| |
Industry | engineering |
---|---|
Founded | 1921 |
Defunct | 1937 |
Headquarters | Loughborough, then London |
Key people | Lady Katherine Parsons Lady Eleanor Shelly-Rolls Annette Ashberry Rachel Parsons Caroline Haslett Dora Turner Herbert Schofield |
Products | oil burners; surface plates; drilling jigs;adjustable spanners; screwdrivers |
Services | engineering training for women |
Atalanta Ltd (1921–1937) was an engineering company set up in 1921 in the UK by a small group of women engineers. [1] It was considered notable at the time for providing employment specifically for women engineers, who were barred from many engineering works and apprenticeships. [2]
Dora Turner and Annette Ashberry, who were working for Galloway Engineering at their Tongland Works, decided to set up a company that would allow women to gain experience in engineering. [3] [4] They then approached the founders of the Women's Engineering Society for support and financial backing. [4]
There were eight people involved in foundation of the company. The company's chair was Lady Katherine Parsons, who was also one of the principal shareholders along with Lady Eleanor Shelly-Rolls. [5] Annette Ashberry was a director, along with Rachel Parsons, Caroline Haslett, Dora Turner, and Herbert Schofield, the head of Loughborough College of Technology.
The first headquarters of the organisation consisted of three walls and a mud floor, and was occupied by pigs and chickens. The founders completed the building work to make the space habitable, including a concrete floor, lathes and a gas supply. They manufactured oil burners and surface plates. In 1922, the company moved to London and added adjustable spanners, screwdrivers and drilling jigs to their list of manufactured products. [6] [7] [8]
The objective of the company was to provide careers for women who had been employed in engineering during the First World War and were made redundant at the war's end, often as a result of the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act 1919, which forced women to give up their posts in favour of returning servicemen unless they had been working in the same role before the war. It also aimed to provide further training, initially at Loughborough College of Technology, where both Ashberry and Turner were studying. [9]
In the 1920s, publications such as The Engineer , Flight international , Practical Engineer, and Engineers' Gazette published articles about the company, remarking on its novel social mission to employ women. [10] [11] [12] [8] The organisation also featured in feminist papers and in the Woman Engineer journal. [13] The Woman Engineer explained that the company had been founded by women who 'seeing no scope for their activities, and having the natural road of success barred to them... decided to risk their all and to establish an engineering works where there will be absolute freedom for them to use the ability and skill which they possess.' [14]
The company ceased manufacturing in 1928. According to historian Carroll Pursell, it ended in 'failure and recriminations' but inspired other organisations including the Electrical Enterprise, Ltd., and the Electrical Association for Women. [14] Atalanta still exhibited in 1929 and 1931 at The Shipping, Engineering and Machinery Exhibition at Olympia. [6]
It was removed from listed companies in 1937. [6]
It is not related to the company Atalanta Ltd founded in 2008, or the social enterprise Atalanta, incorporated in 2017.
Tongland is a small village about 2 miles (3 km) north of Kirkcudbright, in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies on the west bank of the Dee near its confluence with the Tarff Water.
Herbert Schofield, PhD, was a leading figure in technical education, a Rotarian and, from 1915 to 1950, a Principal of Loughborough College, which became Loughborough University.
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Verena Winifred Holmes was an English mechanical engineer and multi-field inventor, the first woman member elected to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1924) and the Institution of Locomotive Engineers (1931), and was a strong supporter of women in engineering. She was one of the early members of the Women's Engineering Society, and its president in 1931. She was the first practising engineer to serve as president of the society.
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Eleanor Georgiana Shelley-Rolls was one of the original signatories of the Women's Engineering Society founding documents. She was a keen hot air balloonist.
Cleone Benest, also known by the pseudonym C. Griff, was a pioneering motorist, as well as an engineer, and metallurgist. She was one of the first women engineers to pass mechanical examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute, Royal Automobile Club, and Portsmouth Municipal College. She published articles on engineering and established her own firm which was both managed and run by women. She served as the chair of the Women's Engineering Society from 1922 to 1926.
Marguerite Ellen-Gaudin Stocker MBE was governor of HM Prison Askham Grange in Yorkshire from 1959 until her retirement in 1967.
Annette Ashberry, also known as Anne Ashberry, was a British engineer, gardener and author, and the first woman elected to the Society of Engineers.
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Women have played a role in engineering in the United Kingdom for hundreds of years, despite the various societal barriers facing them. In the 18th and 19th century, there were few formal training opportunities for women to train as engineers and frequently women were introduced to engineering through family companies or their spouses. Some women did have more formal educations in the late 19th century and early 20th century, normally in mathematics or science subjects. There are several examples of women filing patents in the 19th century, including Sarah Guppy, Henrietta Vansittart and Hertha Ayrton.
Dorothy Smith was an electrical engineer. She worked for the engineering firm Metropolitan-Vickers from 1916 to 1959, retiring after forty-three years at the company. She was the second woman to gain Full Membership of the Institution of Electrical Engineers since Hertha Ayrton in 1899 and was a prominent member of the Manchester branch of the Women's Engineering Society.