Winifred Hackett

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Winifred Hackett
Born2 October 1906
Kings Norton, England
Died3 June 1994
OccupationEngineer

Winifred Hackett (2 October 1906 – 3 June 1994) was an electrical and aeronautical engineer who worked on guided weapon systems and the DEUCE computer.

Early life and education[edit]

Hackett was born in Kings Norton, an area of Birmingham on 2 October 1906.

She attended King Edward's Girls’ High School in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Hackett was an exceptional student and won a scholarship whilst at the school. She originally planned to study architecture and for a time attended UCL with this purpose, but decided to change academic direction, returning to Birmingham to study engineering instead.[1]

In 1929 Hackett was the first woman to graduate from the University of Birmingham with an engineering degree,[2][3] and won the prize for the 'Best Engineer in the University of Birmingham' in 1930.[3] Hackett's academic success resulted in the award of the Bowen Scholarship for Electrical Engineering, which enabled her to stay on to earn an MSc.[4] A further grant from the Institution of Electrical Engineers' War Thanksgiving Education and Research Fund in 1930 supported her a to earn a PhD on selenium cells, again at the University of Birmingham.[5]

She then became an aeronautical engineer.

Career[edit]

Hackett's first job was at the British Electrical and Allied Industries Research Association at Perivale[6] and then Leatherhead, where she worked as a Junior Technical Assistant.[5] During this time she was researching dielectrics and published a number of papers on dielectrics, capacitors and DC design.[7] She encouraged colleagues, including Miriam Violet Griffith, to join the Women's Engineering Society.[6]

By the 1950s Hackett was head of the Guided Weapons Division at aerospace and defence company English Electric, working on Mathematical Physics,[8][9] and based first in Luton and later in Stevenage. She was in charge of the DEUCE computer and its programming on punched cards and paper tape. The Deuce was a commercialised version of Alan Turing’s ACE computer. of which 33 were sold and which had a library of over 1,000 programmes.[2] The period when Hackett ran the guided weapons division also saw the development of the Thunderbird surface to air missile and other ballistic missiles.[2]

In the early 1960s Hackett joined the Manchester Business School as a Senior Research Fellow[10] where she undertook statistical analysis.[11] It was here that the future software designer Judy Butland became her mathematical assistant and computer.[12]

Memberships and personal life[edit]

Having been involved with the Women's Engineering Society since 1929, particularly the Manchester branch, in 1943 Hackett was elected to the governing council. In August that year she chaired a meeting which set up a branch in Birmingham, and shortly afterwards was elected vice president of the main organisation.[7]

She became the President of the Women's Engineering Society (WES) in 1946,[13] succeeding Margaret Partridge in the role. Hackett's successor as president was Frances Heywood.

In 1950, she and fellow senior WES members, Ira Rischowski and Sheila Leather published a report on equal pay for women in engineering, which concluded that there was "no justification for lower salary scales for women".[14]

Hackett was a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.[8]

Hackett's interests included fashion and the theatre, and very accurate map reading. Even in retirement, when her own health was suffering, she devised various aids for disabled people.[4]

Winifred Hackett died in on 3 June 1994.[2]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Hackett, Winifred; Morris Thomas, A. (1941). "The electric strength of mica and its variation with temperature". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers - Part I: General. 88 (8): 295–303. doi:10.1049/ji-1.1941.0068.
  • Austen, A.E.W.; Hackett, W. (1944). "Internal discharges in dielectrics: their observation and analysis". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers - Part I: General. 91 (44): 298–312. doi:10.1049/ji-1.1944.0073.

External Sites[edit]

http://www.magnificentwomen.co.uk/engineer-of-the-week/88-winifred-hackett

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Electrical Association for Women – Twenty-One Years". The Woman Engineer. 6 (3): 33. 1930. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Engineer of the Week". Magnificent Women.
  3. ^ a b "University of Birmingham".
  4. ^ a b "Obituary". The Woman Engineer. 15 (6): 10. 1994.
  5. ^ a b "News of Members and New Members". The Woman Engineer. 3 (5): 65. 1930. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  6. ^ a b Hackett, Winifred (1936). "The New E.R.A. Laboratory". The Woman Engineer. 4 (6): 84–86. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Twenty-Fourth Annual Report". The Woman Engineer. 5 (16): 1–5. 1943. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Engineering womanpower". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 3 (34): 542. 1957. doi:10.1049/jiee-3.1957.0264.
  9. ^ "Articles - A century celebrating women engineers". www.ingenia.org.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  10. ^ "News of Members". The Woman Engineer. 10 (2): 19. 1966. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  11. ^ Gowler, Dan (1969). "Determinants of the Supply of Labour to the Firm". Journal of Management Studies. 6: 73–95. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1969.tb00582.x.
  12. ^ "Judy Butland, software designer". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Presidents Past and Present". Women's Engineering Society. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  14. ^ Richowski, Ira; Hackett, Winifred; Leather, Sheila (1950). "Memorandum". The Woman Engineer. 6 (18): 330–334. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
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