Name Alex Moulton Role Engineer | Education Marlborough College | |
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Full Name Alexander Eric Moulton Born 9 April 1920 ( 1920-04-09 ) Stratford-upon-Avon, England, UK Died December 9, 2012, Royal United Hospital, Bath and North East Somerset, United Kingdom Parents Beryl Latimer Greene, John Coney Moulton Significant awards Order of the British Empire, Royal Academy of Engineering | ||
Significant projects Moulton Bicycle | ||
Veteran cycle club video archive alex moulton a lifetime in engineering
Alexander Eric ("Alex") Moulton CBE, FREng (9 April 1920 – 9 December 2012) was an English engineer and inventor, specialising in suspension design.
Contents
- Veteran cycle club video archive alex moulton a lifetime in engineering
- Dr alex moulton on design
- Biography
- Awards and honours
- References
Dr alex moulton on design
Biography
Moulton was educated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. He was the great-grandson of the rubber pioneer Stephen Moulton, the founder of the family business George Spencer Moulton & Co. Ltd., in which he worked after World War II, specialising in rubber suspension systems for vehicles. His father, John Coney Moulton, was a naturalist working in the Far East.
During the war he worked on engine design at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. In the late 1950s, after the acquisition of the family business by the Avon Rubber Company, Moulton started up a new company, Moulton Developments Limited, to design the suspension system for British Motor Corporation's new small car, the Mini, that was being designed by his friend Sir Alec Issigonis. The combination of conical rubber springs and small wheels was one of the many innovative developments that allowed Issigonis to achieve the Mini's small overall size. This was later refined into the hydrolastic and hydragas suspension systems used on later British Leyland cars such as the Austin Maxi, Austin Allegro, Leyland Princess and Rover Metro, and most recently on the MGF.
Moulton also designed the Moulton Bicycle, again using rubber suspension and small wheels. Moulton Bicycle Company is based in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England.
Awards and honours
In 1976, Moulton was awarded the CBE for services to industry. Other honours include:
Dr Moulton died on 9 December 2012 at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. His funeral, which was attended by 'Moultoneers' from all over the world, took place at Holy Trinity Church at Bradford-on-Avon on 19 December, after which he was interred in the family grave at Christ Church in the same town beside his great-grandfather, Stephen Moulton, who founded the Moulton dynasty in the Wiltshire town in 1848.