George Thomas Child
George Thomas Child (1869-1924)
1925 Obituary [1]
GEORGE THOMAS CHILD was born at Wolverhampton on 11th February 1869.
He was educated at local schools and received further training at the Wolverhampton Technical College and School of Art.
He served his apprenticeship at the Great Western Railway Works, Wolverhampton, and on the conclusion of his term he obtained a post as engineer with Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox, Ltd.
Subsequently he transferred his services in 1893 to Messrs. Thomas Bolton and Sons, Ltd., Froghall and Oakamoor, North Staffs, where he remained for 27 years, becoming their chief engineer.
During the War he designed and brought out the "Bolton Child" automatic stays bending machine - a machine for producing copper driving bands for shells from drawn-copper strip instead of solid-drawn copper tubes.
In 1920 he was appointed Works Manager for Messrs. H. H. Vivian and Co., Ltd., Birmingham - non-ferrous metal manufacturers - where he completely re-modelled the works on an electrical basis and erected a new cold-rolling mill for the production of high-grade nickel-silver sheets for motor-car radiator cases.
His death occurred on 9th November 1924, at Edgbaston, in his fifty-sixth year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1906.
1924 Obituary [2]
GEORGE THOMAS CHILD died suddenly on November 9, 1924, at the age of fifty-two years. In his death the Midland non-ferrous metal trade has lost one of its most prominent members.
Mr. Child was born at Wolverhampton, his father being George Gladwyn Child. He was educated at Wolverhampton Technical and School of Art, where he won several important prizes. Apprenticed with the Great Western Railway, Wolverhampton, he later went as erector to Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox, London.
He was chief engineer at Messrs. Thomas Bolton Sons, Ltd., Froghall and Oakamoor, for twenty-seven years, where, during the war, he invented the Bolton-Child Strip Bending Machine for producing copper driving bands for shells from drawn copper strip instead of out of solid drawn copper tubes.
In 1919 he was appointed works manager of H. H. Vivian & Co. Ltd., brass, copper, and nickel-silver manufacturers, of Birmingham, which position he held until the time of his death. He installed a new modern cold-rolling mill for the production of high-class nickel-silver radiator sheets and completely electrified and modernized the works. Gas-producers and overhead mains were installed and the annealing furnaces were redesigned to suit. With great success various mills were also fitted out with modern auxiliary machinery, thus bringing the works up to date and in a position to meet the exacting demands of the present day.
Mr. Child was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and was elected a member of the Institute of Metals on September 10, 1920. Mr. Child was a prominent member of the Birmingham Local Section of the Institute and of the Birmingham Metallurgical Society. He was a wellknown Freemason, holding high office in the Prometheus Lodge (the Metallurgical Lodge), and was a Past-Master of St. Giles Lodge.