James Alger Coombs
James Alger Coombs (c1866-1946)
1946 Obituary [1]
JAMES ALGER COOMBS, whose death occurred at Finchley on 16th February 1946, in his eightieth year, specialized during the greater part of his career in mechanical appliances for the treatment of sewage in connection with which he took out several patents. For some fifteen years he was a director and the chief engineer of Activated Sludge, Ltd., Westminster. He was educated at the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, and at the Finsbury Technical College.
His apprenticeship was served with Messrs. Fielding and Platt, Ltd., Gloucester, from 1885 to 1889, and, after gaining experience as a draughtsman, he entered the employment of Messrs. Hughes and Lancaster, of London and of Ruabon, North Wales, and was appointed chief draughtsman at the early age of twenty-four. This position he held jointly with that of assistant works manager from 1896. During his thirteen years' service with that firm he was responsible for the design of pneumatic ejectors and air compressors, and also for the first air lift pump to be installed in this country.
From 1903 to 1913 he was manager-in-charge of Messrs. Daniel Adamson and Company's hydro-pneumatic department at Dukinfield. As the result of a meeting with the distinguished chemist, Dr. Gilbert J. Fowler, F.I.C. in 1912, Mr. Coombs applied himself forthwith to the task of developing the Activated Sludge process, and with this end in view, joined the staff of Messrs. Jones Attwood and Company, Ltd., at Stourbridge, as expert engineer in the following year.
In the meantime he was chiefly concerned with his researches in connection with pneumatic ejectors. On the reconstitution of the company under its present title in 1919 he assumed office as a director and chief engineer. These joint appointments he continued to hold until his enforced retirement on account of ill health in 1934; in spite of which, however, he remained actively engaged until an advanced age in developing his ideas on the disposal of sewage and other waste products, and in this connection contributed numerous papers to technical institutions.
Mr. Coombs had been an Associate Member of the Institution since 1920.