The death is announced of Mr. John Yule, of the Hutchestown Engine
Works, Rutherglen, N. B., at the age of 66. During early life, Mr.
Yule went the round of the best engineers' shops in Scotland and
England, and became one of the recognized leaders in engineering
progress. His inventiveness took various directions, amongst other
fruits being an improved rotary engine, a compensating governor for
the steam engine, and a screw tap, drill, and mandrel. For the latter
he was awarded the silver medal of the Scottish Society of Arts. For
some years Mr. Yule acted as the manager of the boiler department of
Messrs. Robert Napier & Son's establishment, but eventually resumed
business at the Hutchestown Works, and devoted attention amongst
other matters to the improvement of swing bridges and steam cranes and
hammers. In the former line two of his most important works are the
plate girder bridge over the entrance to one of the docks at Port
Glasgow, for the Caledonian Railway, erected from plans by Messrs.
Bell and Miller, C.E., Glasgow; and a lattice girder bridge over the
entrance to Kingston Dock, Glasgow Harbor. Owing to the angle at which
this last bridge crosses the dock, great difficulties were experienced
in working out the mechanical details so as to admit of easy motion.
These were skillfully overcome, and the bridge was, as finally
erected, a monument of his design as well as workmanship. The
Blackhill incline on the Monkland Canal, constructed nearly a quarter
of a century ago, is a sample of Mr. Yule's mechanical powers. Of late
years he was largely engaged as a professional valuator.
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