Arnold Tustin, (16 July 1899 – 9 January 1994), was a British

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and Professor of Engineering at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

who made important contributions to the development of

control engineering Control engineering, also known as control systems engineering and, in some European countries, automation engineering, is an engineering discipline that deals with control systems, applying control theory to design equipment and systems with d ...

and its application to electrical machines.

Biography

Tustin started working in 1914 at the age of 16 as an apprentice to the

C. A. Parsons and Company C. A. Parsons and Company was a British engineering firm which was once one of the largest employers on Tyneside. The company became Reyrolle Parsons in 1968, merged with Clarke Chapman to form Northern Engineering Industries in 1977, and bec ...

, of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

. He entered Armstrong College, later part of

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

, in 1916, served in the Royal Engineers in World War I, and eventually received his master's degree in science in 1922. In 1922 he joined

Metropolitan-Vickers Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...

(Metro-Vick) as a graduate trainee. In the early 1930s he worked for Metro-Vick in Russia for two years, advising and selling equipment to the government companies. Here, he wrote his first book on the design of electric motors, which was also translated into Russian. In the late 1930s and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Tustin was working on the Metadyne constant-current DC generator for gun control.Institution of Engineering and Technology website
on IEE.org. He also developed new methods for gyroscopic stabilisation and further applied servo-mechanisms to tanks and naval guns. After the war, in 1947, he was appointed Professor of Engineering and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the

, a post in which he remained until 1955. In 1953-54 he had been Visiting Professor at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and from 1955 to 1964 he was Professor of Engineering at

. Tustin was married to Frances Tustin, a pioneering psychotherapist and authority on

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

. Tustin's primary concern has been in the field of electrical machines, but his interests extended into the fields of

systems thinking Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts.Anderson, Virginia, & Johnson, Lauren (1997). ''Systems Thinking Ba ...

control systems A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial co ...

, and even

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

.Peter E. Wellstead (2008)
Systems Biology and the Spirit of Tustin
Retrieved 23 April 2008.

Publications

Tustin was the author of several books and many published papers on electrical machines, a selection. * 1952. ''Automatic and manual control: Papers contributed to the Conferences at Cranfield, 1951, Volume 1951, Deel 1'' Academic Press * 1952. ''Direct current machines for control systems'' * 1953, ''The Mechanism of Economic Systems'', Cambridge, MA. : Harvard Univ. Press., (2e ed. 1957) * 1956. ''The Next Ten Years of Electrical Engineering'' * 1957. ''Automatic Control''. With

Ernest Nagel Ernest Nagel (; ; November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985) was an American philosopher of science. Suppes, Patrick (1999)Biographical memoir of Ernest Nagel In '' American National Biograph''y (Vol. 16, pp. 216-218). New York: Oxford University ...

;About Tustin * 1992, "Pioneers of Control: an interview with Arnold Tustin", Chris Bissell in: ''IEE Review'', June 1992, pp. 223–226 * 1994, "Arnold Tustin 1899-1994", Chris Bissell in: ''Int. J. Control'', Vol 60, No 5, Nov 1994, pp. 649 – 652

References

External links

Institution of Engineering and Technology website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tustin, Arnold 1899 births 1994 deaths Engineers from Tyne and Wear British electrical engineers Systems engineers Academics of the University of Birmingham Metropolitan-Vickers people