Professor Sir William Japp Sinclair, the noted surgeon of Manchester. Both
parents were extremely anxious to give their children a good education. In
these days wages were not high, and education was dear, but the family had
a fondness for reading, and the mother had the narrative art in a marked
degree. The desire to help each other was an admirable trait of the
family. Working in the fields in summer and resuming their studies in
winter, the lads grew up, and at fourteen Angus was a good English
scholar. He began his railway career at Laurencekirk as a telegraph
operator, and later was transferred as telegraph operator in the office of
the locomotive superintendent. After two years spent at this work, he
learned engineering in the railway shops at Arbroath. After running
locomotives for several years, he passed a high examination in the Civil
Service, and was employed for five years in the Customs Department in
Montrose and London.
Dissatisfied with the work, he went
to sea as a marine engineer, and in 1873 returned to railroading, in
America. For two years he was employed by the Erie Railroad, and later
worked as assistant civil engineer on several Western roads, including the
Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern. By this company he was appointed to
run a locomotive on a branch line running to Iowa City, where he attended
the chemistry classes of the State University between trains for two
years, and was then appointed chemist of the railway, combined with the
duties of round-house foreman.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sinclair had
contributed articles to railway and other engineering publications, and in
1883 he joined the editorial staff of the American Machinist. A few
years later he became President of the company, and afterward proprietor
of Railway and Locomotive Engineering, an illustrated monthly
publication of vast influence and circulation among railroad men.
He soon became a recognized leader
in the better education of railroad men. His first book, Locomotive
Engine Running and Management, has passed through twenty-six editions.
Combustion in Locomotive Fireboxes, Firing Locomotives, Railroad Men’s
Catechism, Twentieth Century Locomotives, and History of the
Development of the Locomotive Engine, have all passed through
extensive and numerous editions. Firing Locomotives had the
distinction of being the first engineering handbook published in the
Chinese language, and his first book, after a lapse of more than thirty
years, is still a prime favourite among the younger railway men.
In 1908, Purdue University,
Lafayette, Ind., conferred upon Mr. Sinclair the degree of Doctor of
Engineering. About this time he became Special Technical Instructor for
the Erie Railroad. In the classrooms of railroad apprentices and in
railroad clubs and societies generally, he is a ready and fluent speaker,
his platform addresses having the same direct and interesting features
that distinguish his work as an engineering writer. He has travelled
extensively in Europe, as well as in America, and is everywhere received
as among the foremost authorities on all matters connected with the
mechanical departments of railways. Dr. Angus Sinclair ‘s work as a writer
is marked by a clearness of style, and a complete freedom from technical
jargon.
Dr. Sinclair has been prominently
identified with many mechanical, social, benevolent and other societies,
among which may be mentioned the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
American Railway Guild, American Master Mechanics and Master Car Builders’
Associations, Railroad Club of New York and many other railroad clubs, the
Masonic Fraternity and others. Dr. Sinclair was a prominent member of the
Transportation Jury, which awarded the prizes at the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition, San Francisco, June, 1915, and at the request of
President Moore he delivered the address on the Origin and Development
of Transportation to thousands of people. In politics he is an
independent Republican. Dr. Sinclair has always managed to keep in touch
with the affairs of his native land and all that pertains to the
well-being of his countrymen in America receives his warmest encouragement
and support. He is a member of the St. Andrew’s Societies of New York and
New Jersey, Burns Society of the City of New York, Order of Scottish
Clans, New York Caledonian Club, and was first President of the Scottish
Home Rule Association of New York City.
