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THOMAS PARKER

Thomas Parker

 

Inventor

 

Dates of interest in Thomas Parker’s life include:-

 

1881 (Age 38) Responsible for the first electric tramway in the world at Portrush, Northern Ireland. Powered by the first hydro electric generator.

 

1882 Shared the invention of the Plante Battery

 

1882 Founded the first company in The Midlands to manufacture electrical equipment in Commercial Road, Wolverhampton - in parnership with Mr Paul Bedford Elwell

 

1884 Designed electric powered transmission system for collieries

 

1884/86 Designed equipment for refining copper by electricity

 

1887 Invented the method of producing phosphorus and chlorate of soda by electricity

 

1889 Invented the sparking plug

 

1889 Designed the first electric locomotive for the Birmingham Tramways

 

1891 Made the first electric omnibus to run in London, from Charing Cross to Victoria, at 7mph

 

1892 Designed the high voltage direct current system for the City of Oxford

 

1893 The firm of Elwell and Parker was reconstituted as The Electric Construction Company.

 

1893 Responsible for the electrification of the South Staffordshire Tramway

 

1893 Responsible for the electrification of the Liverpool Overhead Railway for which he was awarded the Stephenson Medal and the Telford Premium by The Institute of Civil Engineers.

 

1894 Founded the firm of Thomas Parker (Ltd) in Wolverhampton

 

1896 Produced a prototype 'electric dog-cart'

 

1898 Contested Kingswinford seat of Parliament for the Liberal Party

 

1899 Responsible for the electrification of the first underground railway in Great Britain, a section of the London Metropolitan Railway, as a result he was invited to join the Board of Directors of this company.1904 Awarded two gold medals by the smoke abatement society for his work against air pollution. One for his invention of the Kyrle Fire Grate and one for his invention of the distillation of coal by low temperature method to produce a smokeless fuel.

 

1905 He urged the necessity of decimalisation of the English weights, measures and currency and did much to promote a decimal system of his own creation.

 

1907 Bought Severn House and the Court Works in Madeley

 

1910 Patented the forerunner of the jeep

 

 

Courtesy of The History of the Valley Hotel, Coalbrookdale

 

 

Born: 1843

Died: 1915

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Uploaded on June 11, 2013
Taken on June 11, 2013