Major #inventions in #Wales that built the modern world

This is a work in progress. There will be additions and alterations.

What is this list about?

English historians usually do not write the histories of the other members of the UK as if they were separate entities and, a few nods to Scotland aside, the progress they make is ignored.

One field that suffers is the role of Wales in the industrial revolution and beyond. Wales took perhaps the earliest part in the industrial revolution. The physical evidence of prior prosperity is there to see for example, in the big medieval ironworks in South Wales built by Cistercian monks. The copper industry was already active on an industrial by the 17th C both around Swansea Bay and in North Wales. In the late 18th C the iron industry exploded upon the world especially around Merthyr Tydfil. The world's first passenger railway and steam locomotive were from Wales as was the precision engineering to make the steam engines. This early activity led to invention and innovation of world significance.

There are other lists of Welsh inventors on the internet trying to redress this point. So why this one? The other lists tend to discuss a single inventor in isolation. The linkages to a Welsh economy are not revealed. This blog will attempt to show their connections to other people and businesses, particularly in Wales.

This discussion focuses on Wales as a geographic and economic location. It is not about people of Welsh origin but people who contributed to the Welsh economy within Wales. So who is Welsh? I have taken presence on Welsh soil during the process of invention and innovation as my measure. There is a very long list of inventors with a Welsh bloodline but many have little to do with Wales professionally. That said, Robert Record can be claimed by no one place so I have claimed him as Welsh.

The Innovations

The Longbow

• Anon, The Longbow, circa 1100, Defined western European wars for centuries. Invented somewhere around Brecon/Abergavenny/Monmouth and Welsh speaking Herefordshire.

The Algabraic Equation

• Robert Recorde, 16C, invented the mathematical equation and = sign. Modern algebra would be impossible without him. Recorde also had a profound effect on English speaking skilled workmen. He translated Euclid and other works of geometry and trigonometry into English. Architects, masons, carpenters, shipwrights, instrument makers and so forth were able to make precise calculations rather than rely on rules of thumb (no doubt perfectly adequate for established designs). Calculation allowed readier innovation. The introduction of formal mathematical techniques by Recorde is how craftsmen started to become engineers.
• The only person on this list who is not known to have done important work in Wales is Robert Recorde. Given how things worked in Tudor times I feel entitled to claim him. Anyway, he moved around English, Scottish and Dutch universities - Freedom of Movement for scholars has much to recommend it. So no particular location can lay much claim to him.
• As well as Recorde, William Jones FRS, an Anglesey born navigator and mathematician invented important mathematical notation. Again he worked outside Wales in London. He adopted the π  (Pi) symbol for the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle and the dot notation for differential calculus. He provided much of the evidence for deciding the claim between Newton and Leibniz for the invention of calculus.

The Welsh Method for Smelting Copper

• Anon, The Welsh Method for refining large amounts of copper was developed in Neath around 1584 by a German engineer hired to produce copper coin for Queen Elizabeth. Spanish gold and sliver looted from the New World having changed the relative value of copper there was a copper shortage. In an age of scarce woodland resources, the Welsh Method of using coal to refine ores provided the cheaper solution. This technique provided cheap copper for copper bottomed ships. Copper suppressed the growth of algae on the ships. The reduced drag allowed British ships to sail faster and manouvre more quickly. Thomas Williams, owner of the Parys Mountain and Mona copper mines on Anglsey invented the bolts for fixing the copper sheets to ships' hulls. This led to British naval supremacy, domination of World Trade and thus The British Empire. Cheap copper also enabled copper cooking utensils which allowed more diversified methods of cooking and so improvements in diet. It takes three tonnes of coal to smelt one tonne of copper ore so the ore from North Wales and Cornwall, later Cuba and Chile, was moved to the coal. Swansea became the world's leading centre for non ferrous metallurgy (silver, lead, zinc - originally from Mid Wales, and tin, later nickel and aluminium) for several centuries. The nickname for Llanelli, by the 19th C a major producer of tin plated goods became "Sospan".

Ball Bearings

• Philip Vaughan of Carmarthen was awarded a patent for his invention of ball bearings in a ball race in 1794. Vaughan and his partners operated foundries, forges, rolling mills and tinning mills at Carmarthen and Kidwelly. The original application was for carriage axles. He extended the range of applications over time.

Single Flanged Wheels on Rails

• Anon. Single flanged iron wheels on unflanged iron rails which is to say metal tramways, 18th C, Metal tramways rather than dirt tracks or wooden tramways enabled much heavier loads to be pulled by a horse (usually to the canal) than wooden tramways which seen to have been  invented in Medieval Germany. Plateways (flanges on the plates) were developed in North East England and used by Mackworth in Neath at a very early stage. Wheels with two flanges were used in Nottinghamshire but the modern single flanged wheel was first used at length for the Mumbles tramway near Swansea which incidentally was the first railway to carry scheduled passenger traffic (by horse).

Venture Capital

• Wilkins Bank was founded in Brecon by four shareholders each contributing £4,000 two of whom made their money from personal trade as factors in the East India Company. Another East Indiaman Captain Fredrick Jones, sometime Bailiff of Brecon, was also prominent in persuading the local gentry to put their money in the bank, although not rich himself having been a serving officer in the East India Company army rather than a factor.
• It was not a world shattering invention to lend money or take a share in projects. However Wilkins Bank was unusual at the time investing in industrial ventures. Projects promoted by Wilkins Bank included the Brecon to Abergavenny and later Newport Canal,  A coal mine and an iron works in the Clydach valley between Brynmawr and Gilwern, the Crawshay ironworks in Merthyr. Prior to starting the Bank John Wilkins invested in an ironworks in Aberdare.
• The Wilkins funded William Crawshay in Merthyr. William Pitt the Younger was their political opponent. He deposited a considerable sum of government money in the bank and after some time, demanded immediate repayment. That day, one of the Wilkes's went to Merthyr to see Crawshay. Crawshay was able to hand over 50,000 sovereigns for Wilkes to take back to Brecon and save the bank!

Cannon and cylinders

• The longer and more accurately a cannon can be bored, the longer and more accurately the shot can be delivered. John Wilkinson of Bersham ironworks near Wrexham in North Wales continually improved his methods for casting and machining cannon. He was an early adopter of his friend, Abram Derby's coking process which replaced charcoal with coal. He funded Derby to build the now famous Ironbridge at Coalbrookdale. This was the first iron bridge in the world.
• Wilkonson became outstandingly accurate in his processes. This was noticed by a Merthyr Tydfil ironmaster, Homfray. Homfray commissioned cannon and sold them to the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy ended up up with the world's longest range and most accurate guns. As a result Mathew Boulton, of Boulton and Watt, sought John Wilkinson out to become their supplier of cylinders for steam engines, initially of Newcomen design. The steam engine business became so profitable that Wilkinson gave up cannon making which he passed to Homfray and Crawshay at the Cyfartha Works in Merthyr Tydfil. Crawshay cannon production later moved to Treforest near Pontypridd.
• The business fell to pieces due to family disputes. One son sold technology to the French, the other pirated Boulton and Watts steam engine designs and was sued for his pains.

The Steam Locomotive

• Richard Trevethick, The steam locomotive, 19C, Cannon boring technology was later used for steam cylinders which became efficient enough to consider for locomotion. Steam locomotion enabled railways which created the modern world. Trevethick's locomotive ran on a tramway laid to carry pig iron from Merthyr ironworks to the canal system. Trevethick was offered a huge salary to move to the Potosi silver mines in Peru so Stephenson in the North of England won the race.

Large Ironclad ships

• The first big ironclad ship, 1000 tons in displacement, was built by the Neath Abbey Engineering Works. The works specialised in steam engines for mine pumping (a key competitor to Boulton and Watt) and ship propulsion, originally the works was the world's main specialist in fitting steam engines for naval propulsion. Inventions were incremental rather than breakthrough. The owners were Quakers as so often in early industry.

The T rail

• T rails were suggested by an American railroad engineer. “T” rails used less metal than more durable “I” rails. They were more economic for long distance, low traffic railways outside Europe such as in USA, Canada, Australia, Russia and India. Less material, lighter, easier to fix (US spike rather than European chair). However no iron works in North America could make them.
• Richard Crawshay pushed his engineers to come up with a process for making T Rails. Symmetrical patterns like the I rail were easy. The T rail took technique. 
• T rails kept Merthyr Tydfil at the top of the industrial tree for decades. The Crawshay's  picked world class chief engineers. Hughes son, John Hughes was recruited by the Russian Empire to establish the iron and steel industry in the Donbas. A later William Crawshay and his daughter were experimenters in early photography.

Hot Blast furnaces

• Lady Charlotte Guest. Lady Charlotte deserves a blog post to herself, a task for the future. Here is a paragraph to wet your appetite. After being courted by Disraeli amongst others, she married Sir John Guest an iron master from Merthyr Tydfil., 28 years her senior three months after meeting him. They seem to have been happy. 10 children and close cooperation in greatly expanding the business suggest this. Charlotte used about 10 languages, often self taught, including Welsh. She made successful efforts to revive Welsh as a literary language with her translation of the Mabinogion and the rebuilding of the Eisteddfod helping her friend Augusta Hall, Lady Llanover. She also experimented in education by schools in South Wales as did Rose Crawshay. So far, so much an intelligent, rich and pretty lady using her talents to improve the world as did some others but by no means all.
• Cast iron made from pig iron produced in early furnaces was brittle. Scottish engineers invented a process for introducing a blast of hot air into the furnace. This was contested so the details were kept secret. However, a French engineer had written a description of the process. Charlotte translated the book from French. The Guest's agreed to pay a royalty on the process and Charlotte oversaw the installation of the technology at the Guest works. She stayed current with technical improvements and projects on the shop floor thereafter. She also started to assist Sir John in his business affairs. After her husband's death she took over what had become the world's biggest iron works and coped with a recession and a strike before handing it over to a son and the chief engineer. She then ran off to a large country house in Dorset with her children's music tutor, 20 years her junior to set up a publishing house. Disraeli, Sir John and the Tutor were all MPs. Probably not a coincidence and perhaps not entirely the tutor's initial ambition.  Disraeli and Schrieber, the tutor were Tories. Sir John and Charlotte were Liberals. Charlotte lived to 93.
• Charlotte's translation was published and read widely. As a result Hot Blast was adopted by the larger iron works in South Wales. The resulting wrought iron was of a quality good enough for rail. A further patent was granted on the process to George Crane and David Thomas of the Yniscedwyn Works. Their process allowed the use of anthracite coal. It had it's biggest impact in the United States. Iron making in the US was still based on charcoal from the large forests of the East. The local coal was anthracite and not suitable for existing processes. A process to make high quality wrought iron using anthracite was invaluable. Crane and Thomas moved to the US to exploit their invention and founded the US iron and steel industry at industrial scale.

White Porcelain

• Thomas Pardoe, Nantgarw and Swansea, early 19C. Pardoe was an employee, sometimes partner in a number of porcelain works. He invented a paste for the ceramic material which allowed very white translucent porcelain to be produced. It was whiter and more translucent than porcelain imported from China. The exact formula died with him. At the time South Wales was a major centre for porcelain and pottery production because of its considerable coal measures and access to Cornish China clay. Wedgewood and the Staffordshire potteries emerged later on the basis of their own coal and clay sources.

The Fuel Cell and electric light

• Sir William Grove of Swansea, 19C, the fuel cell, this is a way of making electricity by reverse electrolysis. Hydrogen powered cars use fuel cells. They may yet power all our motor cars. Fuel cells power buses in antipollution zones right now.
• Grove was the laboratory demonstrator at the Royal Institute of South Wales, a focus for the advancement of science in Wales since 1838. Their 1840 building is now the Swansea Museum, only recently transferred to public ownership. The society still exists. 

The Incandescent Light Bulb

• Grove moved to London to pursue a career in law but also found time to invent the world's first incandescent light bulb. Grove's light bulb burnt out quickly. His work was developed by Swan (and Edison) who found appropriate materials and gases to produce bulbs with an adequate life time.

Mail Order

• Sir Pryce Jones from Welshpool 19C. Pryce Jones saw the potential of the Post Office. He invented the world's first mail order business, initially to serve the isolated rural areas of Mid Wales. Catalogs were posted to subscribers. The business became very large.
• He also invented the Euklisia rug, a sort of sleeping bag. This rug equipped Russian army and Russian travellers against winter cold for a century. It also reached Australia and The Congo. Welsh wool has a lot of black fibres which makes it hard wearing. The rug maintained a large demand for wool in Mid Wales following the collapse in demand for slave cloth.

Photography

• Various 2nd generation South Wales industrialists including Crawshays, Talbots and Dillwyn Llewelyns, Photography, 19C, Accurate visual records of the past.
• The credited inventor, Fox-Talbot himself worked in England but was related to the Talbots of Port Talbot and did some of his work there. Daguerre beat him to a usable system but the superior Fox-Talbot system became the dominant system. Photography was founded on a huge base of amateur experimentation. The Welsh industrial gentry, including the women, were at the forefront (Chemistry, like maths and other sciences, was a popular hobby for rich women in 19C, alongside embroidery and raising funds for missionaries). The Dillwyn Llewelyns, one man and two women were instrumental as, yet again, was a later Crawshay and his daughter. The Dillwyn Llewelyns, especially Mary, have a number of world firsts for outdoor photography. Another sister pointed her lens skyward after pleading with her father for a (large) telescope and became a significant astronomer of the period.

Open Hearth Process for steel

• Sir James Siemens of the Landore Works at Swansea invented the Open Hearth process for making steel. For the first time steel could be made cheaply and in quantity.

Bessemer process for steel

• Sir Sydney Gilchrist-Thomas. The Bessemer process for making steel was invented in China where its potential was overlooked (typically the case for China). It reappeared in early industrial Belgium. It was less expensive to operate than the open hearth process but required coal free of phosphorous. Gilchrist Thomas found a way of dealing with the phosphorous, allowing the iron industry of the Heads of the Valleys to move to steel and compete with Swansea and Port Talbot. Unfortunately for Welsh exports this also allowed the Ruhr (via industrial espionage) and Pennsylvania (Carnegie paid $250k for a license) to become major steel making areas. Everything that uses steel from long span bridges to reinforced concrete to motor cars.
• The Guests were early adopters of this technology which allowed them to outlast all the other Merthyr ironmasters. Their firm made steel in Merthyr until the 1930s.

Fingerprinting

• Pharmacist in Cardiff invented fingerprinting to identify Lascars for whom he was holding money. Method used by police, particularly in France but superseded. Heard this on the radio and read this in a book too long ago to remember. No references on internet.

Nickel catalysis

• Sir Alfred Mond, 20C, Mond identified nickel as a chemical catalyst and set up nickel refining on an industrial scale near Neath. The firms offices in Swansea are one of the few elegant 19thC buildings to survive the bombing during WW2.

Wireless

• Marconi & a team of electrical engineers from Wales, Wireless communication by voice, 20C. Most electronics now communicate with wireless. William Preece, the head of the Post Office and a Welshman sent Marconi to Wales where there was already a base of experimenters who assisted Marconi. For example, Artie Moore who prior to working with Marconi had picked up the distress signal from the Titanic on his own apparatus. The first succesful experiments in useful transmission took place between Cardiff and Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel.

Reinforced concrete

• Francais Hennebique, reinforced concrete, 20C, big modern structures at low cost. The Weaver building, a grain warehouse in Swansea was the worlds’s first multistory reinforced concrete building and the first reinforced concrete structure in the UK. It was demolished about 30–40 years ago. Vandalism! The lighthouse at Mumbles was also a very early concrete building.

Cattle Feeding system

• Messers & Co Builth Wells, Tombstone cattle feeding system, 20C, enabled cattle to be fed evenly by reducing competition and enabling accurate dosages of minerals to be administered to each cow.

Composite Aircraft wings

• Airbus, Manufacturing processes for composite aircraft wings, 21C. Under threat from Brexit.

Solar roof tiles

• Various members of Welsh Opto-Electronics forum clustered around Tata Steel. low cost solar cell technologies for coating onto steel roof tiles, happening now, potentially planet saving. Every tile on a roof generating power. Elon Musk has launched a competing technology. Solar power is not a replacement for carbon fuels it is a supplement. As with wind, gas fired power stations are required to cover the lulls in electricity production from intermittent sources. These lulls can last a season. Hydro is an alternative technology to match but it is notable that even in countries where solar and hydro could match, such as Zambia, there is a preference for the reliability of nuclear power.

Tin boxes and canned Beer

• During the Napleonic wars the French, British and Russians all invented methods of preserving food. Food was heated to a sterilizing temperature and then sealed in an airtight container. For the French and Russians this was a glass jar.
• Boxes of tinplate with lids were being sold in South East Wales in the late 18thC. Peter Durand, an Englishman from Middlesex extended the use of tin boxes to the idea of a tin cans as a container in 1810. The British army adopted his method.
• An American called Henry Evans invented a process for large scale production of tin cans in 1846. He is clearly of Welsh extraction but I don’t know what his connection is with the large tinplate and can making industry of South West Wales that arose shortly after that. 
• The tin can was invented in 1810 but the can opener wasn’t invented until 1925!
• Felinfoel Breweries of Llanelli produced the world’s first canned beer.

Observations

Until the late 19th C, Wales lacked a University. So there was not a centre to write histories that included Welsh technology and science or build on earlier engineering achievement with matching science (although the RISW in 19th Century Swansea came close for a while and there were many Mechanics Institutes). Conversely, when the University of Wales was founded, it finished the  educational role of the Mechanics Institutes scattered in the industrial towns as centres of learning and their records if not lost are not generally studied to identify technical innovation, so much Welsh achievement is undocumented. Institutional continuity is important. Much can be lost without it.

In terms of metallurgy Wales led industrial development across the world from the foundation of Margam Abbey iron works near Port Talbot in 1130 to 1926 when coal finally collapsed as a world leading industry. The coal boom from 1880 squeezed out the wide range of materials technologies that had developed, particularly around Swansea Bay, as labour costs spiralled and local highly skilled traditions were diluted by labourers immigrating from England and Ireland to work coal. Machine building companies such as the Neath Abbey Engineering Works that sent innovative steam engines around the world in competition with the English Boulton and Watt couldn't pay competitive wages. The industrial population centre shifted to the largely immigrant communities of the lower valleys of South East Wales where the deep coal mines were located.

After 1926, depending on the valley the comment was “All the good people left valley V in year Y ” depending on whether the local industry was in order of decline, iron, coal, engineering (mostly), non ferrous metals or lastly steel.

I would like to enter into correspondence if anyone has a favourite Welsh inventor.