A. J. MARTYR

Tony Martyr was born in Yorkshire in 1943. After surviving a Jesuit Boarding School he served a 5 year student apprenticeship with W.H. Allen Sons & Co Ltd and specialised in the testing of steam-tubines and high powered (marine and industrial) gearing. After working as a project and commissioning engineer in New Zealand and Fiji he returned to the UK as a project manager for the dynamometer and test plant manufacturers Froude Engineering, rising in the next 10 years to become the Technical Director of Froude-Consine. While running his own, test facility design, consultancy in the early 1990s he and his fellow director Michael Plint wrote the first edition of 'Engine Testing' which was published in 1995; the success of that edition prompted the more industrially focussed 2nd edition. Mike Plint died a few days after its publication.

The third edition was a substantial rewrite, the contents of which was determined by the design and operational errors of consultancy clients. All editions of the book have been designed to prevent the repetition of expensive errors by specialists having to work outside their specialisation - with the ever narrower specialisation of the 'digital generation' the need is greater than ever.

In 1996 Tony joined Ricardo's Test Automation division as Operations Director and shortly after that Division was sold to Schenck he joined AVL-UK becoming the Managing Director. Due to the enlightened policy of AVL, Tony deferred his retirement for one year and undertook a worldwide training role aimed at producing a generation of multi-disciplinary test facility designers and project engineers.

The fourth edition has been written in semi-retirement and, once again, is a substantial rewrite required to cover the wide range of new engine technologies and legislation.

In his working career Tony has worked in 44 different countries and has had wide experience of automotive engine testing in the USA and recently in China.

The window of the study in which the 4th edition was written looks into a workshop where a model triple-expansion marine steam engine is being built for which a dynamometer is already planned.