James Iddon
James Iddon (1861-1911) of Iddon Brothers
1911 Obituary [1]
JAMES IDDON was born in 1861.
He was educated at the Leyland Grammar School, near Preston, and in 1876 he commenced a seven years' apprenticeship in the engineers' department of the Leyland Rubber Co., then James Quin and Co.
On its completion in 1883 he went to America, and worked during the next two years at the works of Sellers and Co., Bement Miles and Co., and Baldwin and Co., all of Philadelphia. He also studied during that period at the Franklin Institute.
In 1885 he returned to England to take the post of chief engineer to the Leyland Rubber Co., and held that position until 1888, when he started in business for himself, under the name of Iddon Brothers, engineers and rubber machinists, Brookfield Iron Works, Leyland. His firm erected large rubber works both in this country and on the Continent, and supplied the machinery, some of which was invented by himself. He was one of the first to grasp the importance of hydraulic pressure in connection with rubber vulcanization, and his advocacy of the principle was eventually justified by its general adoption. He also devised a number of machines which have been used in the manufacture of pneumatic tyres.
His health had been indifferent for some years, necessitating an operation in March 1910. This afforded him some relief, but his health gradually declined, and his death took place at his residence at Leyland on 15th May 1911, at the age of fifty.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1900.