Letter dated 29 th January, 1945. War still on. … practical action at no distant date … … new...
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Transcript of Letter dated 29 th January, 1945. War still on. … practical action at no distant date … … new...
Letter dated 29th January, 1945.
War still on.
… practical action at no distant date …
… new School of Chemical Engineering …
… inaugurated … next October.
Immediate protagonists
John Oriel of Shell, Professor R.G.W. Norrish
… Norrish alleged that the whole scheme was cooked up between him and Oriel in London pubs during the blackout. To anyone who knew them, the milieu seems entirely credible.
From The Cambridge Review, Feb. 1983, by P.V. Danckwerts.
1945 2008 (equivalent)
Capital £435,000 £50m
Studentships £2,500 p.a.
until further notice
£300,000 p.a.
T.R.C. Fox. Shell Professor 1946-1978
Innovations:
1. Chemical Engineering Syndicate… one of those rich anomalies which flourish in Cambridge to the despair of the Administrators. (P.V.D.)
2. 4 year course.
3. Tripos research projects. No large teaching equipment.
4. Basic Science applied to chemical engineering.
5. Staff with a range of backgrounds: chemistry, engineering, mathematics.
4 year course started 1948
2 yearsNatural Sciences Tripos
Part I
2 yearsMechanical Sciences Tripos
Part I
Year 3Qualifying ExaminationChemical Engineering
Year 4Chemical Engineering
Tripos6 Papers
4 year course gave MEng after 1989.MEng available in retrospect to those who took the 4 year course before 1989.Cost £6 or £0.
1. First computer, 1960
2. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 1980s
No large equipment for teaching.
Fund of £50,000 invested.
Subsequently helped with:
Research projects part of Tripos course from 1950 onwards, e.g.:
1. Chlorella: early biotechnology, 1952-3
2. Fluidisation, started 1957-8
4 year Tripos Course 1948
Basic science applied to chemical engineering
Chemical Thermodynamics
Fluid Mechanics
Reaction Engineering
Foreshadowed ‘ Transport Processes’ by Bird, Stewart & Lightfoot, 1960
Staff appointments
Knowledge of chemical engineering not essential
1948 Denbigh Edinburgh. Imperial College. Queen Elizabeth College, London
Sellers Swansea. Humphreys & Glasgow
Danckwerts UKAEA. Imperial College
Kay UKAEA. Imperial College
1951 Gray Leeds. Gonville & Caius
1952 Armstrong
Davidson
1955 Hutchison
Davies Birmingham
Turner Exeter
1956 Ratcliff McGill
Harrison Keele. Exeter. Selwyn
1957 Wilkes Ann Arbor
Research 1948-1959
Fox: no publications but encouraged research.
3. Gas absorption, mixing, residence times. Danckwerts.
4. Fluidisation. Started from teaching experiment of J.M. Kay and 2 Tripos projects.
1. Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell. F.T. Bacon.
CEGB funded for energy storage.
Larger unit at Marshall’s Airport.
Unit for Apollo project to the moon, developed by Pratt & Whitney in USA.
2. Distillation of liquid hydrogen for HD separation. Sellers, Augood, Ashmead.
Tea breaks (after J.J. Thomson)
Togetherness.
Staff meet each other and meet research students.
Everyone exchanges ideas about science and engineering.
Autobiographical NoteBy P.V. Danckwerts
I cannot claim that I was particularly diligent in my first two years, either, so that in my third year it was necessary to do some serious work.
I did rather well in my examinations, a result which I believe gave my tutor the idea that something was wrong with the system.
During the years 1948-54, although there was plenty of teaching to be done, I sat on no committees and supervised only one graduate student. I look back on this as my period of “academic indolence”, during which I had time to shove my feet up on the desk and actually think. Such “insights” as I have experience originated mainly in this period, stimulated by summer visits to chemical plants. Alas, indolence is no longer in fashion in universities.
Gas-Liquid ReactionsPublished 1970, McGraw-Hill
P.V. Danckwerts GCShell Professor 1959-1977
1. Established good links with IChemE – President 1965-6Design Project included in Tripos Course.
2. Fluid Mechanics and Transport Processes course in Part IB Natural Sciences Tripos 1967. Parts I and II Chemical Engineering Tripos.
3. Computer IBM 1620. Early 1960s.
4. Editor Chemical Engineering Science.
Peter Danckwerts
Research Activities
1. Diffusion with and without chemical reaction, 7 papers
2. Gas Absorption and the Design of Absorbers, 17 papers
3. Reactions of Carbon Dioxide with Bases and Catalysts in Aqueous Solution, 6 papers
4. Mixing, 6 papers
5. Residence Time Distributions and Related Topics, 6 papers. The central idea…came to me during a tea-break at Cambridge.