| Authorised form of name | Swinburne; Sir; James (1858 - 1958); 9th Baronet of Capheaton, Northumberland; industrial chemist and electrical engineer |
| Dates | 1858 - 1958 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Inverness, Scotland |
| Date of birth | 28 February 1858 |
| Place of death | His home, Balholm Grange, Mornish Road, Branksome Park, Bournemouth, England. |
| Date of death | 30/03/1958 |
| Occupation | industrial chemist and electrical engineer |
| Research field | Electrical engineering |
| Activity | Education:
Clifton College, Bristol, England
Career:
Employed in a locomotive works; apprenticed at Engineering Works on the Tyne; draughtsman with the South Shields Gas Company; joined Joseph Swan (FRS 1894), who engaged him to establish lamp factories in Antwerp and Paris. (1881); Manager to Hammond Co.'s Lamp Factory (1884); Technical Manager and Designer to Crompton and Co. (1886); established his own business at Teddington, Swinburne and Co (1889); began practising as a Consulting engineer (1894).
Memberships:
MICE
Institution of Electrical Engineers (President 1902–3)
Faraday Society (President 1909–11)
Plastics Institute (President 1937-8) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 03/05/1906 |
| Age at election | 48 |
| Proposer | William Ramsay |
| William Crookes |
| Oliver Lodge |
| William Henry White |
| John Wolfe Barry |
| William Cawthorne Unwin |
| James Alfred Ewing |
| Frederick Thomas Trouton |
| John Norman Collie |
| Alexander Blackie William Kennedy |
| William Henry Preece |
| Kelvin [William Thomson] |
| George Carey Foster |
| Silvanus Phillips Thompson |
| Relationships | Parents: Lieutenant Thomas Anthony Swinburne RN and Mary Anne, daughter of Captain Edward Fraser of Gortuleg.
Spouse: 1) (1886)Ellen (1863/4–1893), daughter of Robert Harrison Wilson, a doctor, of Gateshead; 2) (1898) Lilian Gilchrist (d. 1964), daughter of Sir Thomas Godfrey Carey, bailiff of Guernsey (1895–1902).
Children: Three sons from his first marriage and two daughters from his second marriage.
9th Baronet |
| General context | Worked on the first electric bulb.
Revolutionised the pastics industry. |
| 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 |
| Image | 
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| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1959 vol 5 pp 253-268, plate, by F A Freeth |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/72603190 |
| Royal Society code | NA7051 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| IM/GA/Russell/16013 | Swinburne, Sir James | nd |
| NLB/7/879 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to James Swinburne, 4 Hatherly Road, Kew Gardens | 19 May 1893 |
| NLB/16/324 | Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 17 March 1898 |
| NLB/16/10 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [James] Swinburne [Fellow of the Royal Society], 66 Victoria Street, S.W. | 12 January 1898 |
| NLB/16/392 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to J Swinburne, Honorary Editor of 'Science Abstracts', 66 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. | 26 March 1898 |
| NLB/15/895 | Copy letter from Arthur Wiliam Rucker, to James Swinburne, [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 10 January 1898 |
| NLB/16/697 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to J Swinburne, Editor of "Science Abstracts", 66 Victoria Street, S.W. | 21 May 1898 |
| NLB/17/165 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to James Swinburne, [Fellow of the Royal Society], Honorary Editor of 'Science Abstracts', 66 Victoria Street, S.W. | 29 July 1898 |
| NLB/17/424 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Shelford Bidwell, President of the Physical Society, Professor William Edward Ayrton and James Swinburne, Fellows of the Royal Society | 27 October 1898 |
| NLB/37/143 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to James Swinburne FRS | 30 January 1908 |
| NLB/32/747 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [Messrs Harrison & Sons] | [19 May 1906] |
| NLB/34/151 | Copy memo from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to James Swinburne, Fellow of the Royal Society | [December 1906] |
| NLB/35/518 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 8 June 1907 |
| NLB/56/125 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to [James] Swinburne Esquire, FRS | 27 November 1918 |
| NLB/56/112 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to [James] Swinburne Esquire, FRS | 25 November 1918 |
| NLB/55/100 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to [James] Swinburne Esq., FRS | 05 December 1917 |
| RR/24/50 | Referee's report by James Swinburne, on a paper 'The high-frequency resistance of multiply-stranded insulated wire' by G W O Howe | [June 1917] |
| NLB/55/734 | Copy letter from [Dr.] Arthur Schuster, Secretary of the Royal Society; to James Swinburne Esq., FRS | 14 August 1918 |
| NLB/72/669 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to James Swinburne Esq., FRS | 21 February 1930 |
| NLB/36/883 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to James Swinburne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 7 January 1908 |
| EC/1906/13 | Swinburne, Sir James: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/24/40 | Referee's report by James Swinburne, on a paper 'Curved beams' by James J Guest | [January 1918] |
| ACS/1/1/380 | Letter from James Swinburne, 82 Victoria Street, London, S.W., to [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton | 13 February 1912 |
| MC/27/337 | Letter from [James] Swinburne, 82 Victoria Street, London, S.W, to the [Royal Society] | 29 July 1912 |
| ACS/1/1/379 | Letter from James Swinburne, 41 Palace Court, W., to [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton | c. 1906 |