ALLEN R W

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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1.2.1867 Cardiff/UK - 17.7.1955 London/UK

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Richard W. Allen was educated at Christ College, Finchley, while his technical education was given privately. Subsequently, he was apprenticed to the firm of his father William Henry (1844-1926) in London with pump designs. Once Richard had joined the firm, it expanded and furnished also high-speed steam engines, gas exhausters and electric motors. Allen obtained further experience from other British furnishers of mechanical devices and from a trip to the USA in 1890. In 1894, the W.H. Allen, Son & Company was transferred to Bedford, because space had become too limited in London. This company remained a family concern until 1952, when the status for public limited liability was adopted.

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Allen was the director of the company for 32 years. During his career, he took much interest in the education of young collaborators and advanced engineering by a great personal confinement. Allen contributed particularly to engineering questions in surface condensers, in pumping machinery of which the original Conqueror was developed for over 60 years. He also contributed to the irrigation of the Sudan with large pumping machinery. Allen analyzed the T-junctions and bell mouths for suction pipelines, and he investigated steam turbines to auxiliary machinery. He was the British representative during the World Engineering Congress held in 1929 in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded the CBE Order in 1918, and the conferment of a knighthood on him in 1942. He was past president, Section G, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1933, past president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers during the term 1927-28 and its Honorary Member from 1931. In 1906, Allen was awarded the Thomas Telford Premium by the Institution of Civil Engineers.

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_{Allen, R.W. (1912). Modern pumping machinery for drainage of the Fens. Proc. Institution Mechanical Engineers 58(3): 787-804.}

_{Allen, R.W. (1921). The air supply to boiler rooms of modern ships of war. Griffin: London.}

_{Allen, R.W. (1923). Improved designs of T-pieces and bellmouths for suction pipelines of pumping plant in floating docks. Institution of Mechanical Engineers 104: 55-58.}

_{Anonymous (1928). Richard W. Allen. Proc. Institution of Mechanical Engineers 87: Frontispiece. P}

_{Anonymous (1955). Sir Richard W. Allen. Water and Water Engineering 59(8): 364-365. P Anonymous (1955). Sir Richard William Allen. The Engineer 200: 120-121. P Anonymous (1955). Sir Richard W. Allen. Engineering 180: 103. P}