Evelyn Stewart Lansdowne Beale
Evelyn Steward Landsdowne Beale (1900-1972)
1972 Obituary [1]
Evelyn Stewart Lansdowne Beale (Member) of Staines, Middx, died on Jan 12. Born in 1900, he was educated at Winchester and Trinity College Cambridge where he developed an air-cycle refrigerating machine. In 1922 he constructed radio transmitting and receiving sets to report the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race for the first time and gained first class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos.
After research on X-rays and crystal structure at University College, London, Beale joined BPC where he developed the Standard-Sunbury Electronic Engine Indicator which is in use internationally to this day, and in 1934 introduced a method of accurate measurement of crude oil.
From 1937 until the 60's Beale spent much of his time on the design and development of free-piston air compressors and gas-generators. He also evolved a new technique of acoustic and real amplitude testing of pulsating flow in air intake and exhaust systems and was associated with the design and development of an experimental heat pump which was probably the largest of its kind at the time.
A quite different field of development was the hydraulically controlled high-speed press he designed for McCorquordale for printing paint samples onto cards. At the other end of the scale he developed a precision hydraulic drive with interferometric control for ruling spectrometer gratings, and assisted with the design of a new electromagnetic reciprocating motor.
A brilliant practical physicist, Beale's work covered an unusually wide field of scientific research which unfortunately never brought him to the attention of the general public.