 12th. November 1932 in Ewhurst, Surrey.
