Arthur Edward Cutler
Arthur Edward Cutler (1863-1936)
1936 Obituary [1]
ARTHUR EDWARD CUTLER was the inventor, with Mr. P. Marsden, of the Cutler-Marsden automatic electric welding machine, which was applied especially to the manufacture of mild steel pipes for water supplies and other services.
Mr. Cutler was born in 1863, and served his apprenticeship with Messrs. R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Ltd., of Newcastle upon Tyne.
At the age of twenty he left for Queensland, where he was employed on the erection of sugar machinery at the Herbert River. After a brief period as an engineering draughtsman to the Harbours and Rivers Department, New South Wales, he went to Fiji to assist again in the erection of sugar machinery, returning the following year to join Messrs. D. and W. Robertson, of Sydney, for whom he was engaged on bridge design. Subsequently he held various positions as draughtsman or contractor's engineer, and he also carried out mining surveys and erected machinery for the Croydon Goldfield, Queensland.
He went to Sydney in 1888, where he joined Messrs. McCredie Brothers, engineers and architects, as a surveyor. He carried out designs for municipal works for the New South Wales Treasury Department during 1890, and a year later he was transferred to the Public Works Department. He became chief draughtsman of the sewerage construction branch in 1895, and in 1900 was appointed principal assistant engineer.
In 1903 he was made superintendent of the State Government Dockyard at Cockatoo Island, and held that position until 1913. He was also a member of the Board of Advice and Reference, and under his control the first units of the Australian Navy were assembled.
Following the transfer of the dockyard to the control of the Commonwealth Government in 1913, Mr. Cutler took charge of the Walsh Island Dockyard and of the State Government engineering works at Newcastle.
In addition, he was chief engineer of the Public Works Department, and President of the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The Walsh Island Dockyard was greatly extended during the War, and Mr. Cutler acted as executive member of the Munitions Committee, and was identified with the establishment of the Richmond Aerodrome.
In 1924 he retired and lived near Port Stephens, where his death occurred on 22nd May 1935.
He was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1900.