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Peter started his first real job, fresh out of grad school, in January 1965 as a management trainee for Tubewrights Ltd., a unit of Stewarts & Lloyds, the British steel giant, at a plant in Kirkby Industrial Estate outside Liverpool, England.

He was assigned to serve as engineer on the project to design and full scale test a geodetic transmission tower.

The structural design work used traditional principles but the structural analysis used computer methods and an IBM 7094 – real cutting edge technologies back in 1965!

The prototype geodetic transmission tower is shown at test assembly in the summer of 1965 at Tubewrights Ltd., outside Liverpool, England. Peter is shown with his supervisor, Technical Director Francis Somerset.

The design of joint system: The same cast steel components are used in all joints in the geodetic transmission tower.

The design of the joint system had been a sticking point in progress. The design ultimately used was invented by Peter and made the tower viable for assembly and business economics. Peter’s name was added to these of the 3 Tubewrights Ltd. directors on the patent, which was updated and filed in 27 countries in 1965

The project was reported on in the International Conference on Space Structures in London in 1966 – shown is Page 1 of 19 in Peter’s first conference paper

General arrangement of the geodetic transmission ower, 152 ft. high – from page 3 in the conference paper

The 152 ft. tall geodetic tower in the Monkey Hole full scale testing site in Derbyshire, England, viewed from the top

Peter Lovie graduated with a Master of Applied Mechanics degree in June 1964 from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. His thesis was “Stability of Members in Dome Structures"

Peter's First Real Job

Working & Pioneering