The early days of the Saunders‐Roe foil strain gauge
Peter Jackson · Strain · 1990
Peter Stein wrote to me in 1987 enclosing advance information on his proposed celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the resistance strain gauge in Portland, Oregon, and inviting WSM to become a ‘sponsor’ which was a way of raising funds to pay for the key pioneers and personalities to attend. For a modest sum one could sponsor an individual, and it suddenly occurred to me that one man who ought to be at the ‘party’ was Peter Jackson, who invented the foil strain gauge at Saunders‐Roe in the early 1950's. I joined Saunders‐Roe shortly after he left, and have spent most of my working life involved in the design, development, manufacture, selling or application of foil strain gauges. I had never met Peter, and I wasn't even sure if he was still ‘with us’. I had heard that he had relatives still on the Isle of Wight and after some discreet enquiries I found that he was living in California. I promptly sent off the sponsors fee to Peter Stein and told him I was sponsoring the inventor of the foil strain gauge who was resident in California, and he tracked down Peter Jackson and invited him to the conference, although I didn't know he would be there. It was quite a moving moment when someone tapped me on the shoulder in Portland and said “are you Les Window? I'm Peter Jackson”….