John Gilbert Wager
WAGER, John Gilbert, BE MEngSc PhD (Purdue) CIRP FIEAust (1932-2024)
John Gilbert Wager was born on June 20, 1932 to Laurence and Elsie Wager and spent his early years in Subiaco, Western Australia. In 1942, as Japan was attacking Australia, he was evacuated temporarily to his uncle’s farm the West Australian town of Koorda where he attended a one-room school. On returning to live in Cottesloe, he would cycle to Fremantle to observe supporting operations for the 160 submarines based there, familiarising himself with tugboat engine rooms. At other times, he would take the steam train to Subiaco station, a busy industrial centre with frequent goods train shunting movements. He befriended some of the engine drivers who let me ride the footplate with them on occasions.
After the war he won a scholarship to the elite Perth Modern School and strengthened his life-long interest in mechanical engineering. He was awarded a General Exhibition for his final Leaving Certificate examination results, placing him among the top 20 in his cohort.
He spent leisure hours at Perth airport, then at Maylands, where he often enjoyed acrobatic flights with former RAAF pilots wanting to keep up their flying hours. He even spent time at the West Subiaco airfield on what is now McGillivray Oval.
He commenced his engineering degree at UWA in 1950. Some of his fellow students were returned service men, considerably older and more mature, prompting a lifelong desire for travel. He was one of five students studying mechanical engineering in the then Civil Engineering department (Mechanical Engineering would not be recognised as a department until the arrival of Prof. David Allen-Williams a decade later. Ray Minchin and Dr. Gordon Lutz taught the mechanical courses. Both had substantial industry experience: Minchin worked with the railways and Lutz had worked in the UK nuclear industry.) His fourth year internship was at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory in Melbourne making gear wheels for aircraft engines of all kinds, radial piston engines and the newly emerging jet engines used by the air force Vampires. His final year research project in 1954 helped convert the former submarine torpedo factory at Welshpool to tractor making as “Chamberlains”.
In 1953, John served as secretary of the principal student society for the engineering school, the University Engineers’ Club.
After graduating with first class honours for his bachelor degree, he spent six months at the Ford motor vehicle assembly plant in Stirling Highway, North Fremantle, in the building that was later turned into a boutique brewery. He soon appreciated the value of occupational health and safety knowledge after a V8 engine rolled and crushed one of his toes. Eventually his toe was repaired properly by a British surgeon in Preston, Lancashire where he commenced a two-year apprenticeship with English Electric’s diesel engine factory.
By 1958, he was teaching at the University of Western Australia where he pursued a Masters degree specializing in metrology, the science of precision measurement. He investigated pneumatic non-contact measurement of precision machined parts, specifically the surface finish quality obtainable with different grinding machines, both for flat surfaces and curved gear teeth.
Two years later, John set off with his wife and three children for PhD studies at Purdue University, Indiana, thanks to a Fullbright travel scholarship. He completed a nominal five year programme in a little over three years. His thesis research was aimed at predicting the service life of machine tool cutters, critical knowledge for the development of automated machining centres. He also learned about electric discharge machining (EDM) from nearby factories making the plastic injection moulds for motor vehicle lamps. He brought this new technology back to Western Australia where several of his graduate students developed improvements.
He returned to the University of Western Australia in 1965. A few years later, he was elected as one of few Australian members of the prestigious Committee Internationale pour Research et Production (CIRP), the leading international society for Industrial Engineering. CIRP was based in Paris and Frankfurt so he found his high school knowledge of French and German immensely helpful.
John created a specialized laboratory for metrology in the department, also a laboratory for machine tool research and development.
John oversaw the fundamental change in mechanical engineering teaching as the former “drawing offices” were replaced by computer laboratories. Until the late-1960s, mechanical and civil engineering students spent much of their final two years in drawing offices, producing large drawings with pens, instruments and sliding “T-squares”. By the mid-1970s, John saw the urgent need to ensure students could become fully familiar with computer-aided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM). He introduced computer-controlled machine tools to the department, providing the foundation for later ambitious projects such as developing sheep shearing robots and also the highly successful Formula SAE racing car teams in the 1990s and early 2000s. John directed the CAD/CAM laboratory at UWA until a full-time professional director, Stuart North, was recruited to take on the role of teaching students and running the growing fleet of computer-controller machine tools.
In 1974, he was invited to teach part of the Cambridge industrial MBA course, “Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management” (ACDMM). The thirty students accepted for the course worked on a series of nine industrial projects working in rotating teams of two. The students had to organize transport logistics for around 100 industry visits during the twelve-month programme. The students were assessed on their team contributions as well as their academic performance: one of the earliest applications of problem- and project-based learning. John participated in this and similar courses at Durham University, Cranfield Institute of Technology, the University of Lancaster, and Waterloo University.
Apart from teaching engineering statistics and industrial engineering, he introduced a final year subject “Humans In Industry” which I was privileged to take over on his retirement in 1997. John adapted his experience with the ACDMM programme in the UK and collaborated closely with the Industrial Foundation for Accident Prevention in WA and local companies.
Paradoxically, it was the steep decline in West Australian manufacturing that prompted John to build his international research connections by travelling extensively on study leave grants. He was a regular presence at CIRP conferences where he met Prof. Brian Stone from Bristol University who had developed a keen interest in machine tool vibrations. Brian later spent a sabbatical at UWA and subsequently joined in 1981 as professor and later department head of mechanical engineering. Travel money was tightly restricted at the time. Brian recalls how he and John Wager camped for a CIRP conference in Belgium that they attended together to save the cost of hotel accommodation. After eating sauerkraut with beer and jam on toast for breakfast, they would emerge from their tents in suits and ties for the day’s conference events.
John travelled extensively and presented courses in many universities. He was particularly keen on helping universities in developing countries. His first experience was in 1973-74 when he lectured at Witwatersrand University. During his stay he enthusiastically accepted an invitation to teach a course for academics at Lourenco Marques University in Mozambique.
In 1976 he taught for a semester at Waterloo University in Canada where the students were working simultaneously in companies while studying in a format similar to the ACDMM programme.
In 1977 he was asked to conduct classes to help South Korean academics gain a domestic capacity for metrology research and development. Later he visited Indonesian universities many times, even experiencing first-hand the breakdown in law and order following the South East Asian currency crisis in 1998.
In 1985-86, John was back with the ACDMM programme, this time at Lancaster University, spending most of his time with local companies but also with opportunities to visit colleagues at Cambridge from time to time. He returned again in 1992-93, this time developing projects with Scottish companies, one of which relied on West Australian mineral sands for abrasion-resistant ceramic moulds used for continuous steel casting. He also arranged projects on the Isle of Man where his maternal grandfather has come from.
On a memorable occasion, he accompanied Prof. Brian Stone on a brief teaching visit to Hunan University following the 1988 CIRP conference in Tokyo. He described the experience as two-way learning for they had to work with simultaneous translation through an interpreter.
Before he retired in 1997, John served as Dean.
John chaired the Mechanical College board for Engineers Australia, dividing his time between Canberra and Indonesia in 1998 following his retirement from UWA. His Indonesian contributions were helping 52 universities develop engineering curricula that would meet the requirements of the international Washington Accord that has help standardize engineering education globally. He had long been a keen supporter of Engineers Australia, formerly the Institution of Engineers, Australia which he had joined in 1953 as a student. He joined the WA mechanical branch committee in 1967, serving as chair in 1989. He had several stints on the WA division committee as well, serving as chair in 1990. Following his retirement from UWA he served on the national council of Engineers Australia from 1999 till 2002 as vice-president. John was awarded the title Honorary Fellow in 2007.
John will be fondly remembered by many generations of UWA engineering students, not the least for introducing us to the term “fiducial”, a word most of us associate with his careful and precise use of the English language. We all have good reason to be grateful for his long and hard-working life and his contributions to the University.
With his first wife Judith, he had daughters Sue and Julie, and son Peter. After Judith passed away, he married Coralie Parker, and outlived her as well. At his passing he had five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
John passed away peacefully with his family in hospital on April 17, 2024 after an extended illness.
The material in this article was primarily based on the author’s experience as a student and staff member in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UWA and an oral history interview conducted by Doug Ayre in 2012 on behalf of the West Australian Engineering Heritage Committee.
James Trevelyan, May 2024
References:
EHWA Oral History Interview, 2012.>br>
UWA Oral History interview, 2014 https://oralhistories.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/62
James Trevelyan, personal communication 2024.
