Papers of Isaac Fern Kinnard, b 1892, electrical engineering student, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Scope and Content

Correspondence 1953

Administrative / Biographical History

Isaac Fern Kinnard was born in 1892 in Burnaby, Canada. His hometown in Canada was Marshville where his father William was a merchant. Kinnard graduated from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario and was then able to come to a British university through a college plan made available by the Canadian army after World War I. He had been stationed in Seaford, Sussex when he made an application to the University of Glasgow to study Engineering. He was a student there from 1918-1919  and took classes in Electrical Engineering I and II. He was unable to complete his examinations as he was required to return to London, preparatory for a return to Canada. From 1919-1922  he was a research engineer with Westinghouse. From 1930 he was engineering manager of the General Electric Meter and Instrument Department in West Lynn, Massachusetts, where he contributed to the development of the magnetic suspension watthour meter, modern long-scale electric instruments, photographic exposure meters, aircraft gyroscopes, flow meters, temperature indicators and radiation instruments. Kinnard was Chairman of the General Electric Magnetic Materials Committee and a member of the company's Engineering Research Council. He was a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers Board of Examiners, 1946-1950  and served on the Instruments and Measurement Committee for 18 years, including two years as the Chairman. As a member of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Kinnard became the Chairman of their Electrical Measuring Equipment Committee in 1952.

It was also in 1952  that he was awarded the Lamme Gold Medal "for his outstanding contributions in design and developments in instrumentation and measurements". The award was established by 1864-1924 Benjamin Garver Lamme , who was chief engineer of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co, for a member of the AIEE "who has shown meritorious achievement in the development of electrical apparatus or machinery." Isaac Kinnard wrote the following publication: Kinnard, I.Applied Electrical Measurements . Westinghouse  , 1956  .

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically within record series

Access Information

Open

Acquisition Information

Unknown

Other Finding Aids

Digital file level list available in searchroom

Manual file level list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S)) and London (NRA)

Alternative Form Available

None known

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

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Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Archivist.

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents

Appraisal Information

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 0248 procedures

Custodial History

Deposited before formal acquisition procedures were in place

Accruals

None expected

Related Material

GB 0248, UP1/225/1, photograph of I F Kinnard, winner of the 1952 Lamme Gold Medal.

Location of Originals

This material is original

Bibliography

No known publications using this material

Additional Information

Description compiled in line with the following international standards: International Council on Archives,ISAD(G) Second Edition, September 1999 and National Council on Archives,Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names

Scotland is the location of all place names in the administrative/biographical history element, unless otherwise stated.

Fonds level description compiled by Andrew Thomson, Assistant Archivist (Cataloguing), 24 February 2005.

Geographical Names