Herbert Mason (1877-1937)
1937 Obituary [1]
HERBERT MASON was in business for several years as a consulting engineer, specializing in textile machinery. He was born in Bolton, Lancs, in 1877, and in 1893 was apprenticed to Messrs. Dobson and Barlow, Ltd., textile machinery manufacturers, of Bolton. After completing three years' training he took an honours course in practical and theoretical cotton spinning at Manchester Technical School. He then continued his studies in Zurich and in the Technicum fur Textil-Industrie, at Reutlingen, Wurtemburg. In 1899 he took charge of the erection of textile machinery by Messrs. Dobson and Barlow in Germany, Austria, and Poland, and in the same year he patented certain improvements in flat-carding engines and in spinning machinery. He subsequently represented the firm in Hungary, as well as in the countries already mentioned. In 1905 he took over the whole of the foreign business in his name, being appointed general agent and consulting engineer by the firm for Austria-Hungary and Germany. During the War he was engaged on the firm's business in England, but in 1920 he returned to Dresden to carry on his agency in Saxony, Silesia, and Czechoslovakia. In 1933, owing to the merging of textile machinery makers, his contract with Messrs. Dobson and Barlow ceased, but the merger board of directors offered him the agency as general representative for the same district, and he accepted. Mr. Mason's death occurred in Dresden on 1st February 1936, soon after his decision to retire.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1913.