Science and Invention in Birmingham - 19th Century

19th Century

1802: the exterior of the Soho Foundry is lit with gas lighting by William Murdoch. Murdoch, its developer, worked for Matthew Boulton and James Watt at Soho. This becomes the basis for Birmingham's immense Gas Industry which incorporates many products and trades that rely on Gas to work.

1811: Henry James takes out a patent for propelling vessels by steam, via a paddle wheel fixed in the middle of the stern and steered by two fins to alleviate leggers from the arduous duty of pushing boats through canal tunnels.

1814: Thomas Dobbs (actor) invents a reaping machine which consists of a circular saw or sickle, the grain is drawn or fed up to the saw by means of a pair of rollers, this predates William Bell's straw cutting machine.

1821: Emanuel Heaton, gun finisher, takes out a patent for a water tight pan for gun locks.

1823: Francis Deakin improves a method of stringing the Piano by employing the screw and nut as opposed to the previously used wooden peg, thus allowing a greater tension and strength of wire.

1824: American inventor William Church patents a printing machine in his Birmingham works which positions the paper sheets more accurately. He is a prolific inventor, taking out numerous patents for methods of button making, nail making, metal working, smelting iron, spinning and other branches of engineering.

1824: John Cadbury begins selling tea, coffee, and drinking chocolate, which he produces himself, at Bull Street. He later moves into the production of a variety of cocoa and drinking chocolates, made in a factory in Bridge Street and sold mainly to the wealthy because of the high cost of production. John Cadbury becomes a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company they form is called 'Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham'.

The brothers open an office in London and in 1854 they receive the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa to Queen Victoria. In the 1850s the industry receives a much needed boost, with the reduction in the high import taxes on cocoa, allowing chocolate to be more affordable to everybody. Cadbury's later becomes one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world and is still in production across the world today with a major production plant in Bournville.

1828: Josiah Mason improves a cheap, efficient slip-in nib which can be added to a fountain pen.

1830: With the invention of a new machine, William Joseph Gillott, John Mitchell and James Stephen Perry devise a way to mass manufacture robust, cheap steel pen nibs. This boosts the Birmingham pen trade and by the 1850s, Birmingham exists as a world centre for steel pen and steel nib manufacture; more than half the steel-nib pens manufactured in the world are made in Birmingham. Thousands of skilled craftsmen and -women are employed in the industry. Many new manufacturing techniques are perfected, enabling the city's factories to mass-produce their pens cheaply and efficiently. These are sold worldwide to many who previously cannot afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy.

1830s: Thomas Ridgway begins trading in the Bull Ring, selling tea. Ridgway later goes bankrupt. Setting up business in London, he pays back all of his creditors and continues his tea trade, becoming one of the first English tea companies to hygienically prepack tea so as to avoid adulteration. In 1876, Queen Victoria commands House of Ridgways to create a blend for her own personal use.

1832: Muntz metal is patented, an alpha-beta brass with about 40% zinc and 60% copper. Its original use is as a replacement for the copper lining placed on the bottom of boats as it maintains the anti-fouling abilities of the pure form.

It costs around two-thirds that of pure copper and has identical properties for this application, it becomes the material of choice and Muntz makes his fortune. A notable use of Muntz Metal is in the hull of the Cutty Sark.

1832: William Chance, owner of a Birmingham iron merchants, invests in his brothers failing glass works in nearby Smethwick. After saving the company, this partnership later becomes the Chance Brothers. The company relies on local workers, and at one stage is known as "... the greatest glass manufacturer in Britain" taking advantage of the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Industrial Revolution in the region. Great advances in glass manufacture take place such as perfection of the earliest optical lenses to block the harmful ultra violet rays of the sun and improvements in lighthouse illumination. The company is responsible for glazing the original Crystal Palace to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Houses of Parliament, (built 1840–1860). At that time it is the only firm that is able to make the opal glass for the four faces of the Westminster Clock Tower which houses the famous bell, Big Ben. The ornamental windows for the White House in America are also made at Chances.

1832: A form of German Silver is invented by Charles Askins, this is used to make spoons and cutlery specifically in the Birmingham area.

1837: Bird's Custard is first formulated and cooked by Alfred Bird, because his wife is allergic to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. Bird's custard powder later becomes famous around the world.

1838: Charles Green patents an original and unique method of producing solid, seamless brass and copper tubes, around this time much development takes place in Birmingham and Manchester with regards to copper tubing and printing plates.

1839: After many years of research, innovation and campaigning, Rowland Hill (of Kidderminster and later Birmingham) is given a two-year contract to run his new postal system. Hill is an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigns for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitates the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later serves as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp (his brother Edwin Hill helps the service with further innovations).

1839: Sir Edward Thomason improves the gun lock by making the cock detachable by the thumb and finger as well as making improvements to prevent misfires.

George Elkington and Henry Elkington found the English electroplating industry in the early 19th century. In 1840, they aid John Wright, who discovers that potassium cyanide is a suitable electrolyte for gold and silver electroplating.

Carl Wilhelm Siemens has several meetings with George Elkington, and makes speeches on 'Science and Industry,' to the Birmingham and Midland Institute, he later sets up a works in Birmingham and carries out experiments on metals and telegraphy.

1845: During the late 1830s, canal steam boats begin operating with limited success but in 1845, Birmingham engineer John Inshaw builds the first twin-screw canal steamers. Inshaw finds great success through his engineering and in 1859 the owners of the Ashby Canal, ban his steamer "Pioneer" claiming it erodes the canal banks. It is later allowed to run no faster than 4 mph, thus begins speed limits on British waterways. Inshaw's "Pioneer" is successful and later inspires other steam boats such as those built for the Grand Junction Canal. Inshaw is also consulted by George Stephenson on the design of wheels for steam locomotives.

1847: William Stroudley joins Birmingham engineer John Inshaw as one of his most successful pupils. Stroudley later becomes one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). He designs some of the most famous and longest-lived steam locomotives of his era.

Birmingham glassworks are among the early mass-producers of uranium glass. Manufacturers include Bacchus, Green & Green (later George Bacchus & Sons), Union Glassworks, in the 1840s, and Lloyd & Summerfield in the 1850s who are the first to use uranium in glass commercially.

1849: William Tranter takes out the first of many patents for his improvements in manufacture of the firearm.

The use of weather charts in a modern sense begin in the middle portion of the 19th century. Weather map pioneers include William Charles Redfield, William Reid, Elias Loomis, and Birmingham's Sir Francis Galton, who creates the first weather maps in order to devise a theory on storm systems.

Galton formulates (and later coins the term for) eugenics as well as questionnaires and many important tools in statistics. Galton avidly supported the theories of his cousin Charles Darwin, and also furthers the most important advances in fingerprinting.

1851: John Nettlefold, screw manufacturer, attends the Paris exhibition. He later buys exclusive rights to use Thomas Sloan's machine for making screws which is in the show. With adaptation of the machine for their Birmingham premises and inspiration of Birmingham mass production methods, Nettlefold & Chamberlain become Britain's leading screw-making firm.

1854: Birmingham chemist Thomas Allcock invents the porous plaster for the relief of pain in New York after fighting as a General for the New York Heavy Artillery during the American Civil War after emigrating in 1845 aged 20.

1857: Joseph Sturge buys the Elberton Sugar Estate and converts it into a lime production plant. The Montserrat Co. Ltd. is formed in Edgbaston by J.& E. Sturge. Lime juice is produced in the city and then exported for use in the manufacture of citric acid. The failure of Sicily's lemon crop at this time results in an opening in the market which Sturge takes great advantage of utilizing their extensive chemical works based in Edgbaston. He also tries to prove that

Free labour can be made profitable (the Sturge family are instrumental in the anti-slavery movement). A company is set up by the Sturge and Albright families who fund the development of Montserrat estates in 1867.

1858: After several failed attempts of launching the SS Great Eastern steam ship, Isambard Kingdom Brunel turns to Richard Tangye's more powerful hydraulic rams which are successfully employed in the launch.

Richard Tangye's company then acquires the patent of the differential pulley-block in 1859, and in 1862 he invents the Tangye Patent Hydraulic Jack. This results in the 1862 purchase and demolition of Soho-located Smethwick Hall, on the site of which is built the Cornwall Works. In

1867 the patent for a new type of Direct-acting Steam Pump is acquired, in 1869 Tangye Ltd is commissioned to design the hydraulic systems for the UK's first funicular cliff railway in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and in 1870 the company commences the manufacture of steam engines. Richard Tangye and his brother George found the Birmingham Art Gallery in 1885, which today has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, archaeology, ethnography, local history and industrial history. They also found the Birmingham School of Art.

1859: The first ever game of lawn tennis is played in Edgbaston, international tennis is still played at Edgbaston's Priory Club.

The first celluloid as a bulk material for forming objects is invented in 1856 by Alexander Parkes. Many years later, and with the recognition of celluloid as a format for making photographic film, an American court declares Parkes as the true inventor of celluloid.

1862: the thermoplastic Parkesine is showcased at the Great International Exhibition in London. Invented by Alexander Parkes, this celluloid is credited by the London Science Museum to be "generally accepted as the first plastic". (This presumably refers to synthetic plastic formed into objects: it is predated by the 1848 collodion, a nitrocellulose-based solution that dries to a celluloid-like film but is useless for industrial purposes, (as well as several natural plastics).

1862: James Moore Clements of Livery Street who has already invented an improved machine for making buttonholes is granted a patent for a new arrangement of 'stitching the hole'.

1863: William Sumner (founder of Typhoo) publishes "A Popular Treatise on Tea". In 1870, Sumner starts a pharmacy/grocery business on the High Street, Birmingham. This grows and forces Sumner to move to new premises on Castle Street and then on to Bordesley Street at the canalside. Typhoo tea later becomes one of the largest teabag makers in Britain. The brand is now based in Wirral.

1865: The steel wire, some 16,000 miles long, for sheathing the first successful Transatlantic telegraph cable is made by Webster and Horsfall, Birmingham.

1865: Joseph Hinks sets up James Hinks & Son, of 91-96 Great Hampton Street and 66 Hockley Street. He patents improvements to oil lamps, marketing the resultant Duplex Lamp which is later used across the world and becomes a popular choice for railway workers.

1868: C.H. Gould patents a British stapler although it remains unclear as to how unique this is from U.S. patents of the same age.

1868: John Barnes Linnett patents the world's first Flip book.

1873: William Westley Richards gunmakers takes out its first of many patents relating to the firearm, for which gold medals and royal warrants, were awarded.

1875: Joseph Lucas begins making lamps for ships lamps for ships concentrating on the new types of lamp burning paraffin and petroleum for which there is considerable demand. The business becomes Lucas Industries.

1876: William Bown patents a design for the wheels of roller skates which embody his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving, apart. Bown works closely with Joseph Henry Hughes who draws up the patent for a ball or roller bearing race for bicycle and carriage wheels which includes all the elements of an adjustable system in 1877.

1878: Joseph Hudson makes the first whistle ever to be used by a football referee. It is used for the first time at a game held at Nottingham Forest, this replaces the referees use of the handkerchief to attract footballers attention. Later, in 1883 Hudson invents and manufactures the first police whistle for the Metropolitan police force, prior to this police use hand rattles, whistles are usually used as musical instruments or toys. His whistle is still used by the force and many others today. In 1884 Hudson invents the world's most successful whistle to date, the 'Acme Thunderer' (the first ever pea whistle). The whistle is used as an alarm or attention instrument by all manor of industries, sports and revelers. It continues to sell in great quantities throughout the world.

1880: Gamgee Tissue is invented by Joseph Sampson Gamgee, a surgical dressing which has a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze. It represents the first use of cotton wool in a medical context, and is a major advancement in the prevention of infection of surgical wounds. It is still the basis for many modern surgical dressings. Gamgee also invents the Aseptic technique which refers to a procedure that is performed under sterile conditions. This includes medical and laboratory techniques, such as with microbiological cultures. It includes techniques like flame sterilization. The largest example of aseptic techniques is in hospital operating theatres. J.R.R. Tolkien later bases Lord Of The Rings character 'Sam Gamgee' on this character as they live near to Mr Gamgee.

During the late 19th century, Birmingham companies such as Joseph Lucas & Sons and Powell & Hammer pioneered the production of bicycle lamps and lanterns for ships, capitalising on the advances in using acetylene gas. The Birmingham lamps were exported around the world, with the Lucas company later becoming famous for manufacturing components related to the motor industry and aerospace industry. Richard Bissell Prosser(1838 - 1918) writes 58 lives for the Dictionary of National Biography, and supplies much material for the New English Dictionary. Prosser also writes Birmingham Inventors and Inventions, 1881 and is a pioneer of the study of technical history, his published biographies and manuscript records are an incomparable source for present-day researchers. His father Richard Prosser (1804 -1854), engineer and inventor, was heavily involved with the introduction of the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, and his 700-volume library, combined with that of Bennet Woodcroft forms the basis of the Patent Office Library.

1879: Harry Lucas designs a hub lamp for use in a high bicycle and names the oil lamp "King of the Road".

1881: Birmingham businessman John Skirrow Wright invents the Postal Order and its use subsequently spreads across the world. Skirrow becomes one of the prominent pioneers and social improvers of the 19th century.

John Richard Dedicoat invents a bicycle bell, his patents for bicycle bells appear as early as 1877. Apprenticed to James Watt, Dedicoat goes on to become a bicycle manufacturer and makes and sells the "Pegasus" bicycle.

1883: surgeon and gynaecologist, Lawson Tait (pioneer of several surgical procedures), carries out the world's first successful operation on a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

1884: John Berry Haycraft has been actively engaged in research and published papers on the coagulation of blood and in 1884, he discovers that the leech secrets a powerful anticoagulant, which he names hirudin.

1885: Birmingham School of Art becomes the first Municipal School of Art. It later becomes the leading centre for the Arts and Crafts Movement.

1885: The world's first professional football league is founded at a meeting in Aston under the auspices of William McGregor, a director of Aston Villa.

1889: Charles Pinkney of Tangyes perfects a gas engine, this comes about through is experimentation with a Hydrocarbon Gas Producer and a Bituminous Coal gas Generator. The engine proves to be more economical that an earlier ‘Four-stroke cycle Otto' engine.

1891: The Dunlop Rubber Company co-founded by John Boyd Dunlop established its Birmingham factory Fort Dunlop, later to become the focus of Dunlop as one of the largest multinational manufacturers of automotive and aeronautical tyres.

1894: Richard Norris, a doctor of medicine and professor of physiology at Queen's College, Birmingham, brings out a new patent of dry plate used in photography and is generally credited with the first development of collodion dry plate in the 1860s.

1895: Frederick William Lanchester and his brother build the first petrol driven four-wheeled car in Britain. Lanchester also experiments with the wick carburetor, fuel injection, turbochargers and invents the accelerator pedal and first uses the Pendulum Governor for controlling the speed of a car engine. In 1893 he designs and builds his first engine (a vertical single cylinder) which is fitted to the first British motorboat.

1895: Herbert Austin, an employee at Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, becomes interested in engines and automobiles. During the winter of 1895–96 he makes his own version of a design by Léon Bollée that he has seen in Paris. Later he finds that another British group have bought the rights, therefore Austin has to come up with a design of his own.

Two years later, the second Wolseley car is revealed. It is a three-wheeled design featuring independent rear suspension, mid-engine and back to back seating for two adults. Four years later the Wolseley Gasoline Carriage is built featuring a steering wheel instead of a tiller. Austin manages the new Wolseley company for a short time before resigning to form his own concern, the Austin Motor Company, in 1905.

Wolseley later becomes a successful car and engine maker selling upmarket cars, and even opens a lavish showroom, Wolseley House, in Piccadilly London (next to the Ritz Hotel, now housing a restaurant called The Wolseley). The company is later merged in other motor car companies.

1896: The first radiograph used to assist in surgery is taken in Birmingham by the British pioneer of medical X-Rays, Major John Hall-Edwards thus kick-starting a whole new field of medical science.

1896: A new building is built in Corporation Street to house James Henry Cook's vegetarian restaurant, one of the first in England. In 1898, 'The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel', named after the famous vegetarian Sir Isaac Pitman, opens on the same site, and the proprietors subsequently open a long-running health food store.

1896: The first 'public' trial in Birmingham of a "horseless carriage" or motor car takes place at Cannon Hill Park.

1897: John Benjamin Stone founds the National Photographic Record Association, of which he becomes president. The National Portrait Gallery holds 62 of his portraits and many photographs of people and places in and around Westminster. His career culminates in 1911 with his appointment as official photographer to the coronation of King George V. Stone travels widely in pursuit of his hobby, taking 26,000 photographs, and writing books as he travels. He publishes works and invaluable records of the folk customs and traditions of the British Isles, which later influence photographers of note, such as Tony Ray-Jones.

1897: The Reynolds Tube Company patents the process for making butted bicycle tubes, which are thicker at the ends than in the middle, this allows frame builders to create frames that are both strong and lightweight. Reynolds continues to develop lightweight bicycle frames into the 20th century picking up many awards for wins in races such as the Tour de France, the company still makes lightweight frames in the city today.