Archibald Barr
Archibald Barr (1855-1931) of Barr and Stroud, was a graduate of the University and Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, 1889 to 1912. He was awarded an honorary LLD in 1914.
Born near Paisley, Barr studied at the University and graduated BSc in 1878 and DSc in 1890. In 1876 he became Young Assistant to the Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, James Thomson, and in 1884 he was appointed Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the Yorkshire College of Science, later the University of Leeds.
Barr returned to Glasgow in 1889 to take the Regius Chair. He had already formed a design consultancy business with William Stroud, the Professor of Physics in Leeds, and the two men formed a successful company, Barr and Stroud, designing and later manufacturing rangefinders and other optical equipment for military and naval use. Barr became the senior partner and the head of the design team at the firm's Anniesland factory, and in 1912 he resigned his chair to focus on the firm's development.
During his period at the University, the number of students studying Engineering rose from thirty-nine to more than 200. He raised £40,000 from local industrialists and charitable bodies to build Glasgow's James Watt Engineering Building in 1901, and he persuaded companies to donate most of the £14,000 required for the purchase of the scientific equipment installed in its laboratories. He was influential in organising the new Faculty of Science in 1893 and successfully campaigned for a lectureship in Electrical Engineering, which was established in 1898.
1889 Birth of son Archibald Douglas Stirrat Barr[1] (died 1957)
1931 Obituary [2]
Professor ARCHIBALD BARR succeeded James Thomson to the Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University in 1889, and retained the position for twenty-four years. He was born near Paisley in 1855, and upon leaving Paisley Grammar School served an apprenticeship with Messrs. A. F. Craig and Company.
In 1876 he graduated in engineering science at Glasgow University, and thereafter for eight years was assistant to Professor James Thomson.
In 1884 he was appointed to be Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering in the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and during his five years there equipped the engineering laboratory. In 1889 he succeeded Professor Thomson and at once set about the re-equipment of the engineering department at Glasgow. As a result of his work the James Watt Engineering Laboratories were opened in 1900.
Dr. Barr will also be widely remembered as the inventor, in conjunction with Dr. William Stroud, of the Barr and Stroud range- finder. It was while at Leeds that he became associated with Dr. Stroud, who was Professor of Physics at the college, and their invention was made within three weeks after noticing an advertisement of the War Office asking for an instrument to measure ranges for gun fire.
In 1892 their instrument was tested on H.M.S. "Arethusa," and its success established a demand for it which was met in 1895 by the opening of a workshop for its assembly.
In the following year Dr. Barr read a paper before the Institution on "Telemeters and Range-Finders for Naval and other Purposes."
In 1904 the first portion of the existing factory at Anniesland was opened, and by 1914 the factory was employing 900 men and supplying range-finders to nearly every important government. During the War the works were considerably extended.
Dr. Barr also invented many instruments connected with the fire-control system of a modern warship, and about the year 1912 developed an electrically operated torsion-meter for measuring the power of large prime- movers. During the War, despite the demands of the increasing output of the works, he found time to devise a torpedo depth recorder, a bomb-dropping sight for aircraft, a height-finder for anti-aircraft services, and a submarine periscope. He also took a prominent part in establishing the manufacture of optical glass in this country on an improved basis.
After the War he became interested in the "Optophone," an instrument enabling the blind to read ordinary type by the aid of a photo-electric cell, and his many other activities included the invention of a pump for producing very high vacua, and a series of instruments for the production of contour maps from air survey photographs.
Dr. Barr had been a Member of the Institution since 1884, and served on the Council from 1907 to 1919. He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Society, to which honour he was elected in 1923. In 1914 he was made a Doctor of Laws of Glasgow University.
His death occurred on 5th August 1931.
1931 Obituary [3]
PROFESSOR ARCHIBALD BARR, LL.D.,F.R.S., an Original Member of the Institute, died at his home in Milngavie, Dumbartonshire, on August 5, 1931, in his seventy-sixth year. He acted as Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Glasgow Meeting, 1910, and served upon the Council from 1910 to 1915.
Born at Glenfield, Renfrewshire, he was educated at Paisley and Glasgow University, and in 1876 was appointed as assistant to Professor James Thomson - brother of Lord Kelvin - in the Engineering Department of Glasgow University, afterwards becoming Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the Yorkshire College, Victoria University, Leeds.
He returned in 1889 to Glasgow as Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in that University, holding the Chair until his retirement in 1913. Here he collected funds to build the James Watt Engineering Laboratories, which were opened in 1900. Professor Barr was a Past-President of the Royal Philosophical Society, Glasgow, of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, of the Engineering Section of the British Association, and of the Scottish Aeronautical Society. He supervised the first motor-car reliability trials held in Scotland in 1901, was convener of the engineering section of the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1901, and was chairman of the committee which organized the first aviation meeting held at Lanark in 1921.
Professor Barr was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1923, was a member of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers, and was made doctor of laws of the University of Glasgow in 1914. His great knowledge of mechanics was applied particularly to range-finders, and he was Chairman of the engineering firm of Barr and Stroud, Ltd., Glasgow, manufacturers of these instruments. He installed the first American milling machine to come to Scotland. He invented the naval range-finders adopted by the British Admiralty and most foreign powers, special height-finders for anti-aircraft services, as well as electrical and fire-control instruments for use between fire-control positions and gun stations on war vessels, and numerous other instruments required in various branches of civil engineering.
Professor Barr took great interest in his students and in their careers ; he was always their confidant, and whenever he could assist them in their onward progress he was more like a father to them than one merely concerned with their academic work. His genial nature will cause him to be missed in Glasgow, where he was always ready to give his services and advice in the advancement of scientific knowledge, and his support in any technical Institute which had this for its object. Like his great colleague in the Glasgow University, the late Lord Kelvin, he had no pride in his knowledge, but was a humble student seeking to fathom the unknown.
1931 Obituary.[4]