Arthur Clifford Hartley
Arthur Clifford Hartley (c1889-1960)
1947 Bio Note. [1]
Mr. HARTLEY graduated at the City and Guilds (Engineering) College in 1910 with a B.Sc. (Eng.). During 1916-19 he held a commission in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. He was awarded the O.B.E. and was twice mentioned in dispatches.
For two years he was assistant equipment officer at the Air Ministry in charge of experimental armament work which included the development of Constantinesco synchronizing gears for firing machine guns through propellers. Later he was placed in charge of the small arms armament section.
In 1919 he became a partner of the firm of Messrs. Maxted and Knott, consulting engineers, of Hull and London, his work being mainly the design and erection of cement plants.
Joining the Anglo-Persian (now Anglo-Iranian) Oil Company, Ltd., in 1924, Mr. Hartley was appointed assistant manager of the engineering department in 1925, and assistant manager of the supply department later that year. He went to Persia, now Iran, in 1926, and again in 1931 to deputize for the assistant general manager (technical), and on returning to England, undertook the duties of chief engineer, a position which he still occupies.
From 1940 to 1942 he was adviser to the Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power and from 1942 to 1945 was technical director of the Petroleum Warfare Department. His chief work was concerned with operations "Pluto" and "Fido". He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1944 and the American Medal of Freedom in 1946.
Mr. Hartley was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1916 and a Member in 1927. He was awarded the Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London Institute in 1937.
1960 Obituary [2]
THE death of Mr. Arthur Clifford Hartley, which occurred in London on January 28, is deeply regretted throughout the engineering profession. His career was a notable one and he was one of the few engineers of recent times to become President both of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Inst1tution of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. Hartley had not, in fact, completed his year of office as president of the "Civils." He was seventy-one.
Mr. Hartley was born at Hull and was educated at Hymers College, the Hull Technical College and at the City and Guilds (Engineering) College. Having gained a B.Sc. (Engineering) degree, with honours, he spent two years in the North Eastern Railway docks office at Hull under the late T. M. Newell, the chief docks engineer.
In 1912 he moved to Rose Downs and Thompson, Ltd., to extend his mechanical engineering experience and in the early part of 1914 he came to London to take up an appointment as works superintendent of Limmer and Trinidad Asphalt Company. There, as he said himself in later years, Mr. Hartley "gained experience in management of a process works and in the handling of men, as well as engineering experience in converting intermittent processes to continuous ones."
As the first world war gathered momentum, however, Mr. Hartley was commissioned in the Royal Flying Corps and was selected to work with Professor Bertram Hopkinson in the Experimental Armaments Section of the Air Ministry. The most urgent requirement at that time was for a reliable gear to control a machine gun and enable it to fire between the propeller blades of fighter aircraft. The development work entailed in perfecting the Constantinesco gear for the purpose was described in Mr. Hartley s presidential address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in October, 1951.
When the war ended, Mr. Hartley joined the consulting engineering partnership of Maxted and Knott, concentrating mainly on the design and layout of cement works in this country and overseas. Mr. Hartley's next appointment, in 1924, marked the begining of his long period of distinguished service to the oil industry. In that year he became assistant manager in the engineering department of the Anglo-Iranian (then the Anglo-Persian) Oil Company, Ltd., succeeding, in 1934, to the position of chief engineer.
The company had been established for about fourteen years when Mr. Hartley first joined it and its annual oil production was rather less than 4,000,000 tons. Before he retired, in 1951, the annual output in Persia exceeded 30,000,000 tons and the company's interest in the Iraq and Kuwait Oil Companies bad developed on an extensive scale.
Some of Mr. Hartley's best known work, however, was the outstanding contribution which he made to the nation's war effort between 1939 and 1945. In the early part of the war, he was seconded for service with the Ministry of Aircraft Production. There, he was associated with a team at the Royal Aircraft Establishment which was engaged in the development of a stabilised automatic bombsight. Subsequently, in 1942, preparations were being made for the Allied landings on the French coast and Mr. Hartley transferred to the Petroleum Warfare Department. One of the most important requirements was for a pipeline to supply petrol across the English Channel to ensure the successful advance of the Allied armies when the landings were effected. It was quickly realised, of course, that none of the usual methods for constructing a submarine pipeline could be employed because of tidal currents, the time factor and the certainty of enemy interference. The use of a number of small diameter flexible pipes was finally decided upon, the system being known as "Pluto" (pipeline under the ocean). This imaginative, and highly successful, operation was described in THE ENGINEER of May 25, June 1, 8 and 15, 1945.
During the same period, Mr. Hartley was closely associated with other projects for the successful prosecution of the war. These included flame weapon development and the development of a method for clearing fog at air-fields. The latter came to be known as "Fido" (fog, intensive, dispersal of); it was described in our issues of June 8, 15 and 22, 1945.
After the war, Mr. Hartley resumed his work with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Ltd., and in his remaining six years as chief engineer took an important part in the company's expansion schemes, particularly in the construction of large-diameter, long-distance pipelines.
When Mr. Hartley retired from the Anglo-Iranian in 1951, he engaged in private practice as a consultant and latterly had been a consultant for Rendel, Palmer and Tritton. One of his most recent achievements was the designing of "Roister" equipment for the offshore loading of oil tankers. A detailed description of the equipment was printed in our issue of October 2, 1959. A "Hoister" equipment was installed by the Kuwait Oil Company, Ltd., at Mina-al-Ahmadi and began operation early last year, loading tankers of up to 65,000 tons anchored in 55ft of water at L.W.O.S.T. where there is a rise in tide of 11ft.
We have made brief mention of Mr. Hartley's presidency of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was elected to associate membership of the "Civils" in 1916, transferred to full membership in 1928 and had served on the council since 1946, taking the presidential chair at the beginning of the current session. He became an associate member of the "Mechanicals" in 1916, transferring to full membership in 1927 and succeeding to the presidency in 1951. His presidential addresses to both Institutions effectively surveyed the varied aspects of his interesting career as an engineer. But, above all, they emphasised that "very few urgent engineering problems cannot be solved provided they are clearly defined and are tackled from a background of sound knowledge and wide experience."
Mr. Hartley was also an honorary Fellow of the Imperial College, a vice-president of the Institute of Petroleum and a member of council of the Royal Society of Arts. He was appointed C.B.E. in 1944 and received the United States Medal of Freedom in recogmtion of his work on "Fido."
Among his many other qualities, Mr. Hartley was an able writer. We have been privileged to include in our pages several articles from his pen.
Much of Mr. Hartley's success in life undoubtedly stemmed from a charm of manner which everyone meeting him for the first time quickly felt. But those who knew him more intimately discovered under the charm a very firm and determined character. Once his mind was made up on any subject it took a very good argument to shake his c6nvictions; for the very simple reason that in making up his mind he was accustomed to study any matter very thoroughly. By contrast, during the process of making up his mind he wanted to probe other people's thoughts. He would listen to, comment upon, or challenge any argument presented to his notice. In such a phase he was easy to talk with. He had also a capacity for taking more pains than most men allied to that invaluable quality, enthusiasm. Such imaginative and novel solutions to particular problems as "Pluto" and "Fido" would never have been given the breath of life had not his enthusiasm urged on the work of development. Above all, he had faith. As the sentence of his that we quote above shows, he was confident, not only of his own abilities, but also of the abilities of engineers in general, to serve mankind.
1960 Obituary [3]
Arthur Clifford Hartley was President of the Institution during 1951-52. He was a man of outstanding character and personality. He was both a specialist engineer with many technical achievements to his credit, and a man of simple charm, easy to talk to or consult on any ordinary day-to-day matter. He had a clear direct way of approaching any topic and his advice was unfailingly constructive and helpful.
He was educated at Hymers College, Hull. From 1906 to 1908 he attended the Hull Municipal Technical Institute, and from 1908 the Central Technical College (later the City and Guilds College), Imperial College of Science and Technology, where he was awarded the diploma of Associate of the City and Guilds of London Institute, and graduated with an Honours B.Sc. engineering degree in 1910. From 1910 to 1912 he was in the office of the Chief Docks Engineer, North Eastern Railway, Hull, and from 1912 to 1914 was an assistant with Rose, Downs and Thompson, Ltd.
From 1916 to 1919 he held a commission in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. For much of this time he served in the Air Ministry on experimental armament work, which included the development of the Constantinesco gear for synchronizing machine-guns. He was awarded the military O.B.E., being twice mentioned in dispatches.
He joined the Anglo-Iranian (then Anglo-Persian) Oil Co., Ltd., in 1924, was appointed Assistant Manager of the Engineering Department in 1925, and Assistant Manager of the Supply Department later that year. He went to Persia in 1926, and again in 1931, to deputize for the Assistant General Manager (Technical) and when in London undertook the duties of Chief Engineer. He was seconded to the Iraq Petroleum Co. from 1932 to 1934 for the design and development of the Kirkuk to Mediterranean desert oil pipelines. He then returned to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Ltd., and held the position of Chief Engineer until 31st December 1950. After that date he was a consultant in private practice, a consultant with Messrs. Rendel Palmer and Tritton, and a Director of Johnson and Phillips, Ltd. He was elected Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute in 1936, and Honorary Fellow of Imperial College in 1953.
From 1940 to 1941 the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. released him to assist in the development and production of a stabilized automatic bomb-sight, designed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, and from April 1942 he was engaged with the Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power on 'Pluto' cross-channel petrol pipelines. From October 1942 until the end of the war he was, in addition, Technical Director of the Petroleum Warfare Department dealing with the 'Fido' fog-clearance scheme on airfields, and with flame-weapon development. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1944 and the United States Medal of Freedom in 1946.
For a number of years Hartley, in association with Messrs. Rendel Palmer and Tritton, was the authorized representative of the National Iranian Oil Company in connection with a pipeline to transport petroleum products from the Abadan Refinery to Teheran and to Isphahan.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1916 and a Member in 1927. He served on the Council from 1940 to 1945, and as a Vice-President from 1946 to 1951, when he became President. He was elected an Honorary Member in 1956.
The Institution gained much from Hartley's association, not only as its representative on many committees, including those of the British Standards Institution, and in his services to Council, but also in his guidance on many matters of contemporary importance affecting the three major engineering Institutions.
He was the author of several papers, and was among the authors at the technical meetings of the Institution's centenary celebrations. In May 1958 he delivered a James Clayton Lecture entitled 'Large Pipeline Projects'.
At the time of his death he was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
1959 Obituary [4]
1960 Obituary [5]