Professor David Sing Capper (1864-1926)
1926 Obituary [1]
PROFESSOR DAVID SING CAPPER was born at Whetstone, Middlesex, in May 1864.
He was educated in Edinburgh, and, after six years at the Royal High School, he passed on to the University where he went through the regular course in the Faculty of Arts and took the M.A. degree.
He then became a pupil in the works of Messrs. Hawthorns of Leith.
Later he studied engineering at University College, and at the works of Messrs. Humphrys and Tennant, of Deptford, during the years 1885-88, followed by a further two years in which he gained experience in connexion with the trials of war-vessels.
In 1890 he was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at King's College, London, and this appointment, which became a Professorship of Engineering at the University of London in 1902, he held until 1921, when he retired.
He served as a Member of the Senate of London University from 1905 to 1907, was on the Governing Body of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, 1908-9, and on the Delegacy of the University of London, King's College, 1910-14. He was made a Fellow of King's College, London, in 1907.
He joined Mr. Thomas Kirkland in his practice as a consulting engineer in Westminster, in 1898, and with him he was engaged in professional work in connexion with engineering enterprises in various parts of the country. These included the Avonmouth Light Railway and various electric power schemes.
He retired from the firm in 1916.
Whilst at King's College, Professor Capper presented a Report to the Institution on the Efficiency of Ropes and Belts for Power Transmission (Proc. 1895, page 599), and carried out a series of experiments on jacketed and unjacketed cylinders which were incorporated in his First Report to the Steam-Engine Research Committee of this Institution. (See Proc. 1905, page 171.)
He took a keen interest in the formation of the University of London Officers' 'Training Corps, which he commanded, with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, until 1915, when he went to France as second-in-command of the 2/5 Warwickshire Regiment.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1892 and was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Institution of Electrical Engineers.
His death occurred on 12th February 1926.