Abstract
THE Council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has unanimously awarded the James Watt International Medal to Mr. A. G. M. Michell, of Melbourne, on the nomination of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, the South African Institution of Engineers, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. The Medal was founded by the Institution in 1936 to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of James Watt on January 19, 1736, and is awarded every two years to an engineer of any nationality who is deemed worthy of the highest award that the Institution can bestow and that a mechanical engineer can receive. In making the award the Institution has secured the co-operation of the leading mechanical engineering institutions and societies in all parts of the world. Mr. Michell, who was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1934, is best known for his work in connexion with thrust and journal bearings,. but he has, in addition, made a number of extremely valuable contributions to the science of engineering in connexion with centrifugal pumps and crankless engines. His outstanding achievements as a man of science, a mathematician of international fame, an inventor, and a producer fulfil in a unique way the conditions of the award of the Medal. Without the Michell bearing the high-powered modern ship and the large central power station would scarcely have been possible to-day ; and it is, therefore, most appropriate that the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which is so largely concerned in the development and application of power, should have recognized the pioneer work of Michell by awarding him this Medal. The last award of the Medal was made to an eminent Continental engineer, Prof. Aurel Stodola, who was associated with the development of the scientific basis of the design of steam turbines.
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Award of James Watt International Medal. Nature 149, 633–634 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149633d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149633d0