John Ruffell Salter
John Ruffell Salter (1875-1910)
1911 Obituary [1]
JOHN RUFFELL SALTER was born in London on 11th April 1875, and was educated at Sir Walter St. John's School, Clapham, and subsequently under Professor E. Wilson, of King's College, London.
In 1893 he became junior assistant to the late Dr. John Hopkinson, Member of Council of this Institution.
Shortly after Dr. Hopkinson's death in 1898 he became chief assistant engineer to Sir Clifton Robinson, and was responsible under him for the electrical construction and equipment of the London United Tramways and the Bristol Tramways. During this period he also acted as consulting engineer to the Pemberton Urban District Council in designing and erecting their generating station for electric lighting and tramways.
In March 1902 he was appointed engineer-in-chief of the South Lancashire Tramways Co., and was responsible for the construction and equipment of about 100 miles of tramways. On the completion of the constructional work he became general manager of the company, and in 1903 he was appointed to the position of general manager of the St. Helens tramways in order to secure centralization of management of the two systems, requiring through-running arrangements over both systems and into Liverpool.
He acted as consulting engineer to the Birkenhead and Chester Light Railway scheme, and to the Heywood Corporation in connection with the conversion of the steam-tramway system to electrical working. On several occasions he went abroad to give expert advice on tramway undertakings.
His death took place at his residence at Worsley, Manchester, as the result of an operation rendered necessary by an acute attack of pneumonia, on 16th December 1910, in his thirty-sixth year.
He became an Associate Member of this Institution in 1903.