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{{short description|British inventor}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
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'''Sir Lionel Alexander Bethune Pilkington''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|FRS}} (7 January 1920 – 5 May 1995), known as '''Sir Alastair Pilkington''', was a British engineer and businessman who invented and perfected the [[float glass]] process for commercial manufacturing of [[plate glass]].

==Early life==
Born on 7 January 1920 in [[Calcutta]], India,<ref>Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Death Index, 1916–2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA (subscription required) Accessed 3 December 2015</ref> he was the son of Colonel Lionel George Pilkington MC (1889–1955) and his wife Evelyn Carnegie Bethune (1892–1985), sister of [[Sir Alexander Maitland Sharp Bethune]], 10th Baronet. He was educated at [[Sherborne School]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]],<ref name=pilks>{{cite web|url=http://www.pilkington.com/about+pilkington/education/sir+alastair+pilkington.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305174513/http://www.pilkington.com/about%2Bpilkington/education/sir%2Balastair%2Bpilkington.htm |title=Pilkington PLC biography – Sir Alastair Pilkington |archive-date=5 March 2007 |work=pilkington.com |url-status=dead }}</ref> where his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of [[World War II]]. Joining the [[Royal Artillery]], he was captured in the [[Battle of Crete]] and spent four years as a [[prisoner of war]] in [[Nazi Germany]]. Returning to university, he obtained a degree in mechanical science, followed in 1947 by a job as technical officer with the glass manufacturers [[Pilkington]] Brothers.<ref name="The Inventor of Float Glass">{{Cite web|title=The Inventor of Float Glass|url=http://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/about/heritage/inventor-of-float-glass|access-date=2021-07-27|website=www.pilkington.com}}</ref> He was not related to the Pilkington family which then controlled the business.<ref name=pilks />

==Business career==
{{See also|Pilkington}}
In 1952 Pilkington invented the float glass process, in which molten glass was "floated" over a bath of molten tin and manipulated to achieve the required product thickness,<ref name=BBC>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pilkington_alastair.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050113200042/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pilkington_alastair.shtml |title=BBC – History – Sir Alastair Pilkington (1920–1995) |archive-date=13 January 2005 |publisher=BBC }}</ref> and with his associate Kenneth Bickerstaff,<ref>{{US patent|2911759}} – ''Manufacture of float glass'', issued 10 November 1959</ref> spent seven years perfecting and patenting its commercially successful manufacture. American inventors had tried several times to achieve an improved and lower-cost process to replace the costly plate glass, but had not succeeded. His breakthrough was announced to the glassmaking world on 20 January 1959<ref name="The Inventor of Float Glass"/> and enabled Pilkingtons to dominate the world market for high quality flat glass for many years.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Review Lecture. The Float Glass Process | first = L. A. B. | last = Pilkington | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences | volume = 314 | issue = 1516 | pages = 1–25 | jstor = 2416528 | year = 1969 | doi = 10.1098/rspa.1969.0212| bibcode = 1969RSPSA.314....1P | s2cid = 109981215 }}</ref> Starting in the early 1960s, all the world's leading flat glass manufacturers obtained licences to use the float glass process.
From technical director of Pilkingtons in 1955, he became deputy chairman in 1971 and chairman from 1973 until he reached retirement age in 1980, leaving the board in 1985.<ref name=pilks /><ref>Who's Who 1988</ref>
For the rest of his life he was the company's president.<ref name="independent.co.uk">{{Cite web|date=2011-10-23|title=OBITUARIES ; Sir Alastair Pilkington|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-sir-alastair-pilkington-1618329.html|access-date=2021-07-27|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref>

==Outside activities and honours==
In 1969 Pilkington was appointed a [[Royal Society|Fellow of the Royal Society]] and in 1970 a [[Knight Bachelor]], as well as receiving the [[Wilhelm Exner Medal]].<ref>editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.</ref> In 1978 he was awarded the [[A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize]] and in 1983–1984 served as president of the [[British Science Association]].<ref name="independent.co.uk"/>

Outside directorships included appointments as a [[List of directors of the Bank of England|director]] of the [[Bank of England]] from 1974 to 1984 and a director of [[BP]] from 1976 to his death. A passionate advocate of tertiary education, he was from 1980 to 1990 Pro-Chancellor of [[Lancaster University]], from 1990 Chairman of the Campaign for the University and Colleges of Cambridge and from 1994 to his death Chancellor of the [[University of Liverpool]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-sir-alastair-pilkington-1618329.html |title=OBITUARIES ; Sir Alastair Pilkington |date=23 October 2011 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] }}</ref> He was chairman of the [[Council for National Academic Awards]] (CNAA) from 1983 to 1987.

The Pilkington Awards were established at Lancaster University in 1985 through funds donated by Sir Alastair Pilkington. These consist of cash grants for three undergraduates registered at Lancaster University for a single major or combined degree in chemistry, computing, engineering or physics.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Pilkington Awards - Lancaster University|url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/student-and-education-services/money/funding/pilkington-awards|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815094503/https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/student-and-education-services/money/funding/pilkington-awards |archive-date=15 August 2020 }}</ref> Since the mid-1990s, the University of Liverpool has used the annual Sir Alastair Pilkington Awards to honour staff members for their contributions to student learning.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LTSE Awards and Sir Alistair Pilkington Awards - Academic Development - University of Liverpool |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/learning-teaching-student-experience-awards/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.liverpool.ac.uk}}</ref>
[[File:Lancaster University Library.jpg|thumb|Lancaster University Library with the Sir Alastair Pilkington Reading Room in the background.]]
A building at the University of Liverpool was named in his honour until May 2022, when it was renamed [[Gillian Howie]] House.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stories - Department of Philosophy - University of Liverpool |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/results/pre-clearing-apply/philosophy/news/stories/title,1324385,en.html |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.liverpool.ac.uk}}</ref> A reading room in Lancaster University's library is named in his honour.<ref>{{Cite web|title=University of Liverpool Maths School - Sir Alastair Pilkington Building|url=https://liverpoolmathsschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/UoL_maths_map.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123150003/https://liverpoolmathsschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/UoL_maths_map.pdf |archive-date=23 January 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Robson|first=Sheppard|title=English: The main library of Lancaster University, with the Sir Alastair Pilkington Reading Room in the background.|date=2015|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lancaster_University_Library.jpg|access-date=2021-07-27}}</ref>

==Family==
In 1945 in London he married Patricia Nicholls Elliott (1919–1977), a former [[Women's Royal Naval Service]] officer<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35511/page/1512/data.pdf |title=The London Gazette, 3 April, 1942 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref> who was the daughter of Rear-Admiral Frank Elliott OBE, and they had a daughter together with an adopted son. After his wife's death, in 1978 he married the American former radio actress Leila Kathleen Wilson (1911–2005), widow of [[Eldridge Haynes]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110318232347/http://www.pilkington.com/europe/uk%2Band%2Bireland/english/energikareconsumer/default.htm Pilkingtons latest Energy Saving Product]
*[https://www.markoweszyby.pl/ Pilkington Automotive Glass]
{{Glass makers and brands}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilkington, Alastair}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Glass makers]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People educated at Sherborne School]]
[[Category:Businesspeople in the glass industry]]
[[Category:Businesspeople awarded knighthoods]]
[[Category:Pilkington family|Alastair]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Association for Science Education]]
[[Category:20th-century British inventors]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery personnel]]
[[Category:British World War II prisoners of war]]
[[Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany]]

Alastair Pilkington - Revision history

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