Rhys Jenkins

1896.

Rhys Jenkins (1859-1953), industrial historian.

1897 February. Article on compressed air as a motive power.

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1953 Obituary (1)

In our last issue, we made a brief announcement of the death of Mr. Rhys Jenkins, M.I.Mech.E., which occurred on January 27th, at his home at 45, St. Helen's Park Road, Hastings.

Mr. Jenkins, who was in his ninety-fourth year, was an acknowledged authority on industrial history, and in particular on the ·history of engineering.

A great deal of his professional career was spent in H.M. Patent Office, where he was a senior examiner until his retirement in 1920.

Rhys Jenkins was born on September 29, 1859. He served an apprenticeship in the engine works of Nevill Brothers at Llanelly, and then spent a few years in the drawing office of John Fowler and Co., Ltd., Leeds.

Subsequently, he worked for a time with Greenwood and Batley, Ltd., Leeds, with Hornsby and Sons, of Grantham, and with Marshall Sons and Co., Ltd., Gainsborough.

In 1884, Mr. Jenkins secured an appointment on the examining staff of the Patent Office, later becoming a senior examiner. About the time of his appointment to the Patent Office, Mr. Jenkins began the systematic collection of notes, transcripts and extracts from printed and manuscript sources relating to numerous aspects of industrial history.

The classification and arrangement of the wealth of material that he gathered occupied his leisure hours for over fifty years. Moreover, a great deal of that material has been made available in the form of papers, lectures and books, of which Mr. Jenkins was the author. Many of his writings were published in THE ENGINEER, under the title of "Links in the History of Engineering." The first of his articles under that title appeared on December 7, 1917, and dealt with the beginnings of iron founding in England. That series by Mr. Jenkins continued until 1920, his final article dealing with John Farey's book (1827) entitled A Treatise on the Steam Engine, Historical, Practical and Descriptive.

Mr. Jenkins' retirement from the Patent Office in 1920 occurred when proposals for the formation of the Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology were taking shape. He was an enthusiastic member of the Society from its very beginning and maintained an active interest in its affairs to the end of his days.

As soon as the Society was founded, Mr. Jenkins began the long list of valuable contributions which are to be found in its Transactions under his name. They all reveal the thoroughness of his researches and the breadth of his knowledge.

He was elected president of the Newcomen Society in 1926, and entitled his presidential address "Observations on the Rise and Progress of Manufacturing Industry in England." It dealt with a variety of industries - the manufacture of salt, tin smelting, lead smelting, wool, brewing, mining, glass and paper-making - and also with the introduction and development of mechanical power in industry.

In 1936, the Newcomen Society published a collection of Mr. Jenkins' earlier papers as a token of the esteem in which he was held, and with the laudable object of making them available to a larger number of people. The collection includes some of the papers which have appeared in our pages.

Another work which revealed Mr. Jenkins' painstaking research was the memorial volume, published in 1927, on James Watt and the Steam Engine, in the preparation of which he collaborated with his friend, the late H. W. Dickinson.

In recent years, perhaps, Rhys Jenkins had devoted more attention to the history of iron than to other subjects, but there was literally no technical matter about which he could not supply information from his notes or his memory. That information he was always ready to impart to serious workers. He was, by nature, very quiet and unassuming, but was always listened to with the closest attention and respect when he gave advice at the council table or spoke at meetings. The world has lost in him an antiquarian of the first rank.

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1953 Obituary (2)

'Former Engineer Dies aged 93 - Neath Associations of Mr. Rhys Jenkins
The death occurred at his son's home in Hastings, on Tuesday of last week, of Mr. Rhys Jenkins, aged 93, whose father, Mr. Thomas Jenkins, was one time manager of the Melincryddan Chemical Works, and brother was the late Mr. D. M. Jenkins, former Borough Engineer of Neath.
Mr. Jenkins was born on September 20th, 1839, at Mountain Ash, being the eldest son of Thomas Jenkins, of Heath. His parents shortly went to Llantrisant and later to Neath, where he received his early education at Alderman Davies' School. 'He began his professional career in 1874 In the works of [Richard Nevil], engineer and iron founder, Llanelly. In 1880 he left Llanelly for Leeds in search of wider engineering experience, obtaining a post on the general engineering side of the drawing office of John Fowler and Co. Thence he passed to Greenwood and Batley in the same city. Whilst at Leeds he studied at the Yorkshire College, now Leeds University. In December, 1881, he went on to Hornsby's at Grantham, and in June, 1883, to Marshall's at Gainsborough.
In July, 1884, he passed by examination into the Examining Staff of H.M. Patent Office, where he commenced the systematic collection of notes, transcripts and extracts from printed and M.S. sources, relating to technological history, the classification and arrangement of which occupied his leisure hours continuously for nearly seventy years. At the end of 1920 he retired from the Civil Service to Hermitage, near Newbury. In 1936 he left Hermitage to live with his younger son at Hastings, where he remained until his death.
He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a founder member and past president of the Newcomen Society. His principal works include: Power Locomotion on the Highway (1896); Motor Cars and the Application of Mechanical Power to Road Vehicles (1902): (With the late Dr. H. W. Dickenson) James Watt and the Steam Engine (1919). His Collected Papers were published as a limited edition in 1936. In 1884 he married Miss Charlotte Morgan, eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Morgan. of Llanelly, who died in 1909. He is survived by two sons, Mr. Rhys Trevor Jenkins, O.B.E., B.Sc., A.M.I.C.E., of Newcastle, who served an apprenticeship with Price's Engineering Co. Ltd., Neath, from 1902-06, and Mr. Arthur Illtyd Jenkins, B.Sc., A.M.I.C.E., of Hastings, who was in the Borough Engineer's Office at Neath in 1914.
Mr. Jenkins was one of a large family. and two of his brothers are still alive.'

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