Henry Handley Pridham Powles
Henry Handley Pridham Powles (1846-1919) of Kennedy and Jenkin and Kennedy and Donkin
1919 Obituary [1]
HENRY HANDLEY PRIDHAM POWLES was born at Upper Clapton, London, on 4th August 1846.
He was educated partly' at private schools and partly at the Ipswich Grammar School.
In January 1864 he was apprenticed to Messrs. E. R. and F. Turner, St. Peter's. Ironworks, Ipswich, and on its completion in 1869 he went as improver and engine-fitter to Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Head, Orwell Works, Ipswich.
In 1871 he returned to Messrs. Turner's works and was employed in the drawing office and on work in various parts of the country. In the following year he entered their drawing office, becoming head draughtsman in 1876.
This position he held until 1890, when he was appointed mechanical engineer to the Electric Standardizing and Training Institution, Faraday House, London, which had just then been started in temporary premises in the Adelphi. He arranged and fitted up the workshops at the new premises of the above Institution in Charing Cross Road, and remained there until January 1898 when he joined Sir Alexander Kennedy's staff as assistant and was put in charge of the drawing office.
This post he held until January 1912, but until his death he was retained by Messrs. Kennedy and Donkin for research work and inspections.
During 1916 and 1917 he was employed in inspecting constructional work and plant for one of the munition factories, and later he carried out very useful work on preparing a bibliography of Lubricants and Lubrication for the Scientific and Industrial Research Department.
In addition to translating Dr. F. Kick's standard work on "Flour Manufacture" and H. Haeder's book on the Steam Engine, he was responsible for the revision and enlargement of D. K. Clark's "Mechanical Engineer's Pocket Book."
In 1905 Mr. Fowles prepared a work on the "History and Development of Steam Boilers," which is particularly valuable on account of its historical notes on the subject.
His death took place in London, after a few months' illness, on 27th July 1919, in his seventy-third year.
Read his obituary in The Engineer 1919/08/01.
He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1891.