| Authorised form of name | Ricardo; Sir; Harry Ralph (1885 - 1974); mechanical engineer |
| Dates | 1885 - 1974 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | 13 Bedford Square, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 26 January 1885 |
| Place of death | King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 18 May 1974 |
| Occupation | Mechanical engineer |
| Research field | Mechanical engineering |
| Engineering |
| Activity | Education:
Rugby School (1898–1903); Trinity College, Cambridge BA (Cantab ) (1903–7)
Career:
Gained his first patent, for a 2-stroke engine, "Improvements in or relating to Internal Combustion Engines" (1906); joined Rendel and Robertson (later Rendel, Palmer, and Tritton), his grandfather's firm as an inspector of machinery (1907); then head of a department for designing the specialised mechanical equipment needed for large civil engineering projects; classified in a reserved occupation (1914); designed aero-engines made by Brotherhood and Beardmore (1915); consulting engineer to the mechanical warfare department (1916); on the death of his grandfather, he launched his own company with the help of a three-year contract from the Asiatic Petroleum Company for research on fuels and detonation (1917); consulting engineer in aero-engines to the Air Ministry (1918); the company was named Ricardo Company (1920); pioneered four-valve high-performance combustion systems in a Triumph motorcycle (1921); formed Ricardo Consulting Engineers in Shoreham-by-Sea (1927); designed the prototype Rolls-Royce Crecy engine, seen as the peak of aircraft piston engine development (1940); hired by the US Department of Energy to research the Stirling engine as a car engine (1978).
Honours:
Kt 1948
Memberships:
AMICE
MIAE
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (President 1944–5) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 02/05/1929 |
| Age at election | 44 |
| Proposer | William Henry Eccles |
| Arthur Smithells |
| Richard Threlfall |
| Thomas Henry Holland |
| Frederick Edwin Smith |
| Richard Tetley Glazebrook |
| William Ernest Dalby |
| Robert Robertson |
| Thomas Henry Tizard |
| Ernest George Coker |
| Albert George Hadcock |
| Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton |
| Charles Algernon Parsons |
| Dugald Clerk |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Rumford Medal 1944
Lectures:
Bakerian 1947 |
| Relationships | Parents: Halsey Ralph Ricardo (1854–1928), architect, descendant of the brother of David Ricardo, economist, and Catherine Jane, daughter of Sir Alexander Meadows Rendel, civil engineer.
Spouse: (m. 1911) Beatrice Bertha (d. 1975), daughter of Charles Bowdich Hale, their family doctor.
Children: Three daughters. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 20285
RCN 20286 |
| OtherInfo | Investigated fuels, liquid and gaseous as affecting performance of high speed Internal Combustion Engines, for which he invented variable compression engines. Applied discoveries to motor, aero and tank engines. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1976 vol 22 pp 359-380, plate, by Sir William Hawthorne |
| Code | NA704 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1929/13 | Ricardo, Sir Harry Ralph: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/GA/WS/1269 | Ricardo, Sir Harry Ralph | nd |
| RR/65/147 | Referee's report by Harry Ralph Ricardo, on a paper 'The two-stage auto-ignition of hydrocarbons and "Knock"' by G P Kane | March 1938 |
| RR/48/51 | Referee's report by Harry Ralph Ricardo, on a paper 'The mean effective pressure in reciprocating engines as influenced by considerations of the kinetic theory of gases' by Henry Homan Jeffcott | nd [August 1933] |
| P/0245 | Portrait (study) of Ricardo, Harry Ralph | c.1955 |
| ACS/1/1/439/54 | Letter from Harry [Ralph] Ricardo, Penstone, Lancing, Sussex, to [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton | 22 February 1929 |
| ACS/1/2/4/224 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to [Harry Ralph] Ricardo | 20 April 1929 |
| ACS/1/2/4/233 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to [Harry Ralph] Ricardo [Esquire] | 26 April 1929 |
| ACS/1/2/4/314 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Harry [Ralph] Ricardo [Esquire], F. R. S., 13 Bedford Square, W. C. 1. | 31 May 1929 |