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1 Blith, Walter
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. Seventeenth century Warwickshire, Englandd. Seventeenth century England[br][br]Blith was the son of a cereal and dairy farmer from the Forest of Arden. He wrote a treatise on farming which was of contemporary value in its description of drainage and water meadows, both subjects of particular relevance in the mid-seventeenth century. The book, The English Improver, contains illustrations of agricultural equipment which have become an almost obligatory inclusion in any book on agricultural history. His understanding of the plough is apparent from the text and illustrations, and his was an important step in the understanding of the scientific principles to be applied to its later design. The introduction to the book is addressed to both Houses of Parliament, and is very much an attempt to highlight and seek solutions to the problems of the agriculture of the day. In it he advocates the passing of legislation to improve agricultural practice, whether this be for the destruction of moles or for the compulsory planting of trees to replace those felled.Blith himself became a captain in the Roundhead Army during the English Civil War, and even added a dedication to Cromwell in the introduction to his second book, The English Improver Improved, published in 1652. This book contains additional information on both practice and crops, an expansion in knowledge which presumably owes something to Blith's employment as a surveyor of Crown lands between 1649 and 1650. He himself bought and farmed such land in Northamptonshire. His advice on the choice of land for particular crops and the implements of best use for that land expressed ideas in advance of their times, and it was to be almost a century before his writings were taken up and developed.[br]Bibliography1649, The English Improver; or, A New Survey of Husbandry Discovering to the Kingdom That Some Land, Both Arable and Pasture May be Advance Double or Treble, and Some five or Tenfold.1652, The English Improver Improved.Further ReadingJ.Thirsk (ed.), 1985, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. II (deals with Blith and the agriculture of his time).AP -
2 Levers (Leavers), John
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1812–21 Englandd. after 1821 Rouen, France[br]English improver of lace-making machines that formed the basis for many later developments.[br]John Heathcote had shown that it was possible to make lace by machine with his patents of 1808 and 1809. His machines were developed and improved by John Levers. Levers was originally a hosiery frame-smith and setter-up at Sutton-in-Ashfield but moved to Nottingham, where he extended his operations to the construction of point-net and warp-lace machinery. In the years 1812 and 1813 he more or less isolated himself in the garret of a house in Derby Road, where he assembled his lacemaking machine by himself. He was helped by two brothers and a nephew who made parts, but they saw it only when it was completed. Financial help for making production machines came from the firm of John Stevenson \& Skipwith, lace manufacturers in Nottingham. Levers never sought a patent, as he was under the mistaken impression that additions or improvements to an existing patented machine could not be protected. An early example of the machine survives at the Castle Museum in Nottingham. Although his prospects must have seemed good, for some reason Levers dissolved his partnership with Stevenson \& Co. and continued to work on improving his machine. In 1817 he altered it from the horizontal to the upright position, building many of the machines each year. He was a friendly, kind-hearted man, but he seems to have been unable to apply himself to his business, preferring the company of musicians—he was a bandmaster of the local militia—and was soon frequently without money, even to buy food for his family. He emigrated in 1821 to Rouen, France, where he set up his lace machines and where he subsequently died; when or in what circumstances is unknown. His machine continued to be improved and was adapted to work with the Jacquard mechanism to select the pattern.[br]Further ReadingW.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867) (the main account of the Levers machine).W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (a brief account of the Levers lace machine).D.M.Smith, 1965, Industrial Archaeology of the East Midlands, Dawlish (includes an illustration of Levers's machine).RLH -
3 Townshend, Charles, 2nd Viscount
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 1674 Englandd. 1738 England[br]English landowner and improver.[br]Charles Townshend succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Townshend at the age of 15. In his early life he played a prominent political role: he was Lord Privy Seal under William III; served as a commissioner to treat for the Union between Scotland and England; and, with Marlborough, signed the treaty of Gertruydenberg in 1709. He was Secretary of State under both George I and George II, and was for a time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.In 1730 he retired from political life to Raynham, in Norfolk, and devoted himself to the care of his estate and to experiments in agricultural husbandry. He paid particular attention to the rotation of crops and the cultivation of turnips and clover. His efforts on the light soil of his estate brought substantial returns, and those of his tenants and neighbours who followed his example also prospered. His particular zeal for the merits of the turnip earned him the nickname of "Turnip Townshend".He is popularly credited with the introduction of the Norfolk Four Course Rotation, but this had certainly been long practised in his area. However, the success of his farming practice and the wide publicity that he gave to it were important factors in the improvement of British agriculture during the mid-eighteenth century.[br]Further ReadingR.E.Prothero, 1892, article in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England: 1–3.——1912, English Farming Past and Present, London, pp. 172–5 (places Townshend within his context).APBiographical history of technology > Townshend, Charles, 2nd Viscount
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4 Johnson, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1800s Englandd. after 1846[br]English developer of the sizing and beaming machine, and improver of the hand loom.[br]Thomas Johnson was an assistant to William Radcliffe c.1802 in his developments of the sizing machine and hand looms. Johnson is described by Edward Baines (1835) as "an ingenious but dissipated young man to whom he [Radcliffe] explained what he wanted, and whose fertile invention suggested a great variety of expedients, so that he obtained the name of the “conjuror” among his fellow-workmen". Johnson's genius, and Radcliffe's judgement and perseverance, at length produced the dressing-machine that was soon applied to power looms and made their use economic. Cotton warps had to be dressed with a starch paste to prevent them from fraying as they were being woven. Up to this time, the paste had had to be applied as the warp was unwound from the back of the loom, which meant that only short lengths could be treated and then left to dry, holding up the weaver. Radcliffe carried out the dressing and beaming in a separate machine so that weaving could proceed without interruption. Work on the dressing-machine was carried out in 1802 and patents were taken out in 1803 and 1804. These were made out in Johnson's name because Radcliffe was afraid that if his own name were used other people, particularly foreigners, would discover his secrets. Two more patents were taken out for improvements to hand looms. The first of these was a take-up motion for the woven cloth that automatically wound the cloth onto a roller as the weaver operated the loom. This was later incorporated by H.Horrocks into his own power loom design.Radcliffe and Johnson also developed the "dandy-loom", which was a more compact form of hand loom and later became adapted for weaving by power. Johnson was the inventor of the first circular or revolving temples, which kept the woven cloth at the right width. In the patent specifications there is a patent in 1805 by Thomas Johnson and James Kay for an improved power loom and another in 1807 for a vertical type of power loom. Johnson could have been involved with further patents in the 1830s and 1840s for vertical power looms and dressing-machines, which would put his death after 1846.[br]Bibliography1802, British patent no. 2,684 (dressing-machine).1803, British patent no. 2,771 (dressing-machine).1805, with James Kay, British patent no. 2,876 (power-loom). 1807, British patent no. 6,570 (vertical powerloom).Further ReadingThere is no general account of Johnson's life, but references to his work with Radcliffe may be found in A.Barlow, 1878, The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power, London; and in E.Baines, 1835, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, London.D.J.Jeremy, 1981, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution. The Diffusion of Textile Technologies Between Britain and America, 1790–1830s, Oxford (for the impact of the dressing-machine in America).RLH -
5 Royce, Sir Frederick Henry
[br]b. 27 March 1863 Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, Englandd. 22 April 1933 West Wittering, Sussex, England.[br]English engineer and industrialist.[br]Royce was the younger son of a flour miller. His father's death forced him to earn his own living from the age of 10 selling newspapers, as a post office messenger boy, and in other jobs. At the age of 14, he became an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway's locomotive works, but was unable to complete his apprenticeship due to a shortage of money. He moved to a tool company in Leeds, then in 1882 he became a tester for the London Electric Light \& Power Company and attended classes at the City \& Guilds Technical College. In the same year, the company made him Chief Electrical Engineer for the lighting of the streets of Liverpool.In 1884, at the age of 21, he founded F.H. Royce \& Co (later called Royce Ltd, from 1894 to 1933) with a capital of £70, manufacturing arc lamps, dynamos and electric cranes. In 1903, he bought a 10 hp Deauville car which proved noisy and unreliable; he therefore designed his own car. By the end of 1903 he had produced a twocylinder engine which ran for many hundreds of hours driving dynamos; on 31 March 1904, a 10 hp Royce car was driven smoothly and silently from the works in Cooke Street, Manchester. This car so impressed Charles S. Rolls, whose London firm were agents for high-class continental cars, that he agreed to take the entire output from the Manchester works. In 1906 they jointly formed Rolls-Royce Ltd and at the end of that year Royce produced the first 40/50 hp Silver Ghost, which remained in production until 1925 when it was replaced by the Phantom and Wraith. The demand for the cars grew so great that in 1908 manufacture was transferred to a new factory in Derby.In 1911 Royce had a breakdown due to overwork and his lack of attention to taking regular meals. From that time he never returned to the works but continued in charge of design from a drawing office in his home in the south of France and later at West Wittering, Sussex, England. During the First World War he designed the Falcon, Hawk and Condor engines as well as the VI2 Eagle, all of which were liquid-cooled. Later he designed the 36.7-litre Rolls-Royce R engines for the Vickers Supermarine S.6 and S.6B seaplanes which were entered for the Schneider Trophy (which they won in 1929 and 1931, the 5.5 having won in 1927 with a Napier Lion engine) and set a world speed record of 408 mph (657 km/h) in 1931; the 1941 Griffon engine was derived from the R.Royce was an improver rather than an innovator, though he did invent a silent form of valve gear, a friction-damped slipper flywheel, the Royce carburettor and a spring drive for timing gears. He was a modest man with a remarkable memory who concentrated on perfecting the detail of every component. He married Minnie Punt, but they had no children. A bust of him at the Derby factory is captioned simply "Henry Royce, Mechanic".[br]Further ReadingR.Bird, 1995, Rolls Royce Heritage, London: Osprey.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Royce, Sir Frederick Henry
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