Samuel Cleland Davidson

Samuel Cleland Davidson (18 November 1846 – 18 August 1921) was an Irish inventor and engineer. Through his career in the tea import business he invented and patented a number of industrial machines and developed the earliest air conditioning systems. He founded the Sirocco Works in Belfast in 1881.

Early life

Davidson was born in County Down on 18 November 1846, the youngest child of a family of Ulster Scots. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (the "Inst") and left at the age of 15 to work at a Belfast civil engineering firm, William Hastings.^[1]

Career

The Sirocco Works on the River Lagan, Belfast, during demolition in 2009

Remains of Sirocco Fan used for ventilation of the Grinkle Ironstone Mine in Cleveland, England which operated 1865-1934

In 1864 he left his job to work for his father, James Davidson who had set up a business importing tea, buying a share in a tea estate in Cachar, 300 miles north-east of Calcutta in India. Samuel went to India, working his way up through his father's company to become manager of the tea plantation. James died in 1869 and Samuel bought out his father's business and became the sole proprietor.

Samuel Davidson applied his engineering knowledge to improve the system of tea manufacture. He sold the property in India in 1874 and returned to Ireland where he began to manufacture his patented tea machinery with Combe, Barbour and Coombe of Belfast. In 1881 he started his own manufacturing operation in Belfast.

One of Davidson's most significant inventions was machinery for drying tea on an industrial scale. The success of his innovative use of stoves to move hot air led him to develop a convection heating system for use in human environments, and by the end of the 1880s his Sirocco stoves were in popular use in schools, church halls and workrooms. He developed his invention further with the introduction of a forward-bladed centrifugal fan, which was a more efficient way of transmitting heat. This innovation, originally designed for drying tea, evolved into the first air conditioning system. The action of moving hot air across a room led one of Davidson's planter colleagues to remark that it reminded him of the Sirocco, the hot wind that blows across the North African desert, and Davidson adopted Sirocco as his brand name, applying it to his products and to the firm's Belfast factory, the Sirocco Engineering works.^[1]

Davidson & Co grew into one of the largest engineering firms in Ireland, manufacturing and exporting equipment for cooling, drying, dust collecting, heating, ventilating, pneumatic conveyance, and mechanical handling, all invented by Davidson himself. During World War I the Sirocco works supplied the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy. When the German fleet was scuttled at Scapa Flow in 1919, it was discovered that nearly every German ship was equipped with Sirocco fans manufactured before the war.^[1]

In 1988, the Davidson Group was acquired by the fan and heat exchanger firm James Howden & Co (established 1854 by the Scottish engineer James Howden) to form Howden Sirocco Limited, today known as Howden UK.^[2] Davidson's Sirocco Works were eventually vacated and in 2009 the property was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the Belfast Waterfront. the name of Davidson's former factory continues today in the Sirocco Works Football Club, a team formed in 1924 by works employees which continues to play today in the Northern Amateur Football League.

Family

A plaque on the Laganside Walkway next to the former Sirocco works, commemorating Sir Samuel Davison

Samuel Cleland Davidson married Clara Mary Coleman in 1873 and they had two children, Clara May Davidson, born in 1875, and James Samuel Davidson who was born in 1877. Clara married one of her father's employees, Frederick George Maguire, in 1903.^[3] James worked as general manager in his father's business. He served as a volunteer with the 1st Battalion North Down Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force and during World War I he became a captain in the 13th Royal Irish Rifles. James was shot dead by a German sniper on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, aged 39.^[4][5]

Later life and death

Samuel Cleland Davidson became a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1888, and in 1921 he was knighted by King George V. A few months later Davidson died on 18 August 1921 in Seacourt, Bangor, County Down. He was buried alongside his wife, Clara Mary, in Belfast City Cemetery.^[6]

Davidson's contribution to engineering in Ireland was commemorated by the Northern Bank in its Inventor series of banknotes, which featured his portrait on the bank's £50 note. The note was discontinued in 2013 when the bank reissued its banknotes under the new Danske Bank brand.^[7]

External links

• Photo of Clara Mary and Samuel Cleland Davidson's grave on Flickr

References