Engineering at Queen Mary College: Prof. E. H. Lamb

Abstract

PROF. ERNEST HORACE LAMB retires from the chair of civil and mechanical engineering at Queen Mary College, London, at the end of the present session. He has occupied this chair for thirty-two years, having succeeded the late Prof. D. A. Low in 1913. At the time of his appointment, the Engineering Department at East London College (as the College was then called) was rather small and the laboratory equipment meagre and ill-housed. Prof. Lamb set to work at once to develop an engineering laboratory that should be more worthy of the College and of the University. Permission was obtained to extend the laboratory buildings, and a new hydraulic laboratory had already been erected when the War of 1914–18 interrupted the development programme. From September 1914 until April 1919, Prof. Lamb was away from the College on war service, but as soon after his return as possible he continued the work of development. With the help of the late Principal Hatton, he obtained a grant for equipment of £11,000 from the London County Council and also some useful presentation plant, notably a complete boiler and accessories from Babcock and Wilcox, so that by the end of 1923 the laboratories had been rearranged and re-equipped with modern plant for the study of hydraulics, heat engines and strength of materials. He also designed and equipped an instrument-making department which served the science and engineering departments of the College.