Dugald Clerk

Sir Dugald Clerk (1854 to 1932) was a Scottish engineer, born in Glasgow, who designed the world's first successful two-stroke engine in 1878 and patented it in England in 1881. He studied at Anderson's College in Glasgow and at the Yorkshire College of Science in Leeds. His engine work began in October 1878 when he modified a Brayton Ready Motor with a spark plug, and he decided to build a compression engine on the two-stroke cycle for its weight and smoothness benefits; the Clerk engine reached the market after the end of 1880. In 1878 he also designed the first supercharger used with an engine, on a two-stroke gas engine. He wrote three books on the development of the oil and gas engine, the first edition appearing in 1886, formed the intellectual property firm Marks and Clerk with George Croydon Marks, served the Admiralty as Director of Engineering Research in the First World War, and was knighted in 1917.