Richard Vernon Wheeler

Richard Vernon Wheeler (1883-1939)

1922 D.Sc., F.I.C., F.G.S., F.C.S., M.I. and S.I., M.Soc.C.I., Prof. of Fuel Technology, Sheffield University; Director, Mines Dept., Experimental Station; b. 1883; s. of the late R. J. Wheeler, Chief Inspector of Machinery, R.N. Ed. Plymouth Coll.; and Owens Coll., Victoria University, Manchester. Dalton Sch. and University Fellow, Victoria University, Manchester. Chemist and Gas Plant Manager, Monks, Hall and Co., Ltd., Warrington; Chemist to British Coal Dust Experiments Committee; Min. Assoc. of G. Britain; Chemist to Explosions in Mines Committee, Home Office; Director of Home Office Experimental Station; Safety-Lamps Testing Officer, Mines Dept., B.O.T.; Member of Miners' Lamps Committee. Reports on Coal-min. Problems; Scientific and Tech. Papers on Coal, Combustion and Flame. Address: The University, Sheffield; Eskmeals, Cumberland.

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1939 Obituary.

Dr. RICHARD VERNON WHEELER, E.G.S., E.I.C., F.C.S., Professor of Fuel Technology at the University of Sheffield, and Director of the Safety in Mines Research Stations at Sheffield and Buxton, died at his home, Stumperlowe Mansions, Sheffield, on October 28, 1939, at the age of fifty-six. He was the son of the late R. J. Wheeler, Chief Inspector of Machinery for the Royal Navy, and was educated at Plymouth College and at Owens College (later the University of Manchester), where he gained a Dalton Scholarship and was elected Fellow of the University. After three years of post-graduate research on the combustion of hydrocarbons and on surface combustion in collaboration with the late Professor W. A. Bone, Dr. Wheeler became fuel chemist and later plant gas manager to Messrs. Monks Hall & Co., Warrington.

With his next appointment as chemist to the British Coal Dust Experiments Committee of the Mining Association of Great Britain he commenced what proved to be a long and fruitful period of research on the causes and methods of preventing explosions in coal mines. He became chief chemist to the Explosions in Mines Committee of the Home Office Experimental Station at Eskmeals, in Cumberland, and in that capacity continued the researches into the prevention of coal-dust explosions by the application of stone dust which had been inaugurated by Sir William Garforth; to this study he devoted over twenty years to such good purpose that his work gained him international fame, and, early in 1938, he received in conjunction with Dr.-Ing.e.h. Carl Beyling (director of the Westphalian Safety in Mines Experimental Station) the Gold Medal of the Institution of Mining Engineers “ in recognition of his eminent services in the application of scientific knowledge and research to industry, with special reference to safety and health in coal-mining, and to the utilisation of coal.” In 1921 he was appointed to be the first Professor of Fuel Technology in Sheffield University, in which capacity he directed researches into the second of the two problems which commanded his interest, namely, the constitution of coal. His earlier investigations of this subject had culminated in the publication, in 1918, in collaboration

with Dr. Marie C. Stopes, of the classic work “ The Constitution of Coal.” At Sheffield University Dr. Wheeler carried out and supervised many research programmes into the more efficient utilisation of fuel in the principal local industries of Sheffield, and with Dr. R. A. Mott was joint author of Coke for Blast Furnaces,” published in 1930. He was frequently consulted by many government departments and industrial organisations in regard to the application of scientific knowledge to industry. In addition to serving on the important committees already mentioned, he was a member of many societies, among which were the Iron and Steel Institute, the Institution of Mining Engineers, the Institution of Petroleum Technologists, the Institute of Fuel, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and the Midland Institute of Mining Engineers. He was President of the last-named society from 1929 to 1932. His numerous contributions to the technical literature on fuel covered a long period of years, during which he, in collaboration with other authors, presented the following papers before the Iron and Steel Institute : “ The Chemical Control of the Basic Open-Hearth Process ”, “ An Investigation on the Use of Steam in Gas-Producer Practice ” ; “ Further Experiments upon Gas-Producer Practice ” ; “ Coke Consumption in Blast-Furnace Practice : The Effect of Removal of Breeze ” ; “A Coke-Fired Reheating Furnace ” ; and “ Improving the Coking Performance of Weakly-Caking Coals.” In addition to the gold medal previously mentioned, he was awarded the Melchett Medal of the Institute of Fuel in 1938 and delivered the Melchett Lecture to that institute in the same year.

With the passing of Dr. Wheeler, not only Great Britain, but also the other industrial countries of the world lose the services of an indefatigable research worker who will always be remembered for his contributions to the knowledge of coal and, more particularly, for having raised research on safety in mines to an international plane. He was elected a Member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1907.

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1939 Obituary

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