Cecil Daniel Andrew
Cecil Daniel Andrew (c1868-1936)
1936 Obituary [1]
CECIL DANIEL ANDREW gained a wide experience in machine tools and machine shop organization, and during the last five years of his life he was engaged by the London Midland and Scottish Railway to act as adviser on new machine tools for the various works.
He was born in Manchester, receiving his technical education at Manchester Technical School.
In 1888 he entered Messrs. Beyer, Peacock's workshops at Gorton as an apprentice, and three years later he was transferred to the drawing office.
He then went to Canada for three years and was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway at Montreal as an erector; shortly afterwards he was made a draughtsman, and subsequently became assistant to the mechanical superintendent, to whom he was responsible for the testing of locomotives.
He went to sea in 1895 as fourth engineer on the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Japan, but returned to England two years later as shop manager at the Stoke works of Messrs. R. Heath and Sons.
In 1899 he joined the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at Pittsburg, and shortly afterwards became assistant superintendent. In 1901 had considerable responsibility in connexion with the establishment of the firm's British works at Trafford Park and with the installation of the plant.
Four years later he joined the Niles-Bement-Pond Company of London, and was responsible for the preparation of estimates and workshop layouts for all types of machine tools.
During the War he invented a successful device for boring the tapering interior surface of shells on small lathes, and introduced special machines for the boring of periscope tubes. He also held a number of patents for machine tools for railway purposes, which he took out between 1908 and 1918.
After the War he took charge of the machine tool department of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Ltd., and was responsible for the transfer of the department to new shops at Openshaw, laid out and organized by himself.
Some years later he joined Messrs. Craven Brothers, Ltd., of Reddish, and held a minor directorship in the firm.
Mr. Andrew was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1908 and was transferred to Membership in 1923.
His death occurred at Derby on 3rd February 1936, in his sixty-ninth year.