Sunday 3 February 2019

The Pullingers, Arroll Johnstons and the Paisley Connection

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, 14 February 2019 at 7.30, in room D133, McLean Building, UWS. Paisley Campus. This room is accessed via the main entrance in High Street and will be signposted.

The speaker will be Nina Baker on the above opic.

Guests are welcome, and we ask that they make a donation, suggested amount £3.00.

Nina has kindly provided the following information.

Biographical note:
Dr Nina Baker has had a varied career, largely in fields which have traditionally been male-dominated. On leaving school she became a merchant navy deck officer, serving for 7 years in tankers, and cargo ships. After a period abroad she returned to education and gained an engineering design degree and a PhD in concrete durability. Finding herself then in Glasgow with a young family she worked as an engineering research administrator in the various universities in the city. She was a Scottish Green Party Councillor on Glasgow City Council for ten years. Now fully retired, she amuses herself with engineering and construction history and in  particular with the stories of women in the history of engineering.

Summary of talk

This talk will reveal a largely forgotten segment of Paisley's engineering heritage: the early days of the Arrol Johnston automobile company and father and daughter team of Thomas and Dorothee Pullinger who took it from a small old fashioned not very successful factory to the most modern and go-ahead company of its era. Dorothee was the first woman to be inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame and was a founding member of the Women's Engineering Society, whose centenary is this year.

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