Reginald James Seymour Pigott (Februari 4, 1886 – December 23, 1966) was a British/American mechanical and consulting engineer, director of the engineering division of Gulf Research & Development Company, a subsidiary of Gulf Oil, and inventor.
Pigott was known for his work in the fields of fluid flow pumps and power plant design.[1] He had been president of three national engineering societies, an unicum in those days.:[2] He was president of the American Society for Measurement and Control founded in 1939,[3] 71st president of the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1948,[4] and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1952–53.
Pigott was born in 1886 in Wellington, Shropshire, in England, to Elphic William Seymour Pigott and Lillian Mary (Fance) Pigott. In 1891 the family moved to the United States to New York City, where his father worked as an accountant.[5] After the regular public schools in New York City, Pigott studied mechanical engineering at Columbia University, obtaining his Mech.E. degree in 1906.[5] [6]
After his graduation in Pigott in 1906 started his career at the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as chief draftsman, and later became construction engineer. In this position he was "in full charge of the design, construction, and testing of live 7500~kilowatt low-pressure turbines and had charge of the general rebuilding of the boilers` stokers, economizers, coal handling, and other equipment and operations in the company's two power plants."[5]
In the year 1911–1912 he was assistant professor of steam engineering at the Columbia University,[7] but after a year he returned to the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. as construction engineer in the motive power department in 1912–1915.[5]
For another eleven years Pigott worked in the design, construction, and operation of central steam power stations.[2] [8] In those days in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Pigott was mechanical engineer with Stevens & Wood, Inc. in New York for three years, and next consulting engineer with Public Service Corporation of New Jersey Production Co.[9]
In 1929 Pigott was appointed chief engineer at the Gulf Research & Development Corporation at Pittsburgh, Pa,[10] where he became active in petroleum research.[11] His research was also focussed on the development of special equipment, which includes projects as the "marsh buggy" and piston ring pressure tester.[2]
In World War II "a good deal of research work was done for the automotive industry, particularly aviation, covering the investigation and solution of the problem of oil foaming in flight, heat distribution in high output aviation engines, the solution of difficult bearing problems for gas turbines and engines, and the manufacture of a good deal of special test equipment."[10]
By the time of his retirement in 1953, Pigott he had been director of the engineering division of Gulf Research and Development Company.[2] He had written over 40 papers, and had obtained a few dozens of patents.
In 1952 Pigott was awarded the Egleston Medal, the highest award of the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association.[12] In 1957 he was recipient of the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute.[13] And in 1965 he was elected Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.[14]