On
a Personal Note
(About the Author)
It
is to satisfy my own curiosity that I gather this information on Hopkin Thomas and the technology in which he was immersed
during the period of the American Industrial Revolution. Hopkin
Thomas was trained (apprenticed) as an engineer in Wales in the early 1800s and
came to this country where he applied his knowledge in a number of fields
including the designing of anthracite-burning locomotives and in the production
of iron in the blast furnaces of the Lehigh Valley. He was a man who made his
mark on
technological developments in this country. He sought neither fame or fortune but gained great satisfaction in his
own achievements and those achievements of the people whom he trained.
Clearly
Hopkin Thomas had a great aptitude for the
technological fields which he pursued. As I gathered this
information I began to realize that HopkinÕs lifeÕs
work could be inspirational to youngsters who might consider a career in
engineering and science. If young people with similar aptitudes were to examine HopkinÕs record during their formative years, they might sense the satisfaction that they could
achieve if they were to pursue such a career. Hence, I have tried to organize
this material in a readable fashion - choosing hyper-linked, computer-based
archiving methods with which the new generation is so facile. I have included
much background material on the methods and machines that were enabling to the
industrial revolution. (I have a fear that as America transitions from an
industrial powerhouse to a service-based economy that much of this information
will be buried by the sands of time.) If only one technologically-oriented
youngster peruses this material and gains some knowledge, I will feel
vindicated for pouring so much time into this project.
How
does one come to have the aptitude for technological pursuits? The answer, it
would seem, is largely in the genes. Hopkin Thomas
was my great-great grandfather. I knew nothing of his achievements while I was
growing up. However, it was clear to those who were bringing me up, that I was
going to pursue a career in science and technology. My first recollection of
having an interest in science was one I took over my sister's chemistry set at
the tender age of eight or nine. There followed intense interest in Erector
sets, model airplanes, electric trains, in any other
toys that could be taken apart and put back together.
1947
2008
605
4th St., Catasauqua – the third floor was the location of my early
ÔlaboratoriesÕ.
I
particularly recall the model airplane years when I invested my entire savings
of ten dollars into the purchase, through mail-order,
of a model airplane engine. I struggled to get that engine to run, but it never
ran for more than 15 seconds. I adjusted mixture ratios and spark advances to
no avail. In the midst of that struggling, a relative (a civil engineer) who knew of my
travail, gave me as a gift an Olsen and Rice Class B model airplane engine. I
was probably 12
or 13 years old and I thought that I had achieved Nirvana. It ran the first
time I cranked the propeller. My thinking at the time then turned to radio-controlled
model airplanes but these were beyond my financial reach and I have yet to get
a model airplane flying in the air to my satisfaction. Perhaps one of these
days at High Meadow....
When
I turned 16, I turned my attention to automobiles. Within a year I scraped
together $100 and purchased a 1931 Dodge sedan equipped with a 'free-wheeling' transmission.
My
1931 Dodge
The
transmission had a chipped gear which made a clicking
sound, so my cousin, Tom Shannahan and I searched the
local junk yards for another '31 Dodge, tore the transmission out and replaced
the one in my car. Thus began the era of taking cars apart and making
improvements. A year later, some friends and I dismantled the engine in the Dodge
and then we went to look for parts - piston rings, in particular. You always
replaced the piston rings whether the car was consuming oil or not. We could
not find them anywhere in Lehigh Valley until someone advised that we go to a
decrepit garage in South Bethlehem as they had all kinds of old parts lying
around. I still recall when we went to the parts department and asked if they
had rings for a Ô31 Dodge -- now this would have been
probably in the early 50s. The crusty mechanic spit on the floor and observed
that the car was old enough to vote. However, he did indeed return with a box
of rings all covered with greasy fingerprints -- he indicated they "ought
to work" on
a Ô31 Dodge. After putting the engine back together, except for the fact that
oil pressure gauge indicated that there was zero pressure feeding oil to the
bearings, the engine ran fine. On summer evenings throughout our college years,
we always had someone's engine torn apart.
So
I had the genes – but we cannot give all the credit to g-g-grandfather Hopkin. Here is a rundown on my ancestors. (Click here for the genealogy chart.)
Hopkin Thomas (my g-g-grandfather, son of a miller)
– Master Mechanic, Beaver Meadow R. R. and the Crane Iron Works.
James
Thomas (g-grandfather, son of Hopkin) –
Superintendent - Carbon I. W., Parryville, Pa, Operations manager - Oxmoor
Furnace, Alabama. CEO and co-owner of the Davies and Thomas
Iron Foundry in Catasauqua, Pa.
William
Weir McKee (grandfather, husband of JamesÕ daughter Ruth) Mining Engineer,
principle in the McKee Fuller Co. Car, Wheel and Axle Works, Fullerton, Pa.
John I. McVey (father, husband of Ruth McKeeÕsdaughter, Ruth) Architectural engineer and bridge
designer – Bethlehem Steel Co.
I was destined for a career in
engineering and the sciences.
I
pursued that course by enrolling in the Mechanical Engineering department at
Lehigh University. I thought that would do all right academically as I had good
training in physics and mathematics at the local public school in Catasauqua
where I grew up. I graduated second in LehighÕs M. E. class of 1955. My interest were in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and
rotating machinery design.
Packard
Lab, Lehigh U. – where students ran steam engines in the Ô50s.
Upon
graduation, I was single-minded in that I wanted to get into jet engine design
– that was where action was in the early 50Õs. I signed on with Pratt
& Whitney Aircraft and had a wonderful introduction to gas turbine engine
design while working in the combustion group.
The
P&W J75 – My first assignment was assisting in the design the screech
liner for the afterburner.
I
was
also working hard on my golf game
after working hours. My career at Pratt was interrupted
by a phone call to the effect that I had been awarded
a fellowship to pursue a masters degree at Lehigh.
My first thought was that if I were
to go back to Lehigh I would
have more time to work on my golf game than
I had while working full-time at Pratt, so I accepted.
That was a great year – I conducted heat transfer
experiments on rotating bodies and thoroughly enjoyed
hands-on experimental activity after having performed
mostly analytical work while at Pratt. I was exposed
to nuclear reactor design, hydrodynamics, experimental
stress analysis, and other activities and disciplines
which escaped me while I was an undergraduate.
I certainly had a love for learning.
After
having received my M. S. the following summer, I returned United Aircraft but
to the Research Laboratory as opposed to the Pratt & Whitney engine
division. After enjoying four more years working on advanced propulsion
systems, a friend from the Boston area suggested that I move to Boston and
perhaps take some courses at M. I. T. I felt that would be of enormous
challenge for someone who had been out of school five years. But one day I
drove up to meet my friend and, on a lark, we stopped by unannounced at M.I.T. to see if we could
get admitted to the graduate school.
MIT
– where Tech Tools are honed.
We
went to went to the office of the head of the
mechanical engineering department. Our technique was to flirt with the
departmentÕs secretary – that worked - and she finally asked who we were
and what was it that we really
wanted. My friend, T. L. Shang, immediately offered that, ÒJohn
wants to enroll in the Ph.D. programÓ.
I nodded my approval. To my surprise the secretary said, ÒWell, Dr. Rohsenow is in his office right now, so why donÕt you go in and
see if there's an opportunity for youÓ. Now I knew of Warren Rohsenow as he was a consultant to United
Aircraft – he wrote the book on heat transfer which I used while at the
Research Department. My bluff being called, I immediately met with Rohsenow. When I mentioned that I was leaning toward a
work-study program, the good Dr.Õs eyes grew as big as saucers. You see, Rohsenow ran Dynatech, a
technology firm that employed a lot of a M. I. T. students and
graduates. He had two questions for
me. Where did you go to do your undergraduate work and what was your standing
in the graduating class. I said, ÒLehigh -- I graduated 7th in the engineering
schoolÓ. He said, "YouÕre in".
I
understand that being admitted to M. I. T. today is a little different from
that. Quite frankly, I really had no intention of going back to school, but ÒI
was inÓ - as in Òin for itÓ.
During
the next five years of very challenging work, I was awarded a fellowship from
Hertz Foundation that paid much the same as the salary that I was earning at
United Aircraft. So I enjoyed the good life. As I completed my thesis I began to
think about what I would be doing with all this knowledge. I had met my future
bride, Wendy, and we had a brief courtship which
culminated in our marriage in 1965.
My work at M. I. T. was completed in early 1967.
My
thesis involved explaining the combustion instabilities generated by hypersonic
bodies traveling in detonable gas mixtures
During
those latter years at MIT, United Aircraft pursued me vigorously, sending
former colleagues who were in the personnel business to wine and dine Wendy and
me. They lured us back to United Aircraft where I spent my career working in high technology
fields. We raised two boys in the central Connecticut area, Glastonbury, to be
precise. Our older son pleased me very much by attending Lehigh U. in the mid
1980s. Lehigh football games and parents weekends brought us back to the Lehigh
Valley area.
It
was after one of these activities when I reunited with my second cousin, Newt Bugbee, that I was first introduced to the subject of Hopkin Thomas. Newt asked me what was that I was doing at
United Technologies. I said that I was working on attempts to burn fuels in
engines - fuels which difficult to burn because of their characteristics. Newt said
"Why that's exactly the activity that our great-great-grandfather pursued
more than a hundred years ago. He worked on the problem of burning anthracite
coal in steam locomotives.Ó In those days most locomotives burned wood, which
was a plentiful resource. However, the owners of the anthracite coal fields saw the rail transportation industry with its
steam locomotives as a valuable customer. They contracted with a Philadelphia
locomotive builder to develop such an engine. ÔStone coalÕ as it was called
proved to be almost as difficult to burn as real stone. It was Hopkin Thomas that developed the technology that allowed
the Beaver Meadow R. R. and the Hazleton R, R. locomotives to
burn anthracite – this occurred almost 30 years prior other engine
manufacturers locomotives. Well, I thought, what a coincidence! That was the beginning of my activities
to track the career of Hopkin Thomas. All I knew of
him what is that he was trained at the Neath Abbey Iron Works in Wales and he
eventually was involved with the Beaver Meadow Mining and Railroad company in northeastern Pennsylvania.
It
so happened that the following year, 1996, The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers was holding its annual meeting in Birmingham, England. As I was an
active member of the Combustion & Fuels Committee, I made it a point to
attend these annual meetings. The meeting was to be held in June, and the
Exposition Hall was to be holding a flower and garden show at the same time as
my conference, so my wife, Wendy, could enjoy viewing petunias while I was
viewing equations. When discussing my meeting plans with Alan Eckbreth, my supervisor and my sonÕs father-in-law, Alan,
whose background was laser diagnostics, concluded that the meeting would be a
good means of honing his skills in the gas turbine technology area. Alan
suggested that we contact Paul Ewart, a professor at
Oxford so that we might arrange a get-together. (I had met Paul, also a laser
diagnostician, during a sabbatical held at United Technologies a few years
prior.) Paul enthusiastically
suggested that we all go to his cottage, Siop Fach, near Newport, a small community on the Irish Sea in
southwestern Wales, to do some hiking in the Welsh countryside.
So
through this twisted scenario, I,
and Wendy, arrived at the homeland of my
great-great grandfather. Through another series
of coincidences, my sister, Ruth McVey, was to be
in London, so she hopped a train and we were all
together when I came up with the idea of attempting
to locate the remains of the Neath Abbey Ironworks.
This venture has been documented in Search
for the Neath Abby Ironworks, available
in the web edition. Thus, in 1996,
I began the project to record the history of Hopkin
Thomas.
Rev. Nov. 2011