Colonel Bowden

Checking my facts about the incredibly prolific modeller and chum of Percival Marshall, I discovered that he did not have a Wikipedia page! This is the man who achieved the first IC powered flight by a model aircraft, held several endurance records, pioneered radio control and designed a full size yacht with a new type of folding sail.

I've created a stub page for him here:

**LINK**

But I'd encourage anyone with better knowledge of the man to help expand this article. Perhaps we ought to try and encourage more articles about significant model engineers and modellers on Wikipedia?

Neil

Well done Neil!.....

When I was a youngster I used to read 'Biggles' books about WWI aerial warfare and was introduced to the phrase; 'Bowden cable'...a wire that was pulled by a (British) pilot to release a bomb...... I have had close relationships with various types of 'Bowden Cable' since then, although not to release any bombs......

...........From this it seems that the Colonel probably had a hand in early aeoronautic design and development while in the early RAF. Did he have a career in the earlier RFC, or even in the Royal Engineers, which begat the RFC??

Bowden cables, stranded steel wire running inside a spiral steel sleeve. Still used today for motorcycle controls and many other uses.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowden_cable

A different Bowden, although it's not quite clear which one.

Neil

Perhaps editors of major magazines should get a page too. Thought I'd found one "Ted" but turned up yet another blinkin' politician.

Creating a biography page on Wikipedia, even if only a stub, is no mean feat. It is an extremely finicky process not helped by an arcane syntax that would have felt more at home in the late eighties.

I have always felt that Georg Schlesinger the originator of Schlesinger Limits for machine tools described in his book "Testing Machine Tools" deserved a Wikipedia page. A couple of false starts in trying to create a basic biography for him has given me an appreciation of just how much time and effort is involved in setting up a Wikipedia page.

Edited By clivel on 23/07/2016 20:44:55

Hi Clive, someone else has done it for you. there's a page on the German site, perhaps it can be auto-translated then tidied up?

But all you need to know for a basic article is to write a block of text with no formatting other than paragraphs, put any links between paired square brackets like this:

[[www.link.com | display text]]

For references:

< ref > www.reference.com reference text < / ref >

(remove the spaces in the brackets)

then at the end put:

=References=

{{reflist}}

Follow that simple template ensuring you use some links and references to 'validate' it and avoid speedy deletion and you will be OK.

I got started by editing articles, then when I was ready to create one I used the 'edit' page of another article to copy a page laid out like the one I wanted and changing the text and links.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 24/07/2016 09:22:02

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 24/07/2016 09:23:14

Does anyone have a copy of Smoke Rings from ME 3742 7 December 1984? It has an obituary of C E Biowden.

Thanks

Neil

Guess that he might have been a contemporary of George Honnest-Redlich, he was another R/C pioner, worked with ED then set up on his own.

Edited By V8Eng on 24/07/2016 14:14:52

Hi Neil,

Thanks, that is a very useful template. I had made a few basic edits in the past but it was starting a new page from scratch that was holding me back.

My interest in Schlesinger was first piqued by a Tubal Cain article in ME on setting up a lathe if I recall correctly. While searching for information on Schlesinger I came across the German site and also found a very interesting PDF article: No Limits: Georg Schlesinger I wrote to the author a few months back suggesting that he submit it to ME or MEW for publication. He replied that he probably would.

Thanks,
Clive

He has, although he wants to include some material which is still copyright in the UK but out of copyright in South Africa. I have contacted the publishers but no joy we will have to omit it or wait until October 2019.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 24/07/2016 15:21:11

I'm sure you're right. I was a failed aeromodeller before getting into model engineering

Neil

Doesn't MyTimeMedia have an archive? I should have a copy but they are in the deepest recesses of my loft. If no-one else gets back in the next few days I'll go exploring

Yes- here is the commentary- Quote:-

C. E. Bowden

We regret to report the death on 9 October 1984 of Colonel C. E Bowden at the age of 85. Older readers will remember him as perhaps the best known pioneer of petrol engined model aircraft and regular contributor to Model Engineer on aircraft topics from 1931 onward. His association with the late Edgar Westbury had considerable influence on petrol engine design, notably in the Atom series, and it was the Atom II that he established a new duration record in 1932, comfortably exceeding Stranger's record which had stood since 1912.

In the 1950's and 1960's Claude Bowden was active with radio controlled sailing craft and added a book on the subject to the several he had written on model aircraft, His passing closes a major chapter in the history of models and the Editor extends on behalf of all readers , sincere sympathy to his widow Grace.

I'm intrigued by the varying ranks given to Claude Bowden over his career. They seem to be more army than airforce. RAF Regiment perhaps?

Rod

A wild guess but perhaps he was in the Royal Flying Corps. The RFC was part of the British Army and officers had army ranks. I'm pretty sure that Biggles was a Captain during WW1.

Dave.

It does indeed, but I'm 160 miles away and I doubt anyone down in deepest Kent will be in a hurry to go searching through endless boxes for me

Neil

Thanks Richard,

It's a bit light on information, but I can at least work out his dates and use them to find our more.

I think Bowden may actually have been an army officer. You didn't have to be RAF to teach at Cranwell - my grandfather taught radar there and was ex-army and ex-navy (radio-operator/sonar) but blagged an RAF commission as he was tecahing officers! Not many folk served in all three services, with her typical grim humour my gran said she met a soldier, married a sailor and buried an aircraftsman!

Neil

Letter to"The Motor" from March 1960 - excuse what are clearly scanning errors. The reference to 'planes I had flown', presumably before he had the car in 1920-21 and his age suggest he must have been in at the end of the RFC or beginning of the RAF:

The article on the AN. Monocar revived pleasant memories of this delightfully simple but effective lit Ile machine for its day. I had two Of them, one in England and then one in India, for they had a fascination for me. perhaps because they were reminiscent of the exeiting titiy.s of the early aeroplanes I had flown, with their wire-andbobbin control, narrow streamlined plywood " fuselage," and aircraft-type cockpit behind a genuine .aero-screen. It would even be fun to have one today if it could be found !

Although a poor photograph by modern standards, the accompanying picture shows the salient features of the machine rather well, and was taken immediately after I had set up the fastest time of the day for the flying mile for four-wheelers, during a winter speed event On the Plains of India around 1020-21. Steering this narrow cigar with flimsy tyres was reasonably simple at normal road speeds, but at full throttle was quite exciting. I recall that girl friends were perched half OR a small space immediately behind the driver and half on the near-side rear mudguard, with a cushion between girl and the machine's irregularities, and with the feet resting in comparative cleanliness On the running-board. One must remember that those were the days when "walking out " was usually carried out on the spartan carrier of a rigid-framed big-twin Zenith Gradua, and the luxury of an A.V. Monocar was something of an allurement.

One night, as a young subaltern, I was dining with my Colonel at Rawalpindi, and I secured the task of taking his charming daughter to the Club dance on the aforementioned seat of my glamorous Monocar. Half way there, the journey was brought to an abrupt end when the semi-exposed chain from the rear-mounted air-eooled big vee-twin J.A.P. engine somehow collected my delightful passenger's billowy and flimsy dance frock between sprocket and chain. In a trice the dress was wound off the Colonel's daughter, and I had the difficult task of returning her to her amazed parent unclad. Fortunately those were the days when the Army was just getting down to serious mechanisation, and its potentialities were being received with more understanding. I am, Yours, etc.,

Bournetnouth. C. E. BowDEN (Lt.-Colonel. Rid.).