Biography
Carbutt was the youngest son of Francis Carbutt (1792–1874), a linen and cloth merchant of Chapel Allerton in Leeds who was a justice of the peace, Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1848/1849, and a director of the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway.
Edward Carbutt went into business as a mechanical engineer in Leeds. When he was 24 (circa 1862) he entered into partnership with the engineer Robinson Thwaites (1811–1884) in the Vulcan Iron Works at Bradford. Carbutt and Thwaites exhibited a 'Patent Double-Action Self-Acting Steam Hammer' in the 1862 London Exhibition. Carbutt and Thwaites petitioned for a further patent 'for the invention of improvements in hammers to be worked by steam or other fluid' in 1867.
He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
He entered local politics and was Mayor of Leeds in 1878 and in this role laid the foundation stone of civic buildings. In 1880 he was elected as MP for Monmouth Boroughs and held the seat until 1886. On 1 October 1892 he was made a baronet, of Nanhurst, Surrey. In 1896 he was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey.
In 1887 Carbutt was elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He represented the Institute on the committee of the National Physical Laboratory. He was also a vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute. In 1891 he was concerned with the erection of a tower at Wembley to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
In 1874 Carbutt married Mary Rhodes. The baronetcy became extinct on his death.
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