Alexander Duckham
| Alexander Duckham | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 March 1877 Blackheath, London, England |
| Died | 1 February 1945 (aged 67) |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Tribology, lubricants |
| Known for | Duckhams Oils |
| Influences | Sir Alfred Yarrow |
Alexander Duckham (11 March 1877 – 1 February 1945) was an English chemist and businessman, best known for the development of machine lubricants. The son of an engineer, after university he specialised in lubrication, working briefly for Fleming's Oil Company before founding his own company, Alexander Duckham & Co, in Millwall in 1899.
By the outbreak of World War I, he was an authority on technological problems relating to lubrication, and the company went public in about 1920, relocating from Millwall to Hammersmith. By the time he died in 1945, Duckhams had assumed a dominant position for the supply of lubricants and corrosion inhibitors to the motor industry in Britain and other markets. A new manufacturing plant was opened in Staffordshire in 1968, and soon thereafter the company was taken over by BP.
Duckham was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest son of a Falmouth-born mechanical and civil engineer, Frederic Eliot Duckham (1841 - died 13 January 1918 in Blackheath), who had patented improvements in governors for marine engines and invented a 'Hydrostatic Weighing Machine'. His mother was Maud Mary McDougall (1849-1921), sister of John McDougall of the flour-making family, which had a mill at Millwall Dock. His younger brother, Arthur Duckham, became one of the founders of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and its first President.
Upon leaving university in 1899, Alexander Duckham, who had worked briefly for Fleming's Oil Company, was encouraged by engineer Sir Alfred Yarrow, who lived nearby (Yarrow occupied Woodlands House in Mycenae Road, Westcombe Park for some years from 1896, close to the Duckham family home in Dartmouth Grove, Blackheath) to specialise in the study of lubrication, and was introduced to engineering firms with lubrication problems. Duckham established Alexander Duckham & Co in Millwall in 1899, and gradually assembled a team of engineers and chemists to whom he could delegate research work, freeing him to focus on lubricant production. Early customers included car dealer and racing driver Selwyn Edge who called weekly at Duckham's Millwall works for an oil change; Duckham, who bought his first car in 1899, also used to accompany Edge to Brooklands.
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