IGEM History

Thomas Hawksley, First President: 1864 - 67 & George Livesey, President: 1873 - 74

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION OF GAS ENGINEERS AND MANAGERS

The Institution, founded in 1863, is the fourth most senior British engineering institution affiliated to the Engineering Council. Only the Civils (1818), the Mechanicals (1847) and the Naval Architects (1860) are older and its founding in 1862 came at the end of the so-called heroic age of engineering at a time when the engineering profession was fragmenting at an increasing pace. Although the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) was to be the model for all emerging professional engineering bodies, the rapid development of engineering based industries in the mid-nineteenth century encouraged the foundation of more specialised groups for which the metropolitan based ICE could not cater. Gas engineering as a profession can be considered to have been founded by Samuel Clegg, who, at the early age of 32, has been appointed in 1813 as the first engineer of the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company in London on its founding the previous year. The Chartered Company has been the first gas undertaking to be formed anywhere in the world. Rapid growth, particularly in the north where gas became vital to light the mills and factories of industrial Britain, meant that by the 1860s there were well over 1000 gasworks in Great Britain. It is perhaps surprising that it was as late as 1863 before there were any moves to form a professional body for gas engineers although there has been many suggestions in the technical press since the late 1840s. Less surprising, perhaps, was that the inaugural meeting of the "British Association of Gas Managers" was held in Manchester on 15 December 1863 with 24 engineers and managers of gas works from the North and Midlands present and indicated support from a further 90 gentlemen - again mostly from the North and the Midlands. Joseph Adamson from Leeds chaired the inaugural meeting but Thomas Hawksley was invited to be the first President and chaired the first annual meeting held again in Manchester in May 1864. Hawksley, then Vice-President of the ICE and later to become President, was the most eminent gas engineering of his day although his principal claim to fame was the construction of the waterworks at Liverpool, then the largest in the world. He was to continue as President for three years and remains the only President to this day to have held the office for more than one consecutive year. A plaque to his memory can be seen in the museum at Wollation Hall in Nottingham and recalls his Presidency of the Civils although it fails to mention his Presidency of the British Association of Gas Managers.

The British Association flourished and set a meeting pattern that was to remain essentially intact until the last years of the 20th Century. These annual general meetings held in late May or early June transacted formal business, received and discussed technical papers and organised visits to gasworks and other installations in the area. Needless to say, the social aspects were not neglected either. The transactions of these meetings also established the literature of a profession and, in due course, paved the way for recommendations and codes of practice for members. By 1881 the work of the Association in areas such as its library, "investigation and research" and the need to define membership qualifications, suggested a name change and so the Gas Institute was born.

Membership qualifications were to dominate the affairs of the Institute in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Originally intended to be an exclusive organisation for engineers, managers and secretaries of the gas undertakings, the Gas Institute has sanctioned admittance into associate status of non-engineering professionals and this has led to tensions, particularly in respect of so-called traders who were increasingly using the annual meetings to promote their business interests. This lead to a split in 1880 when a breakaway organisation called the Institution of Gas Engineers with much stricter membership qualifications was founded, and a double harness of professional bodies represented the industry until the bodies merged in 1903 as a newly constituted Institution of Gas Engineers (IGE).

The new Institution, whose object was to promote the advancement of the gas industry in all or any of its branches, united the gas engineering profession and enabled the industry to make huge advances in research, technology and, most importantly, training and qualification of gas engineers. It also presented an opportunity to manufacturers and suppliers to form their own trade association - the Society of British Gas Industries founded in 1905. The Institution has maintained very close links with this body right through to the present day.

Strong growth in all spheres of activity and increasing recognition as the authoritative voice of the gas industry lead to the granting of a Royal Charter just in time for the annual general meeting of May 1929. Gas engineering had come of age and from then on, members could describe themselves as "Chartered Gas Engineers". The by-laws associated with the Royal Charter substantially changed the requirements for election. The requirement that a corporate member had to hold a responsible engineering position in the gas industry remained, but a wider definition of the gas industry made it possible, for the first time, for a technically qualified person from the "trading section" or a "gas supply man" to be admitted to the same classes of membership as the engineers and managers of gas undertakings. Membership was based on qualification rather than on employment and a true professional basis was therefore established. Further refinements were to follow, with the guiding principles summarised by Frank Tarratt, president in 1934, as "..... admission to membership should be difficult, as a high standard is far more important than a large membership. Scholastic qualifications are not necessarily a test of capacity, so evidence is wisely required of a candidate's practical qualifications before admission to corporate membership is granted. Examination alone is not enough". Those words are as true today, 70 years on, as they were when first said. These qualifications were to change a little over the years; the only significant change being that some alternatives to engineering degress were allowed after 1937 thus permitting many qualified scientists and technical persons to be admitted to corporate membership.

The estalishment of the Council of Engineering Institutions in 1967 began to piece together the fragmented engineering profession particularly with regard to membership qualifications. The high standards for admittance to the IGE ensured that all corporate members were eligible to use the new designation Chartered Engineer (CEng) but increasingly candidates had to satisfy membership qualifications that were determined on a national basis and the IGE became subject to rigorous audits to ensure compliance for engineers' admittance to the Council's register. The Council itself has evolved, becoming in 1982 the Engineering Council and, more recently, in 2002, EC (UK).

The Institution flourished during the 1930's linking together the myriad of gas undertakings that constituted the British Gas industry of the times. It has an important role during the Second World War providing much communal help and guidance to gas engineers struggling to maintain gas supplies under increasingly adverse conditions. Post war brought the challenge of nationalisation with the industry being nationalised as from 1st May 1949 - a challenge unique to engineering institutions as the IGE now had 70% of its membership employed by twelve area boards. In many ways this changed the nature of the Institution with an emphasis being placed on the individual and encouragement of initiative and individual effort. This initiative was demonstrated as members coped with the huge post-war changes that were to lead to new methods of gas production and ultimately natural gas and the colossals challenges of the conversion operation.

Further challenges came with the privatisation of British Gas in 1986 and, perhaps more significantly, the liberalisation of the industry in the 1990s. Partly to reflect these changes a debate in the dying years of the century led to the supplemental Royal Charter being granted in 1929. The name of the Institution Changed in 2001 to "the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers" allowing non-engineering gas industry professionals to become corporate members under strict conditions. In writing this short piece, one is tempted to reflect on the debate a hundred years ago when the new Institution was being formed as to whether secretaries and other in gas undertakings should be admitted as members. Perhaps the wheel has come full circle - an editoral in the magazine Gas World in 1901 suggested the title we now enjoy today.

Although the Institutions headquarters have always been in London until June 2003, one of its strengths has been the regional spread of its membership. Sections have always flourished and the Sections of today have long and proud histories of their own. Indeed the Scottish Section pre-dates the founding of the parent body and as the Scottish Association of Gas Managers continued an independent existence until its centenary in 1961. There is also a long history of overseas members with the first such election - a member from Santiago in Chile - occuring at the second meeting in 1864. This has continued over the years and the Institution now has two overseas sections (Far East and Irish) and a Branch based in South America. IGEM claims that its journal is now read in over 70 countries.

In 2003 the Institution celebrated the centenary of the Incorporated Institution of Gas Engineers, which was granted a Royal Charter in 1929, but which can trace its roots back to the British Association of Gas Managers founded in Manchester in 1863.

For more information on the history of the Gas Industry visit nationalgasmuseum.org.uk