Edward Reynolds (1825-1895)
1862 Edward Reynolds, Engineer, 34 Great George Street, Westminster.[1]
1895 Obituary [2]
EDWARD REYNOLDS was born in London on 7th October 1825.
His boyhood was spent in Herefordshire, where he went to school; and he completed his education at King's College, London.
In 1844 he was apprenticed to Messrs. Adams and Co., engineers and carriage builders, Old Ford, London, and remained there for two years. During this period he had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with early experiments on Henson's flying machines, with which the firm were concerned.
In 1846 he became chief draughtsman in the locomotive department of the Eastern Counties Railway, where he remained till 1850; and he was instrumental in the alteration of the locomotives from the then 5 feet 9 inches gauge, having bar frames, to the 4 feet 8.5ins inches gauge, which necessitated the substitution of slab frames.
From 1850 to 1852 he was draughtsman and manager of Mr. Thomas Kennard's office, Adelphi, London, where he was largely engaged in designing Warren girder bridges and bridges generally.
From 1852 to 1860 lie was chief engineer to the Butterley Iron Co., near Alfreton, and during this period he remodelled a large portion of their machinery, some of which was antiquated; several of the engines and locomotives he designed are still at work there.
In 1860 he joined Mr. (now Sir Frederick) Bramwell in partnership, which continued until early in 1863, when he became engineer to Messrs. Naylor, Vickers and Co., Millsands, Sheffield, and was engaged in the construction of their River Don Works.
In 1872 he became a managing director, and continued in this position for the rest of his life. Among the more noticeable machines designed by him at these works are the large forging presses, the construction of which was commenced in 1882; they have a long-stroke ram, bearing against the spherical end of an inverted T shaped cross-head, which works between guides and carries the forging face. Before the actual pressing the slack is taken up by water at a lower pressure; this plan he had adopted some time before for general hydraulic work, possessing as it does the advantage that smaller pumping engines can be employed.
In 1894 he became a director of the Elmore Copper and Wire Companies, and took an active interest in their management and in the technicalities of their manufacture.
During the latter part of 1894 his health had been failing, and a chill contracted at the beginning of the present year hastened his death, which took place at Sheffield on 12th January 1895, in his seventieth year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1862, and was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Naval Architects, and other kindred societies.