Arthur John Rowledge (30 July 1876 – 11 December 1957) was an English engineer who designed the

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 engine, W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept ...

aero engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...

and was a key figure in the development of the inter-war

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

aero piston engines, including the

Rolls-Royce Kestrel The Rolls-Royce Kestrel (internal type F) is a 21.25 litre (1,295 in³) V-12 aircraft engine from Rolls-Royce. It was their first cast-block engine, and used as the pattern for most of their future piston-engine designs. Used during the interw ...

and the

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British Coolant#Liquids, liquid-cooled V12 engine, V-12 Reciprocating engine, piston aero engine of 27-litre (1,650 cu in) Engine displacement, capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce designed the engine an ...

Early life and family

Rowledge was born in

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, Northamptonshire in 1876, the son of John and Ann Rowledge. His father was described as a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

in 1881, 1881 Census of Peterborough, RG11/1594, Folio 20, Page 34, Arthur J Rowledge, 47 Gladstone Street, Peterborough. and had worked on the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Rowledge's mother was from a family of Lincolnshire farmers. He was the youngest child, and had two brothers and one sister. He was educated at St Peter's College School, Peterborough, and in May 1891 obtained a Queen's prize for Science. In June 1905 he married Alice Blincko at St Phillip's Church, Kennington. They had three children together: Jeanie Louise (b. 23 January 1907), John William (b. 17 August 1908) and Donald Henry (28 September 1911).

Career

At the time of the 1891

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Rowledge was described as an "Apprentice to Engineers Draughtsman", 1891 Census of Peterborough, RG12/1228, Folio 78, Page 33, Arthur John Rowledge, 118 Gladstone Street, Peterborough. employed at Barford and Perkins. After completing his apprenticeship, Rowledge was employed as a draughtsman at R. Hoe & Co., a London-branch of an American printing machine company, and henceforth took an interest in intricate mechanisms, which would be pivotal in his later work. After a brief period working for Easton, Anderson & Goolden, boilermakers, in 1901 Rowledge joined D. Napier & Son as a designer, primarily working on automobiles, and during this period the Napier car won the Gordon Bennett Cup and built what is generally considered to be the first 6-cylinder motor car. In 1905 Rowledge joined the Wolseley Motor Company as Chief Designer, although little of his work during this period is known. Rowledge re-joined D. Napier %26 Son in 1913 as Chief Designer. After initially designing car engines for the company, the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

meant that the Napier company focussed on aero engines, and Rowledge penned the

aero engine during this period. The Lion engine was developed to a power of 450hp by the end of the war, and claimed numerous records in the post-war period, for example winning the 1919 Aerial Derby. He was awarded an MBE for his work on the Napier Lion engine. In 1921 Rowledge resigned from Napier and took up a position at

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his Crane ( ...

as "Chief Assistant to Mr F. H. Royce", where he became known as 'Rg' in company shorthand. He is credited with designing the Condor III, the

Kestrel The term kestrel (from , derivative from , i.e. ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour which is to hover ...

and developing the

Buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Easte ...

into the

Rolls-Royce R The Rolls-Royce R is a British Aircraft engine, aero engine that was designed and built specifically for air racing purposes by Rolls-Royce Limited. Nineteen R engines were assembled in a limited production run between 1929 and 1931. Developed ...

racing engine, which was used with great success at the 1929 and 1931

Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded first annually, and later biennially, to the winner of a race for seaplanes and ...

races. After the death of Sir Henry Royce in 1933, Rowledge was appointed Chief Consultant, and pushed for development of the revolutionary "Exe" engine; a 1000hp, air-cooled, sleeve-valve engine with its cylinders arranged in four banks of six into an X-shape. Ultimately, as the development of the Merlin engine continued to improve, and the restriction of resources needed for the war effort, the "Exe" engine was cancelled. Eventually this concept was revived as the Rolls-Royce Pennine. Development work on the Merlin engine was one of Rowledge's last contributions to aero engine design, before retiring from Rolls-Royce in January 1945 at the age of 69.''Flight'', 3 January 1958
Flightglobal. Retrieved 21 October 2009

Retirement and Death

Rowledge lived in Derby following his retirement, suffering from profound deafness in later years. He died on 12 December 1957, aged 81, after a long illness.Royal Society Obituary p.222

Honours and awards

* 26 March 1920 –

Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

. Arthur John Rowledge, Esq. Chief Designer, Messrs. Napier and Son, Limited. * 1931 – Gold Medal of the

Institution of Automobile Engineers HORIBA MIRA Ltd. (formerly the Motor Industry Research Association) is an automotive engineering and development consultancy company headquartered near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. It provides product engineering, research, testing, ...

for contributions to

aero engine development, specifically development of the

engine. * 1941 – Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. . * Pugh, Peter. ''The Magic of a Name – The Rolls-Royce Story – The First 40 Years''. Cambridge, England. Icon Books Ltd, 2000.

External links

Flightglobal.com – Six years' progress of water-cooled engines by A. J. Rowledge, ''Flight'', 14 March 1930
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowledge, Arthur 1876 births 1957 deaths English aerospace engineers Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Peterborough Rolls-Royce people