John Lennox Kincaid Jamieson
John Lennox Kincaid Jamieson (1826-1883)
1884 Obituary [1]
JOHN LENNOX KINCAID JAMIESON was born on 27th March 1826, at Milton of Campsie, near Glasgow, his father being a miller.
In 1844 he was apprenticed to engineering at the Canal Basin Foundry in Glasgow, and remained there until 1850.
He then went as manager to Messrs. Thomas Grendon and Co., Drogheda Iron Works, Drogheda, till 1852; and afterwards to the Railway Foundry, Leeds, till 1854.
Next he went for about twelve months as third-class assistant on board the "Majestic" in the Royal Navy, and was appointed to the second class in March 1855; he served in the Baltic under Sir Charles Napier, and was at the bombardment of Bomersund, where he received a medal.
In 1856 he became superintendent engineer of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co., in charge of their repairing establishment on the island of Taboga in the bay of Panama. During the ten years that he occupied this position he was intimately connected with the practical working and development of the compound marine engine; the earliest of these engines supplied to the Pacific fleet by Messrs. Randolph Elder and Co., of Glasgow, were of the four-cylinder diagonal type, but were succeeded by two- cylinder engines with intermediate steam-receiver.
Returning home in 1866, be shortly afterwards became general engineering manager to Messrs. Randolph Elder and Co.; and on the reconstitution of the firm in 1870 be became a partner.
In 1872 the three-cylinder compound marine engine was introduced by his firm into the steamers "Iberia" and "Liguria," which they built for the Pacific line.
In the beginning of 1879 he retired from the firm; and occupied himself actively in much prominent public work, until his death on 2nd July 1883, at the age of fifty-seven.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1870.