Beatrice Shilling
Beatrice (Tilly) Shilling OBE PhD MSc CEng (8 March 1909 – 18 November 1990) was a British aeronautical engineer and motor racer.
1909 Born in Waterlooville, Hampshire, daughter of a butcher
Educated in Surbiton before transferring in 1920 to the high schools for girls in Dorking.
In her teens she bought a second-hand motorcycle, which she dismantled and rebuilt.
Advised by the Women's Engineering Society she decided on engineering as a career.
1926 Apprenticed to Margaret Partridge and Dorothy Rowbotham working on rural electrification in Devon. During her time there Shilling was found working alone in a power station, in contravention of the International Labour Organization convention on night working for women.
1929 Funded by an interest-free loan from the National Society for Women’s Service Shilling studied engineering at the University of Manchester (Sheila McGuffie (b. 1911) was also there at the time).
1932 they graduated with honours in electrical engineering. Shilling received a grant to remain at Manchester researching internal combustion engines with H. Wright Baker, leading to several publications and the award of an MSc in 1933. Unable to find alternative employment, she remained as a research assistant to G. F. Mucklow, a lecturer in engineering at Manchester University.
Shilling raced motorbikes in the 1930s, and, after the war, raced cars.
1934 Completed a lap of Brooklands at 100 mph on a Norton, a bike she serviced herself.
During the Second World War, she invented "Miss Shilling's orifice", a small metal disc similar to a metal washer that restricted fuel flow to a carburettor. This helped prevent engine stall in the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines of the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters, which could lose power or even completely cut out during certain manoeuvres and pose a significant disadvantage in active service.
Post WWII. Married George Naylor
See Also
Sources of Information
- Wikipedia
- Biography of Beatrice Shilling, ODNB