Herbert Charles Minett
Herbert Charles Minett (1878-1937)
1937 Obituary [1]
HERBERT CHARLES MINETT had an unusually wide experience of heating, lighting, and power installations for large public buildings in Great Britain and abroad. He was born near Badminton, Glos, and served his apprenticeship from 1894 to 1899 with the Kear Engineering Company, Ltd., of Bristol. He then joined Messrs. J. Stone and Company, Ltd., of Deptford, as leading designer and estimator, and organized the mass-production of standard steam, hydraulic, and electric fittings. In 1904 he was appointed works engineer to Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Company, Ltd., of Woolwich, and in 1906 he became leading designer to Messrs. James Simpson and Company, Ltd., of Pimlico, for whom he also took charge of the power and heating contracts department. He was made chief draughtsman to the Atmospheric Steam Heating Company in 1910; the firm acted as consultants to British and Empire contractors for district heating schemes, sub-atmospheric heating, and forced-circulation systems. During the War he was engaged on the design of various factories for the Ministry of Munitions, including the filling factory at Hayes, which covered 300 acres and employed over 10,000 workpeople; it contained 34 miles of heating mains and 22 miles of water mains. In 1918 Mr. Minett was transferred to the Board of Trade as chief scrutinizing engineer and administrator for the Industrial Economy Campaign. He was engaged as power and heating specialist by Messrs. Kennedy and Donkin in 1919 in connexion with the reconstruction of a large group of factories. In 1921 he went into partnership with Messrs. Tyler and Freeman, electrical engineers, to develop a beating and general engineering department, which was carried on as a separate business under the style Messrs. Tyler, Freeman and Minett. He was the consulting engineer for a number of British hospitals and public institutions and designed the entire heating plant for Johannesburg Town Hall, Pietermaritzburg University, Cape Town Law Courts, Pretoria railway station, and the British Legation at Peking. For many years he contributed to the technical press and served on the advisory council of Works Management.
Mr. Minett was elected a Member of the Institution in 1925. His death occurred on 5th May 1937, in his fifty-ninth year.