Joe Wells Cameron
Joe Wells Cameron (c1879-1944)
1944 Obituary [1]
JOE WELLS CAMERON was an engineer of outstanding ability, whose loss will be felt by all who have been privileged to know him. He was sixty-five years of age at the time of his death, which occurred on 17th January 1944.
Much of his early training was obtained at Croydon Polytechnic, where he gained distinctions in engineering subjects, and where his mathematical ability enabled him to obtain many prizes. On the completion of his apprenticeship he joined the technical staff of Messsrs. Gwynnes Pumps, and was well qualified when he obtained a leading appointment with Messrs. Hayward Tyler and Company. For thirty-nine years he remained with the firm, and was responsible for a great deal of technical work in connection with pumping machinery of various types.
He was a capable designer of reciprocating and centrifugal machinery, and possessed considerable electrical ability. He was closely concerned with the manufacture in this country of the Gelpke-Kugel turbo-pump, and was responsible for the design of some of the first centrifugal pumps used for oil pumping, and for much valuable work on submersible pump design. One of the first centrifugal bore-well pumps installed in this country was designed by him.
The reciprocating pump also received much of his attention, and his special knowledge enabled him to take a leading part in the design of cargo oil pumps, pipe line pumps, and waterworks pumping machinery. His interest in research in connection with the pumping of oil made him an authority on this subject also.
Keenly interested in students at Luton Technical College, where he held lecturing appointments in mathematics, and in mechanical and experimental engineering, his tuition was eagerly sought and freely given. He assisted the progress of many young engineers, and his work resulted in a great number of successes in technical attainments of the highest degree.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1913, and was also the author of works on reciprocating and centrifugal pumps. His frequent contributions to discussions on papers read before the leading engineering societies in this country and abroad brought him letters from all over the world, and resulted in numerous valuable contacts.