Sir Dugald Clerk - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

"SIR DUGALD CLERK (1854-), Scottish civil engineer, was born at Glasgow March 31 1854. He was educated at the West of Scotland Technical College and the Andersonian College. He invented the Clerk cycle gas engine in 1877, improving it in 1878 (see 11.498), and became a recognized authority on internal combustion engines. He also interested himself in motor engineering, acting as judge at the automobile trials at Richmond in 1899 and 1900, and in 1908 becoming president of the Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers. During the World War he became director of engineering research to the Admiralty, and until 1919 was a member of the advisory committee for aeronautics to the Air Ministry, and also of the air inventions committee. In 1908 he was elected F.R.S. He was knighted in 1917 in recognition of his work.