Neville
S Billington OBE MSc PPIHVE FCIBSE was one of
the giants of the Building Engineering
Services industry during the 20th century. He
was not a practising engineer but a scientist,
educator, author, researcher and communicator.
During his career he was a Principal
Scientific Officer at the Building Research
Station (BRE), Head of the National
College for Heating, Ventilating,
Refrigeration & Fan Engineering and
Director of The Building Services Research and
Information Association BSRIA).
He
was perhaps the UK’s leading authority on heat
transmission in buildings, a subject on which he
wrote numerous papers and several textbooks. He
developed the theories of unsteady heat flow
and intermittent heating and was one of the
first authors to write extensively about vapour
transfer and condensation in buildings.and
like Tredgold was a true polymath, writing
wide-ranging articles from the evolution of
lighthouses to showing how the 70 degF isotherm
spurred the development of the Ancient
Civilisations of Egypt, Arabia and Persia.
He was
a keen member of the Rumford Club (a Dining Club for
members of the industry) wrote the first History of
the Club 1947 – 2000, and served as its Secretary.
He was interested in art and was an accomplished
painter of landscapes in water colours. In
later years his services were recognised by the
award of the CIBSE Gold Medal and Honorary
Membership of REHVA. |