Leonard Walton Schuster
Leonard Walton Schuster (1881-1940)
1940 Obituary [1]
LEONARD WALTON SCHUSTER, M.A., won a notable reputation for himself, both at home and abroad, as an engineer deeply interested in metallurgical problems. He was born at Denton and was educated at Eastbourne College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in mechanical science in 1903. He served his apprenticeship from 1903 to 1906 with Messrs. James Simpson and Company, mechanical engineers, Pimlico, and the Brush Electrical Engineering Company.
He was appointed charge engineer to the Leamington and Warwick Electric Power and Lighting Company in 1906, and after serving with the New British Electric Supply Company as designer and head of the testing department, and in the contract department of the Brush Electrical Engineering Company, he became in 1909 assistant engineer to the English Sewing Cotton Company in Manchester. He remained with this firm until 1920, when he was appointed technical adviser to the manager of the British Engine, Boiler and Electrical Insurance Company, where he was responsible for carrying out investigations on the cause of breakdowns on turbo-generators, steam and gas engines, boilers, and sundry plant. His work included the writing of the greater portion of the technical report of the company.
In February 1940 he was appointed to the research department of the Admiralty. His death occurred on 6th July 1940, in his sixtieth year: Mr. Schuster, who was elected an Associate Member in 1910 and was transferred to Membership in 1925, was a very active member of the Institution; he acted as reporter to the Welding Research Committee from its inception in 1930 and contributed several papers and discussions, receiving the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal for his monumental paper on "An Investigation of the Mechanical Breakdown of Prime Movers and Boiler Plant" and the T. Bernard Hall Prize for that on "Strength and Design of Fusion Welds for Unfired Pressure Vessels". In 1935 he contributed an important paper on "The Bend Test and its Value as a Guide to Ductility". He also took an active part in the affairs of the North Western Branch, on the Committee of which he served for several years. In addition he was a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and was a past-president of the Manchester Metallurgical Society.
1941 Obituary [2]
LEONARD WALTON SCHUSTER, M.A., died on the 6th July, 1940, at the age of 59.
He was educated at Eastbourne College, Seafield Park Engineering College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first class in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1903.
On leaving Cambridge he served as a pupil for a year with Messrs. James Simpson and Co., mechanical engineers, and subsequently for 2 years with the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. In 1906 he was appointed as a charge engineer with the Leamington and Warwick Electric Power and Lighting Co., and in 1907 he became Head of the Electrical Design and Testing Department of the New British Electric Supply Co., a position which he resigned shortly afterwards on entering the Contract Department of the British Electrical Engineering Co.
From 1909 to 1920 he was Assistant Engineer to the English Sewing Cotton Co., of Manchester, and during the war of 1914-18 he acted also as a technical adviser to the Aeronautical Inspection Department of the War Office.
In 1920 he became Technical Adviser to the Manager of the British Engine, Boiler and Electrical Insurance Co., and it was in this capacity that he carried out the research work for which he was most widely known. He published numerous papers giving the results of his investigations into the causes of failures in service of all types of engineering plant.
Early in 1940 he entered the Research Department of the Admiralty, where he was engaged up to the time of his death.
He was elected an Associate Member of The Institution in 1910 and a Member in 1925.
1940 Obituary [3]
Mr. Leonard Walter Schuster, chief research engineer to the British Engine, Boiler, and Electrical Insurance Company, Manchester, who died at Camberley, Surrey, on July 6, 1940, was engaged on scientific work for the Admiralty at Portsmouth.
Born at Denton, in 1881, he was educated at Eastbourne College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first-class degree in science. Mr. Schuster had a wide reputation as a consultant metallurgist, and was an expert on fusion welding of steel. He was the editor of his company's annual report on mechanical breakdowns of engine and boiler plant, and a frequent contributor on his special subject to the engineering societies.
As a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and of the committee of the Manchester branch, he received the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal in 1935 for the best paper of the year, and in 1932 the Bernard Hall Prize fora paper on Fusion Welding of Boilers. He was one of the founders of the institution's committee on welding, and report-author of their work.
He was a joint member of the Institute of Metals and of the Iron and Steel Institute, and was elected in 1935.