Professor James John Guest (c1867-1956) of James J. Guest and Co
1957 Obituary [1]
Professor James John Guest, M.A., will be remembered chiefly for his work on the strength of materials, and on grinding phenomena.
His death occurred in his ninetieth year on 11th June 1956. He was educated at Marlborough College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained the B.A. degree, and later became M.A.
He received practical training in several private workshops, and in the drawing office of Tangyes, Ltd., Birmingham, until 1894, when he went to McGill University, Montreal, as Assistant Professor of Engineering. Two years later he was appointed Head of the Engineering Department of the Polytechnic, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
He returned to Britain in 1900 and for the next fifteen years, as a partner in James J. Guest and Co., acquired further practical engineering experience in Birmingham and Coventry. He was first elected a Member of the Institution in 1900.
During the 1914-18 war he was for one year in charge of inspection in Staffordshire and Shropshire Munitions Area, Ministry of Munitions, but relinquished that work to re-enter the teaching profession, and was appointed Reader in Graphics, University College, London. His final appointment was as Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Artillery College, Woolwich, which later became the Military College of Science. Upon his retirement he took up consulting work.
He did a great deal of research work on the strength of materials, and contributed a number of articles on the subject to the technical Press. He was the originator of Guest's Law on Combined Stresses, and had also conducted investigations on grinding and vibration problems.