(See end of page for link to the Short History booklet)  

Historical Note    

The Manchester Network is probably unique amongst local centres of the Institution of Engineering Technology (IET), formerly the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE), in that it was inaugurated as a completely independent body called The Northern Society of Electrical Engineers.

Late in 1893 Mr George E Preece, Chief Electrical Engineer and Works Manager to W T Glover in association with other Manchester electrical engineers and industrialists resolved to form a Society with the object of "holding meetings for the promotion of Electrical Science and its commercial and other applications and for social intercourse between the members". George Preece had been Secretary of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, i.e. the IEE under its original title, but had resigned when he moved from London to Manchester in 1876.

In November 1893 at a meeting of founder members at the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly, a draft constitution for the new Society was approved and this date marks the inauguration of the Northern Society of Electrical Engineers. The founder President was Dr John Hopkinson FRS, a distinguished Mancunian and a past President of the IEE in London.

The rules for membership are still echoed today in the Institution requirements. They stated that every member must possess one or other of the following qualifications:

• He shall have been regularly educated as an Electrical Engineer (according to the usual routine of pupilage) and have subsequent employment for at least two years in a responsible situation, or
• He shall have practiced on his own account in the profession of Electrical Engineer for at least two years, and have acquired a degree of eminence in the same, or
• He shall be so intimately associated with Electrical Science that the Council considers his admission to membership would conduce to the interest of the Society.

An inaugural dinner was held at the Palatine Hotel, Manchester on 22 January 1894 when George Preece reported that there were in membership, 50 residents of Manchester and 50 'provincials' which included Londoners represented by Mr SZ de Ferranti!

Palatine hotel

Thereafter all meetings were held at the Palatine Hotel and a small room was rented to become the Society's headquarters and office. Several members served the Society as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer in its early years but it was agreed in 1896 that paid assistance was required and a permanent, part time secretary was appointed at a salary of £25 per annum. At that time the entrance fee for members was £2-2s-Od (two guineas) and the annual subscription was £1-11s-6d (One and a half guineas).

Papers

The papers read at meetings were of first importance and together with the subsequent discussions were published in the form of Proceedings of the Northem Society of Electrical Engineers. The five volumes are now held in the IET library at Savoy Place. On more than one occasion permission was sought by the IEE (London) to reprint Northern Society papers in the Joumal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

IEE and Northern Society

Towards the end of 1897 the IEE was considering the formation of branches in the provinces and, inter alia, affiliation with the Northem Society of Electrical Engineers. Many of the members of the Northem Society were also IEE members so there was considerable though by no means unanimous support for amalgamation. 

Negotiations continued and on 18 December 1899 the Northem Council under the Presidency of Mr SZ de Ferranti accepted the proposals of the Institution for amalgamation. The creation of the successor body The Manchester District Local Section of the Institution of Electrical Engineers was announced by the IEE President, Professor Silvanus P Thompson on 8 March 1900.

At its formation the Manchester District had 166 members resident in Lancashire, Cheshire and West Yorkshire. Membership of the Institution and its centres has grown apace and there are now separate centres serving Merseyside and North Wales, Yorkshire and Lancashire and South Cumbria. The Manchester District was renamed the North Westem Centre in 1918 when the Institution decided that names should better reflect the territory served and it is perhaps ironic that by the year 2000 the North Westem Centre's 4500 members are nearly all residents or employed within Greater Manchester.

For many years at the beginning of the century meetings were held at Owens College and the strong links then established with academia continue to this day. However, when the Engineers Club was founded in 1913 by a group of prominent Manchester engineers at premises in Albert Square this became the regular meeting place for the Centre and remained so for the next 50 years.

Specialised sections

Over the years specialised sections have been established to meet the needs of members involved in the various branches of electrical science i.e. power generation, transmission and utilisation, electronics, radio and telecommunications; information technology etc. but as early as 1904 a need was seen for a Student Section to meet the particular needs of young people entering the profession. 

Although engineering is still widely regarded as male dominated it is interesting to note that in 1919 a Miss Madeline Nott read a paper on Power Factor Correction at a meeting of the student section and also undertook the duties of Students Honorary Secretary. In the following year a Miss GL Entwisle of the North Western Centre became the first woman to be elected as an Associate Member of the Institution.

The Manchester branch

In recent years the Institution has amalgamated with the Institution of Electronics and Radio Engineers and the Institution of Manufacturing Engineers. In the latter case this amalgamation bears testimony to the increasing influence of electrically controlled and operated plant, in all modem manufacturing processes.

In September 2000, as a result of a strategic review of the Institution's activities and regional operations, the North Western Centre, with some minor boundary adjustments, became known as the The Manchester Branch.

That small band of enthusiasts who met at the Albion Hotel over 100 years ago could not have envisaged that at the turn of the 20th Century every citizen of Manchester would each day be dependent upon electricity in so many different ways. Nor would they have foreseen that the body they founded would stage some 40 events per year covering the various aspects of electrical science of interest to its 4500 members and to the public at large.

Author: J E Officer
(Written for the Centenary Year 2000 - edited update)
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A Short History of the North Western Centre of The Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1900 - 2000

The above booklet was circulated to members of the Centre in its Centenary year, 2000 - since then the Centre has been re-named The Manchester Branch and later became the IET Manchester Network following the merger with the Institution of Incorporated Engineers.
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