With Prince Harry taking on the worlds fastest man Usain Bolt this week what possible connection can there be with a Kelvinside Accie who once played rugby for Scotland
The answer is starting blocks and the Kelvinsider in question is Henry Rottenburg who grew up in Glasgows west end in Hyndland
Although largely forgotten in his homeland he has just featured in a recently published book "The British Olympics"

Henry Rottenburg, who died on the 25th March, 1955, was born on the 6th October, 1875. He was the son of Paul Rottenburg, chemical merchant of Holmhurst, Dowanhill, Glasgow. He attended school both at Loretto and at Kelvinside Academy, and was admitted to King's College, Cambridge, in 1895. He was awarded his blue for Rugby football and was a Scottish International player from 1899 to 1900. In the latter year he joined the Westinghouse Co. at Pittsburg, U.S.A., becoming a member of the famous "Holy Forty," and remained with them until 1902,when he joined the new British Westinghouse Co. at Trafford Park. In 1904 he left them to return to Cambridge as a lecturer in engineering, but left there in 1908 to join the J.L. Submersible Motor Co. In 1910 he returned to his lectureship at Cambridge and remained in residence until his death in his 80th year.
He was a man of superb knowledge of all technical matters and of an inventiveness which is seldom matched. For some 30 years he ran the London Instrument Co. in Cambridge, which he started mainly to develop his own ingenious inventions.He specialized in equipment for assisting in various athletic events; some of them were used in the Olympic Games in London 1948 and Helsinki.1952

His inventions included the modern starting blocks used by generations of international sprinters which first appeared in the London Olympics 1948

What price a prophet in his own land

This article was originally posted on 7-Mar-2012, 13:51 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-Mar-2012, 15:39.