James Francis Gill
James Francis Gill (1880-1935), of Gill and Chaviara, Mechanical Engineer
1917 Patented a pressure regulator. [1]
1935 Obituary [2]
JAMES FRANCIS GILL was for twenty-five years a partner in the Liverpool firm of Messrs. Gill and Chaviara, consulting engineers.
He was born in Bootle in 1880 and in 1896 he became an apprentice in the marine repair shops of Messrs. W. Bruce. After three years' apprenticeship he obtained a scholarship at the University of Liverpool, where he graduated in 1901. A year later he was appointed assistant lecturer and demonstrator at the University and he also assisted in the work of the Road Traction Committee of the British Association. He then went to the University of Birmingham in a similar capacity, and from 1906 to 1907 he was officially appointed by the Institution to assist Professor F. W. Burstall, M.I.Mech.E., in the preparation of the Third Report to the Gas-Engine Research Committee of the Institution.
In 1907 he became chief assistant at the Finsbury Technical College under Professor E. G. Coker, M.I.Mech.E., and held this position until he took up consulting work two years later.
On returning to Liverpool he resumed his association with the University, which continued until his death, as a part-time lecturer and research worker, he was the inventor of a large number of mechanical and electrical appliances, in connexion with homopolar generators, thereto-magnetic generators, the speed control of alternating-current motors, the electrical propulsion of ships, mercury arcs, variable-stroke petrol engines, steam control valves, brick-making machinery, and machinery for the continuous production of margarine. Several of his marine speed indicators were fitted to British cruisers after the War, and his laud electric telegraph was installed in the electricity works in Birmingham and Hull.
Mr. Gill was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1910.
His death occurred on 20th November 1935.