Evan Arthur Atkins
Evan Arthur Atkins (1864-1940) Lecturer at Liverpool University and later of Rylands Brothers
1940 Obituary [1]
EVAN ARTHUR ATKINS was born in 1864 at Wolverhampton and received his general education there from 1869 to 1877. He served his apprenticeship in the works of Messrs. Joseph Evans and Sons of Wolverhampton, from 1877 to 1879, and in the works of Messrs. Pearson of Heath Town until 1882.
Between 1882 and 1896 he attended evening classes at the Liverpool School of Science and courses of lectures at the Royal College of Science and the Finsbury Technical College. On completing his apprenticeship he was engaged by Messrs. Morton and Company as a mechanic in the firm's Liverpool works. In 1888 he became foreman and works draughtsman and was promoted to be assistant works manager in 1892. He left this firm two years later and took a post as lecturer at evening classes in the Municipal Technical School, Liverpool. While he still held this position he acted as consulting engineer to the Wolverhampton Corrugated Iron Company, Ltd., and to Messrs. Burnell and Company, Ltd., of Ellesmere Port.
From 1897 he had also been consulting engineer and designer in aerial cable tramway work for Messrs. Ryland Brothers, Ltd., of Warrington, and in 1912 he became technical manager of this firm. He was appointed general works manager in 1920 and when he left in 1930 was director of research. During this time he had still continued to lecture to evening students at the Liverpool Municipal Technical College, where he continued as a lecturer for about three years more. Besides "Workshop Practice", a group of eight volumes which he edited in 1929, Mr. Atkins had written two books, "Electric Arc and Oxy-Acetylene Welding", the third edition of which appeared in 1936, and "Practical Sheet and Plate Metal Work", the fourth edition of which was published in the same year.
He was president of the Manchester Metallurgical Society in 1929, and in 1934 he was president of the Institution of Welding. In 1935 the University of Liverpool conferred on him the degree of M.Sc.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1902 and was transferred to Membership in 1923. His death occurred on 1st February 1940 after a long illness.