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Wilson College of Textiles 
Textiles History

Peter Reeves Lord

Professor Emeritus, College of Textiles, NCSU

Peter Reeves Lord, Professor Emeritus, College of Textiles, NC State University
Years of Service NCSU Textiles 1969-1990

Peter Reeves Lord was born February 10, 1923 in Langdon Cottage, Ruckinge, Kent England. He studied Mechanical Engineering while serving apprenticeships with several firms.  He received a B.Sc. (Eng.) (Hons) from the University of London in 1950.  He moved through several positions from Draughtsman, Fairey Aviation; to Engineer, Vacuum Oil Co.; and finally to Senior Test Engineer, at Vickers Armstrong where he worked on marine engineering projects.  He became a lecturer at UMIST from 1958-59 during which time he studied in his spare time for his Ph.D. through the External Program in the University of London.  He graduated in 1969 and later accepted an appointment as Associate Professor at the School of Textiles, NC State.

Open End Spinning.  Dr. Lord established a reputation as a yarn spinning specialist at UMIST.  Dean Malcolm Campbell actively recruited new faculty with earned Ph.Ds. to bolster a new Ph.D. program in the School of Textiles.  Peter joined the faculty and began a concentrated effort to introduce a new “open-end” spinning technology based on research that first emerged from Czechoslovakia.  Within a short time, nine companies joined a consortium that enabled Lord to purchase a BD200 rotor-spinning machine, the second such machine in the US. (2, page 128). Several new types of machine were acquired after that. That consortium lasted until he retired in 1990.

Dr. Lord in front of one of the open end spinning units at NC State

Named Abel C. Lineberger Professor Harold Lineberger, Peter, and Joe Lineberger

He was named Abel C. Lineberger Professor of Textiles in 1975 in recognition of his research in Open End Spinning.  In 1976, he was awarded a D.Sc. (Eng.) by the University of London for his contributions to textile engineering.  The ASME presented him the Harold DeWitt Smith Award in 1979 for contributions to the science and technology of textile fibers and their utilization and for elucidating the behavior of textile structures in processing, for both students and industry.

ASTM Harold DeWitt Smith Award presentation
Fred Fortess, Peter Lord, unknown

ASTM Harold DeWitt Smith Award presentation
Unknown, Peter Lord

Awards continued to accumulate.  He was given the Alexander von Humboldt US Senior Scientist Award in 1980 for past accomplishments in research and teaching.  Kappa Tau Beta Named him Man of the Year in 1981. The University presented him with an Alumni Distinguished Professor Award in 1982.  He was a Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia in 1987.  The University named him Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor in 1989.  Phi Psi named him Man of the Year in 1990.  He received the Warner Memorial Medal from The Textile Institute in 1991.

A large installation of open end spinning at a modern yarn plant, Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina Hunt Allen Textiles Extension, Philip A. Baddour, Jr., Wayne County Econ.  Development Committee Chairman Peter Lord, Jimmie Edmundson, Wayne County Chamber of Commerce President.  Cover: North Carolina:The Voice of Business, Industry and the Professions, Vol. 48 No. 2, Feb 1990

Textile Engineering Program. (2)  The General Administration and Board of Governors granted permission on October 10, 1985, to plan a degree for Bachelor of Science in Textile Engineering.  There were textile- engineering degrees in existence since the textile program was created in 1899, but with the creation of a separate Textile School in the 1920s, the last textile engineering degree was granted in 1928. The new program required nine completely new courses.  Dr. Lord insisted on teaching TE 201, the first of the series of yarn courses, because he wanted contact with incoming students.  Later, Peter had to give up his TE 201 course in order to have the time to teach TE 401 and 402, the senior Textile Engineering Design course. After retirement, he took part in awards to the student groups who created the best engineering design of the year.

Peter is married to Mavis (née Hatt), and has two sons, Edward, a retired airline pilot, and Kevin, a banker, as well a daughter, Angela, who is an architect and classroom manager at NCSU.

Patents:

  1. P. R. Lord, BP 1,042,079, Improvements in or Relating to the Means of Checking Shuttles.  Issued 1966. (No electronic version available)
  2. Peter R. Lord, USP 4,758,968, “Method and Apparatus for Continuously Measuring the Variability of Textile Strands, Assigned to NC State University, Filed May 16,1985, Issued Jul 19, 1988.
  3. Peter R. Lord, USP 5,010,494, “Method and Apparatus for Detecting Mechanical Roll Imperfections in a Roller Drafting System,” Assigned to NC State University, Filed Sept 9, 1988, Issued Apr 23, 1991.

Selected Papers and Presentations:

  1. P. R. Lord, “Water Analogues in Flow Visualization” Research, Techniques & Instrumentation, pp 4-7, Feb 1966.
  2. P. R. Lord. “An Image Dissection Method of Measuring Dynamic Photoelastic Fringe Movement” J British Soc for Strain Measurement, 3(2):8-12, 1967.
  3. P.R. Lord, “High Speed Photography and Photoelasticity,” Proc. International Congress on High-speed Photography, O Helwich, Darmstadt, Vienna, 543-547, 1967.
  4. Peter R. Lord, “Spinning and Quality Control,” International Textile Conference on Developments in Spun Yarn Production,” The South India Textile Research Association, Coimbatore, India, January 7-8, 1982
  5. Franklin S. Looney and Peter R. Lord, “The Future is Not Just an Extension of the Past,” Globalization –Technological, Economic and Environmental Imperatives, 75th World Conf. of The Textile Institute, Atlanta, GA, Sept. 26, 1994.
  6. Peter R. Lord, “Some Thoughts about Yarn Balloons,” EFS Research Conference, Raleigh, NC, Nov. 5, 1999.

Books:

  1. Lord, P. R., Ed., Spinning in the 70s, Merrow Publishing, Hempstead Rd., Watford 1970, 288 pages
  2. Lord, Peter R. and Mansour H. Mohamed, Conversions of Yarns to Fabric, Merrow Publishing. Co., Shildon, Durham, England. 2nd ed.,1981, 379 pages
  3. Lord, Peter, R., The Economics, Science and Technology of Yarn Production, The Textile Institute, Manchester, England, 616 pages, 1st ed. 1981.
  4. Peter R. Lord., Handbook of Yarn Production, The Textile Institute, Manchester, CRC Press LLC Boca Raton, & Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Cambridge England, 2003, 493 pages.

 

Sources:

  1. Peter R. Lord, Personal communications, June 2012.
  2. Mock, Gary N., A Century of Progress: The Textile Program North Carolina State University 1899-1999, North Carolina Textile Foundation, Raleigh, 2001, pages 15, 46,168, 268.
  3. Cover, North Carolina:The Voice of Business, Industry and the Professions, Vol. 48 No. 2, Feb 1990