1880s. This system dramatically reduced the amount of coal used in ships' boilers. Howden patented this device in 1882 as the 'Howden System of Forced Draught' and during the 1880s more than 1000 boilers were converted to this specification or constructed to Howden's patent. The first vessel to use the system was the New York City, built in 1885. Amongst the liners to use the Howden system in their boilers were the Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest liners in the world when they were built. Howden's original Glasgow factory being too small for his expanding operation, he had a new, larger one designed by Nisbet Sinclair at 195 Scotland Street, down the road from his original factory. This opened in 1898 and featured overhead cranes, handling equipment and central-heating (a rarity at the time). As a result of an overflowing order book, the factory was enlarged, first in 1904, and again in 1912, to a design by Bryden & Robertson. As of 2009, this redbrick factory – "one of the last remaining Victorian heavy engineering works in Glasgow", and the place where the tunnel boring machines used in the excavation of the Channel Tunnel were made – lies empty. In the 1900s, Howden designed a fully enclosed high-speed marine steam engine. This was later modified for use in land-based systems as the Howden-Zoelly steam turbine. At the onset of the First World War, a year after Howden's death, the Admiralty ruled that all ships were to be fitted with Howden "blowers" so that they could outrun U-boats. Amongst the projects that Howden worked on were assisting the St Helena Whaling Company, quarrying marble in Greece and working on the design of a recoilless gun for the Admiralty. Howden was the last surviving founder member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, founded in 1857. Although he was a lifelong Liberal, he took no part in politics or public life. Bibliography References External links Official website of the Howden Group 1832 births 1913 deaths Scottish engineers Scottish inventors People from Prestonpans 19th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish people 19th-century Scottish businesspeople