1956 Bio Note [1]
Curtis Albert Sparkes, who was recently appointed a Member of Council in place of Dr. H. E. Merritt, M.B.E., who resigned as from 25th May, received his training at the Newton Heath Technical School and the Manchester College of Technology.
He was awarded the Associateship of the College for mechanical engineering in 1926.
Following a period of employment at Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., Manchester, he joined H. W. Kearns and Co., Ltd., in 1919.
After serving an apprenticeship in the works, he entered the drawing office, subsequently becoming the company's Chief Designer in 1938.
He has visited a number of Continental factories and was a member of his company's team which went to the United States of America and Canada to study machine tool design and production.
In 1952 the Institution awarded him the Whitworth prize for his paper entitled 'Machine Tool Simplification, Especially as Applied to Horizontal Boring Machines'.
Mr. Sparkes was elected the President of the Manchester Association of Engineers for the session 1955-56.
In 1955 he was appointed to the Board of H. W. Kearns and Co., Ltd., as Director responsible for design and development.
Mr. Sparkes was elected a member of the Institution in 1946.