James Gray (1851-1915)
James Gray (1851-1915)
1915 Obituary [1]
JAMES GRAY was born in Edinburgh on 28th August 1851.
His early education was received at George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, and thereafter at the Heriot-Watt College and the University of Edinburgh.
He served an apprenticeship of six years at the engineering works of James Dove and Son, of Edinburgh, and from 1872 to 1878 was engaged as fitter and erector at various works in Edinburgh and London.
He next went to sea for three years, and then became outside erector for James Milne and Son, of Edinburgh, from 1880 to 1883.
In the following year he was engaged on the fitting up of the Engineering Laboratory and the construction of experimental apparatus at the University College, Dundee, after which he worked in the drawing office of James Milne and Son and later in that of the London Road Foundry, Edinburgh.
In 1887 he was engaged as tutor for Board of Trade Examinations at the Leith Nautical Academy, and three years later he went to the firm of D. Thomson, Ltd., of Edinburgh, as chief draughtsman, and subsequently became works manager and director of the company.
Fifteen years later he resigned his position to practise as a consulting engineer in Edinburgh. His work lay chiefly in connexion with baking machinery, for which be brought out several inventions. During the last four years he had been teaching in the Engineering Department of the University of Edinburgh, and for thirty years he bad also taught in the evening classes of the Heriot-Watt College.
His death took place in Edinburgh on 4th May 1915, in his sixty-fourth year.
He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1905.