Robert MacMillan
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Robert Hugh Macmillan (27 June 1921 – 10 May 2015) was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at
Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...
and went on to become Director of the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) where he installed an early
linear induction motor A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
to investigate vehicle safety, as well as overseeing MIRA's successful transition to a commercial research organisation. He ended his career as a Professor at Cranfield University.


Career overview

As a young lecturer at
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
straight after the Second World War, Robert Macmillan wrote the standard text on control systems and a second book on automation, both published by
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
in the 1950s. He went on to be appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at
Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...
at the young age of 35 and in time became Head of the Engineering Faculty, helping to steer the construction of Swansea's new engineering building. He published another standard text, this time on non-linear control systems. After eight years at Swansea, in 1964 he took over as Director of the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), where he oversaw the installation of the largest industrial linear induction motor in Britain, used for indoor testing of vehicle collisions and which was opened in 1968 by the
Minister of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
, Anthony Wedgwood Benn. Macmillan also transformed MIRA from an organization supported by government funding and a block grant from the
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is the trade association for the United Kingdom motor industry. Its role is to "promote the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad." History SMMT was founded by Frede ...
, into a successful commercial research organization. From
MIRA Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–400 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a varia ...
he moved to Cranfield Institute of Technology (now
Cranfield University , mottoeng = After clouds light , established = 1946 - College of Aeronautics 1969 - Cranfield Institute of Technology (gained university status by royal charter) 1993 - Cranfield University (adopted current name) , type = Public research uni ...
) where he spent five years writing another standard text on the Dynamics of Vehicle Collisions, exploiting the processing power of an early Hewlett Packard scientific desktop computer for the complex calculations.


Early life

Robert Hugh Macmillan was born in 1921 in
Mussoorie Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill st ...
, a hill station in India. His father, Hugh Robert Munro Macmillan, had been born in Cuttack in India on 25 November 1885, graduated as an Assistant Engineer at Thomason College of Civil Engineering in Roorkee, India (now the
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India, and was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in Bri ...
) on 15 July 1908, and worked for the
Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway The Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (reporting mark BB&CI) was a company incorporated in 1855 to undertake the task of constructing railway lines between Bombay to the erstwhile Baroda State, that became the present-day Baroda (Vadoda ...
. His ancestors were related to Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, the brothers who founded
Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
. His mother Ethel (née Webb) (1889-1957) was the daughter of art teacher Walter Webb and concert pianist and singer Evelyn Green. Ethel was a talented and prolific amateur artist in her own right who studied under Sir Arthur Cope at the Royal Academy Schools, winning the Gold Medal in 1909. She painted in India and later exhibited her work in London to critical acclaim
see example
. Her obituary appeared in The Times on 31 August 1957. Walter Webb had a family connection to the silversmiths
Mappin & Webb Mappin & Webb (M&W) is an international jewellery company headquartered in England. Mappin & Webb traces its origins to a silver workshop founded in Sheffield . It now has retail stores throughout the UK. Mappin & Webb has held Royal Warrants ...
. The Macmillan family returned from India to England in 1928 and lived at The Pound House in
Edenbridge, Kent Edenbridge is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks (district), Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. Its name derives from Old English ''Eadhelmsbrigge'' (meaning "Eadhelm's Bridge"). It is located on the border of ...
, his father joining a firm of civil engineers and working on the London drainage system south of the Thames. After Prep School, Robert was awarded a scholarship to
Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...
in Essex. He won school prizes in technical drawing and also excelled at mathematics, which he was taught by Edward Lockwood, a graduate of
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
. With the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
looming in 1939, Macmillan's mother was keen that he should go to Cambridge. His father having died five years previously, Ethel toured several of the colleges with him; Kings and Trinity both turned him down to read Mathematics, but
Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
agreed to take him to read Mechanical Sciences. Owing to the War, the course was shortened to two years, and he graduated in 1941 with first class honours. He volunteered for the RAF and joined in 1941, training at Andover and Henlow, before being moved to the Gunnery Research Unit at
RAF Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
. Here he was flown around in tail turrets, test-firing gyro sighting systems. He was well suited to the task, being fortunate enough not to suffer at all from air sickness. Later he spent time at the RAF's
Rocket Propulsion Establishment The Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire on the site of the former RAF Westcott has made a number of notable contributions in the field of rocket propulsion, including input on the rocket design for the Blue Streak missi ...
.


Early career in academia

After
demobilisation Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...
he was offered jobs in the RAF, the Civil Service and Cambridge and returned to Cambridge, first as a demonstrator and then as a lecturer teaching mechanics. In 1947 he established the Cambridge Control Group and went on to write his first book Theory of Control which was published by
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
and went through three editions. A second book, Automation, Friend or Foe, led to him being regarded as an expert in automation and he was often asked for an opinion by the press, which he found enjoyable but also rather a nuisance. In 1950-51 he spent a year at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
on an exchange scheme lecturing in mechanics and structures under the
Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
. In 1956, at the age of 35, he accepted a chair in mechanical engineering at
Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...
, working alongside two other Cambridge engineering graduates - Bernard Neale as Professor of Civil Engineering, and Wilfred Fishwick as Professor of Electrical Engineering. In time, he became Head of the Engineering Faculty, and a member of the University's Standing Committee. He regarded his biggest achievement at Swansea as influencing the development of the University as a whole, as well as steering the construction of the new engineering building, clearly visible on the skyline as the campus is viewed from the coast. Macmillan's inaugural lecture was entitled The Communication of Ideas and dealt with the importance of arousing students' interest in engineering and conveying its significance more widely. He continued writing and in 1962 published the book Non Linear Control Systems Analysis, also giving a paper on the topic to the annual conference of FISITA, the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies. In the same year, he published Progress in Control Engineering. He served as a member of the Stability and Control Sub-committee which reported to the Mechanics Committee of the
Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...
at the time
Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
was being designed.


Motor Industry Research Association

After eight years at Swansea, he accepted the post of Director of the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), moving there in 1964 to take over from Dr Albert Fogg. Originally established in 1945 to assist British car manufacturers to export their products successfully, MIRA provided research and test facilities for the UK automotive industry and was funded by government and motor industry organisations. MIRA had an excellent test track where companies' drivers could test their new models for handling and noise, and also supported specific research projects for individual manufacturers. Macmillan commissioned the construction of a
linear induction motor A linear induction motor (LIM) is an alternating current (AC), asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but is typically designed to directly produce motion in a straight line. Characteristic ...
for accelerating a vehicle quickly to a precise velocity in order to test how it would perform in a collision. The design was based on a prototype developed by Professor
Eric Laithwaite Eric Roberts Laithwaite (14 June 1921 – 27 November 1997) was a British electrical engineer, known as the "Father of Maglev" for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system. Biography Eric Roberts Laithwaite wa ...
at
Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
and the completed facility was opened by the
Minister of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, in April 1968. It operated successfully for more than 25 years, before being passed to the
Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
in the 1990s. In the early 1970s, the Government's Bessborough report recommended that research organizations should become more market driven, and MIRA's Council agreed that individual members of the
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is the trade association for the United Kingdom motor industry. Its role is to "promote the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad." History SMMT was founded by Frede ...
should begin paying their subscriptions directly rather than by way of a general SMMT block research grant. Subsequently, reliance on these subscriptions also declined and MIRA had to stand on its own as a commercial research organization. Macmillan appointed MIRA's first Industrial Liaison Manager to help it develop commercially. Changes to the funding regime were compounded by high levels of
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
during that period and, as Director, Macmillan faced challenging negotiations with the unions over pay and conditions. Just once, in 1975, did the finances go into the red but, despite this, the organization became a successful commercial research organization. On the whole and with his university background, he managed MIRA by operating a collegiate structure in which most could feel part of the decision making process. During this period, he enjoyed visits through FISITA to Japan and was appointed chairman of the organising committee for the 1970 FISITA conference which was held in Britain. FISITA awarded him their 1970 Gold Medal. He also chaired the British Technical Council of the Motor and Petroleum Industries and saw himself as a ringmaster overseeing negotiations between chief engineers from the motor and petroleum sectors.


Return to academia

After 13 years at MIRA and with his three children now grown up, Macmillan decided he wanted to return to academia. He was approached by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (now the
Transport Research Laboratory TRL Limited, trading as TRL (formerly Transport Research Laboratory) is an independent private company offering a transport consultancy and research service to the public and private sector. Originally established in 1933 by the UK Government a ...
) but joined
Cranfield University , mottoeng = After clouds light , established = 1946 - College of Aeronautics 1969 - Cranfield Institute of Technology (gained university status by royal charter) 1993 - Cranfield University (adopted current name) , type = Public research uni ...
as Professor of Automotive Engineering where he remained for five years until retiring in 1982. During this period he wrote the book of which he later said he was most proud, and which took five years in the writing: Dynamics of Vehicle Collisions. Many of the calculations were undertaken using an early Hewlett Packard scientific desktop computer. Initially he had difficulty in finding a publisher, but it was issued in 1983. Macmillan stayed in touch with his mathematics master from Felsted who had written six chapters of a book on geometric symmetry. Lockwood asked him for advice on various issues and Macmillan wrote two further chapters; the book Geometric Symmetry was published by Cambridge University Press in 1978 under joint names.


Mathematical Gazette and other hobbies

Macmillan was a regular contributor to the
Mathematical Gazette ''The Mathematical Gazette'' is an academic journal of mathematics education, published three times yearly, that publishes "articles about the teaching and learning of mathematics with a focus on the 15–20 age range and expositions of attractive ...
. His first item was a Note published in October 1939 at the age of 18. Fifteen further articles were published between February 1942 and March 2000. Another was part-written but its completion was delayed by the failing health of his wife, Anna, whom he had married in 1950 and whom he devotedly looked after in her last decade (she died in 2012) and it was never finished. He was also a keen philatelist with a particular interest in nineteenth century stamps from The Netherlands, Anna coincidentally being Dutch. A regular exhibitor and medal-winner at
Royal Philatelic Society The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its he ...
exhibitions and author of articles, in 1996 he published a set of a dozen illustrated articles about stamps used in The Netherlands between 1852 and 1939.


Career summary

* Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Swansea University, 1956-1964; * Director Motor Industry Research Association 1964-1977; * Professor of Automotive Engineering and Head of School of Automotive Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology, 1977-1982 and Dean of Engineering 1980-1982; * Associate Professor, University of Warwick 1965-1977; * Member of Council, University of Loughborough, 1966-1981 and 1988-1991; * Hon DTech University of Loughborough 1992; * FISITA Gold Medal 1970; * Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers; * Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers


Publications

* Macmillan, R H (1951) An introduction to the theory of control in mechanical engineering, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * Macmillan, R H (1956) Automation, friend or foe?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * Macmillan, R H (1957) The communication of ideas: inaugural lecture at Swansea delivered on 5 December 1957 * Macmillan, R H (1962) Progress in control engineering, New York: Academic Press * Macmillan, R H editor (1962) Non-linear control systems analysis, Oxford: Pergamon Press * Macmillan, R H and Lockwood, E H (1978) Geometric Symmetry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * Macmillan, R H (1983) Dynamics of Vehicle Collisions, St Helier: Interscience Enterprises * Macmillan, R H (1996) The Netherlands: Selected Stamp Issues 1852-1939, published by the Netherlands Philatelic Circle


References

* * The Institution of Engineering and Technology 12 November 2015 http://www.theiet.org/membership/member-news/39a/prof-macmillan.cfm * Emmanuel College Magazine, Volume XCVII 2014-2015 page 183-184 https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/publications/College%20Magazine%202015.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Macmillan, Robert 1921 births 2015 deaths British automotive engineers Academics of Swansea University