BEATRICE SHILLING(British)

BEATRICE SHILLING (British) 8th March 1909 – 18th November 1990 Beatrice ‘Tilly’ was born in Hampshire on March 8th 1909 – a date now celebrated as International Women’s day. She began tinkering with motorbikes when she bought her first at the age of 14. After leaving school she worked for an electrical company, installing wiring and generators. Encouraged by her employer Margaret Partridge, Beatrice studied electrical engineering at the University of Manchester in 1932, where she was one of only two women studying engineering. She continued her university studies achieving a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering. In 1936 she was hired by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), the research and development agency of the Royal Air Force. During her time with them she transferred to work on aircraft engines, and when in the Second World War RAF pilots discovered serious problems with the fighter planes using Merlin engines (Hurricanes & Spitfires), Beatrice developed a restrictor which limited the amount of fuel flow. This prevented flooding in the engine which had been occurring when the planes began a dive, causing the engine to stall due to the negative G-force. Beatrice received an OBE in 1948 for this engineering innovation. In her spare time Beatrice raced motorbikes, and is one of only three women to be awarded a BMCRC Gold Star (British Motorcycle Racing Club) for lapping the track at Brooklands at 100 miles per hour. EMILY WARREN ROEBLING (American) 23rd September 1843 – 28th February 1903 Emily was born in New York and was the second youngest of 12 children, she went to school at the Georgetown Visitation Academy in Washington, DC. In 1864 Emily attended the Fifth Army Corps Soldiers Ball whilst visiting her brother and met Washington Roebling, the son of Brooklyn Bridge designer John A Roebling. They married and went to Europe to study the use of caissons for bridges. On their return from Europe, Washington’s father died and he took charge of the Brooklyn Bridge construction as chief engineer. Washington developed decompression sickness which left him bed ridden. The only person to visit Washington was Emily and this was to relay information to his assistants and report progress of the work on the bridge. Emily and her husband jointly planned the bridge’s continued construction. She took over much of the chief engineer duties and dealt with politicians, competing engineers, and all those associated with the work on the bridge to the point where people believed she was behind the bridge’s design. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and Emily rode the first carriage across the bridge. After building the Brooklyn Bridge, Emily turned her attention to sereval women’s causes including: Committee on Statistics of the New Jersey Board of Lady Managers for the World’s Columbian Exposition, Committee of Sorosis, Daughters of the American Revolution, George Washington Memorial Association, and Evelyn College. She continued her education and received a law certificate from New York University. MARY FERGUSSON (British) 28th April 1914 – 30th November 1997 Mary (Molly) Fergusson was born in Stoke and graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 1936. To complete her training she spent two years at Blyth and Blyth of Edinburgh. During her time there she was personally responsible for a number of engineering works. She assisted the senior partner designing a range of civil engineering projects, including bridges, drainage and sewerage schemes such as the River Leven water purification works, and industrial projects including the Markinch paper mills for Tullis Russell. Mary was the first women to be elected as a full member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in January 1957. When Mary retired from full time work she continued working as an engineering consultant, using her fees to create and support a fund to help engineering students. Mary was awarded the OBE in 1979 and in 1985 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree, for her work in encouraging women to take up engineering careers. IRÈNE JOLIOT-CURIE (French) 12th September 1897 – 17th March 1956 Irène was born in Paris, the daughter of Marie Curie (two times nobel prize winner) which made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. Irène was a French chemist, physicist and a politician and one of the first three women to be a member of a French Government. During World War I, Irène took a nursing course to help her mother as a field assistant, and started her work as a radiographer on the battlefield. After just a few months she left her mother to work alone at a radiological facility in Belgium where she taught doctors how to locate shrapnel using radiology, and taught herself how to repair the equipment. Irène received a military medal for her assistance in X-ray facilities in France and Belgium. After the war, Irene completed her second baccalaureate degree in mathematics and physics in 1918 and went to work as her mother’s teaching assistant at the Radium Institute, built by her parents, becoming a Doctor of Science in 1925. She met a young chemical engineer Frédéric Joliot, through their combined research and building on the work of Irène’s mother, created human made radioactive isotopes, which they revealed to the Academy of Sciences in 1934. These were used to follow chemical changes and physiological processes in biomedical research, and also for the treatment of cancer. In 1933 Irène and Frédéric were the first to calculate the accurate mass of the neutron, and in 1948, the Joliot-Curies along with other scientists created the first French nuclear reactor. Irène developed an interest in socialism and politics, including the suffragette movement, and she became an elected professor at the Sorbonne in 1937. In 1935 Irène won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of artificial radioactivity with Frédéric Joliot-Curie. ALICE PERRY (Irish) 24th October 1885 – 21st April 1969 Alice was born in Galway, Ireland, one of five daughters to James Perry, who was the County Surveyor in Galway West and co- founded the Galway Electric Company. Alice won a scholarship at Queens College Galway and changed her studies from a degree in the arts to an engineering degree, she graduated with first honours in 1906. Alice was offered a senior postgraduate but due to her father passing away, did not take this position, instead she took over her father’s position as county surveyor for Galway County Council. To this day she remains the only woman to have been a County Surveyor (County Engineer) in Ireland. In 1908 Alice moved with her sisters to London and worked as a Lady Factory Inspector for the Home Office. On retiring Alice became interested in poetry and published seven books of poetry. KATHERINE JOHNSON (American) 26th August 1918 – 24th February 2020 Creola ‘Katherine’ Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 35-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her “historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist”. Johnson’s work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle programme, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she was presented with the Silver Snoopy Award by NASA astronaut Leland D. Melvin and a NASA Group Achievement Award. In 2019, Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal..

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