Samuel Piggott Wright (c1890-1941)
1922 A.M.I.Mech.E., M.Inst.Met., Assoc.I.Gas E., Chief Gas Engr. to Blair, Campbell and McLean, Ltd., Glasgow; s. of late Alderman Samuel Wright, of Congleton. Ed. King Edward VI Grammar Sch., Macclesfield. Pupil of Prof. C. B. Walker, B.Sc. Hons., London; also of A. Klemin, B.Sc. Hons., A.C.G.I. Passed Eng. Exams., I.Mech.E. Articled to J. Booth and Co., Ltd., and The British Westinghouse Co., Ltd. Assisted and Designed various Hydrogen Gas Plants for the Admiralty during the War; also Oil Hydrogenation Plants for Industrial Purposes; also Designed and Engineered large Gas and By-Product Plants for Industrial Undertakings, etc. Address: 46, Spragg Street, Congleton, Cheshire.
1942 Obituary [1]
SAMUEL WRIGHT whose death occurred on 5th August 1941, in his fifty-first year, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1917 and was transferred to Membership in 1928. He served his apprenticeship, from 1906 to 1910, with Messrs. Booth and Company, general engineers, of Congleton, and on its termination he was appointed draughtsman to the British Westinghouse Company, Ltd., in Manchester. After holding a similar position in the haulage engine department of Messrs. Clarke, Chapman, Ltd., at Gateshead-on-Tyne, he received, in 1913, an appointment with the Hydrogen Gas and Oil Hardening Equipment Company, of Ashford and London.
He remained with that firm until 1919, and during that period he filled successively the posts of draughtsman, engineering designer, and chief engineer, with responsibility for the design, erection, and operation of hydrogen gas producing plants and for the design and operation of plants for the hydrogenation of oil. From 1919 to 1921 he was responsible in his capacity as chief engineer for the chemical plant equipment of Messrs. Blair, Campbell and McLean, Ltd., of Glasgow. Subsequently he became manager to Messrs. Meldrums, Ltd., at Timperley, Cheshire.
During the four following years, he was engaged in the manufacture and erection of chemical plants, including oil distillation and refining equipment in Russia. In 1927, he was appointed manager of the Widnes Foundry and Engineering Company, Ltd., and was also engaged on consultative work in connection with Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., in regard to mixtures of metals for chemical processes.
For the latter part of his career Mr. Wright practised as a consulting engineer. During the war of 1914-18 he was co-inventor of the hydrogen plants built at Cardington, East Fortune, Cranwell, Paris, and Petrograd (Leningrad). He was also the inventor of many chemical and mechanical processes, including apparatus for ammonia and benzol absorption, and plant for refining lubricating oils, for degreasing tinplates and strip bars from rolling mills, and for the recovery of ethyl alcohol, as well as equipment for use in dye and cellulose factories.