waste energy on hot air
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Hot air, clean air, dehumidified air - MacWhirter is today one of the pioneers of environmental engineering, with energy conservation always one of its top priorities. In fact, the company has been finding ways of using energy to good effect for well over a century. One of the very first devices patented under the McWhirter name was a voltmeter and ammeter for measuring electricity, invented in 1883 by the company's founder, William McWhirter (1851-1933).
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William McWhirter was born in Ayr in 1851, studied at Newton-on-Ayr Academy, and began a career in telegraphy and railway work, employed by the Post Office telegraph department and then by a number of other firms before becoming telegraph engineer for Furness Railways in 1876. In 1880, while still working for Furness Railways, he also became a partner in an electrical engineering venture, Norman & Son, and he launched a branch of this firm in Glasgow in 1882; this was the business which was to evolve into the firm of MacWhirter Limited. The following year William McWhirter (1851-1933) left his job as telegraph engineer to concentrate on lighting contracts, and he also patented his invention of a combined volmeter and ammeter for measuring and indicating both ac and dc electrical currents in a circuit, which he registered as a 'new or improved electric meter' in July 1883. After various improvements and refinements to the original design, he eventually handed its manufacture over to the General Electric Company, and it became the basis for virtually every electricity meter in common use.
Meanwhile, the Glasgow branch of Norman & Son became McWhirter & Sons and moved to Govan, William McWhirter (1851-1933) married Marian, a girl from his home town of Ayr. His eldest son, Anthony (born in Barrow on 13th June 1876), who grew up sharing his father's interest in all things electrical, studied at the Glasgow & West of Scotland Technical College while working for his father.
In 1900 Anthony went to America to work for GEC Electrical Company of New York, gaining useful experience and finally becoming one of their trouble shooters, which took him all over the USA. While over there, to help the Americans pronounce his name, he had it altered to MacWhirter by deed poll and they were then sure he was Scottish and not Irish. Ironically though, Anthony's future lay neither in America nor his native Scotland. He returned - as Anthony MacWhirter - to Glasgow in 1905, supposedly on leave, but while he was there he married Jessie and decided not to go back to America. When he rejoined his father's company, however, his reputation as a troubleshooter followed him back home and he was in great demand all over the country. One job for which his services were sought was a contract for special repairs work in South Wales, including work on the power station at Roath, Cardiff, and there proved to be sufficient work there to occupy him on a permanent basis. So Anthony settled in Cardiff in 1912 and this city there after became the headquarters of the firm's operations nationwide.
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