Ernest Frederick Stephen Lang
Ernest Frederick Stephen Lang (1867-1940)
1941 Obituary [1]
ERNEST FREDERICK STEPHEN LANG had a long and distinguished career in the service of Messrs. Beyer, Peacock and Company, Ltd., Manchester, with whom he was connected for the whole of his professional life. He served his apprenticeship with the firm from 1885 to 1889, and after six months' special training in the steel foundry and chemical laboratory at the London and North Western Railway works at Crewe, he was employed from 1892 to 1897 in the drawing office and on research work. During this period he was sent at times to the Continent to study steelworks in Austria and Germany and to report on the use of the three-phase system of current generation for electrical power transmission.
In 1898, he was responsible for building a steel foundry at Gorton, with Siemens-Martin furnace plant, and in the following year he was made steel works manager. He was appointed technical engineer in 1906 and retained that position until he retired, after forty-six years' service, in 1931.
After his retirement he devoted much of his time to research in the historical side of engineering and became an authority on the sequence of developments and the achievements of leading engineers of the last century, many of whom he had known personally. Mr. Lang was born in 1867 and received his technical education at Owens College, Manchester, and at the Polytechnical University, Hanover, where he underwent special courses in engineering, electricity, and metallurgy.
He contributed many papers and articles on engineering subjects to various technical institutions, and was responsible for numerous scientific publications. He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1907 and was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. His death occurred at Torquay on 21st November 1940.
1940 Obituary.[2]
Ernest Frederick Stephen Lang was born at Manchester in March 1867. He was educated privately and at Owen’s College, now the Manchester University, after which he entered upon his apprenticeship. in the works of Messrs. Beyer, Peacock & Co., Ltd., where his father was Managing Director. Here he passed through the various shops and drawing office, later being sent to the University of Hanover, Germany, to study metallurgy and to obtain a knowledge of the German language.
On returning to England he became a pupil under the late F. W. Webb, of the L. & N.W. Rly. at Crewe works. It was here he took up the special study of steel manufacture by both the Bessemer and Siemens’ processes and carried out practical work on furnace, foundry and forge, as well as a course in the chemical laboratory. On his return to Manchester he was appointed manager of the new steel works established by Beyer, Peacock & Co., Ltd., a position which he held until his retirement in 1930. His activities were not confined to the department mentioned, for he travelled extensively, both on the Continent of Europe and in the United States, where his knowledge of languages and his engineering ability, no less than his capacity for making friends, made him a valuable representative for the Firm. He was an able and prolific writer, and contributed many papers and articles on engineering subjects to various Institutions and scientific publications. His retirement found him as busy as ever, devoting much time to research on the historical side of engineering, as a result of which he became an authority on the sequence of events therein and upon the achievements of leading engineers of the last century, many of whom he had known personally.
He was a member of the Civil, Mechanical and Iron and Steel Institution, and had been a member of this Institution since 1919. He passed away after a protracted illness on the 21st November at Torquay, where he had been living for some time.