Rescuing Richard (2) 03-10-2017

Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard Prosser The Engineer: A Forgotten Birmingham Genius Richard Prosser 1804 -1854 The Discovery of his Life of Invention and Contention The First Story Rescuing Richard: The Brothers' Feud & The "Chunk" Conundrum Version 2: 03-10-2017 !1 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard Susan Darby Copyright © 2015-2017 Susan Darby all rights reserved The purpose of the free publication of this work is to gain some belated, but much deserved, recognition for its subject Richard Prosser, an inventor who was also one of the main proponents of the first major legislative reform of the patent law system in 1852. He was fiercely protective of intellectual property rights. Any concerns as to possible copyright infringement in this narrative or any images within it should be addressed to the author in the first instance please at [email protected] and they will be given due and proper consideration; if any infringement is established the offending material will be removed, if required by the owner, with an apology - as Prosser himself would have demanded . The typeface used on the "cover" of this narrative and chapter headings is "Baskerville" in deference to Richard's admiration of another Birmingham genius: John Baskerville (1706-1775). Version 2: 03-10-2017 !2 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard The Richard Prosser Stories to date The First Story Chapters 1 to 5 Rescuing Richard: The Brothers' Feud & The "Chunk" Conundrum The Second Story Chapters 6 to 9 The Dust-Pressed Process: The Button Wars & The Tile Revolution The stories already written remain works in progress and will be subject to revision as, hopefully, further information and corrections come to light. Works in Contemplation: Tubes: A Wealth of Trouble The Emancipation of Inventors Version 2: 03-10-2017 !3 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard Acknowledgements Throughout my narratives I try to acknowledge all my contributors and sources as they appear and, where appropriate, provide a link to any relevant website. In the case of "Rescuing Richard" especial thanks are due to the following: Professor Christine MacLeod, the author of Richard Prosser's new entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, for her encouragement, guidance, historical insight and her patient, but often thwarted, attempts to improve my grammar and punctuation; Guy Sjogren, whose scholarly knowledge of the cut-nail industry is far greater than mine, for his contributions to the content of this narrative and for gently correcting my wilder speculations; The British Newspaper Archive, my main source of contemporary accounts, without which the Richard Prosser Stories would not have been discovered. Finally, but above all, Richard Prosser's great great grandson, Richard John Darby, my husband, for his support and toleration of my obsessive pursuit of his ancestor. Known as "John" since birth, my husband was named Richard after his maternal Prosser grandfathers: the mining engineer Richard Ellis Prosser, the historian of invention Richard Bissell Prosser and Richard himself. All errors, omissions and misconceived speculations in my narratives are entirely my responsibility. It is my hope that publication will lead to feedback, which will enable corrections to be made and will resolve some, at least, of the many questions that remain unanswered about Richard's life and inventions. Those readers looking for an index will not find one - for which I make no apology. This electronic format should be searchable on most devices; an essential aid in my own researches. Susan Darby [email protected] Version 2: 03-10-2017 !4 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard Rescuing Richard: The Brothers' Feud & The "Chunk" Conundrum Contents Page Introduction 6 Chapter 1: A Son's Surprising Reticence 13 Chapter 2: Carpentry to Mechanics - 26 The Evolution of an Engineer Chapter 3: For Want of a Nail Machine 57 Chapter 4: The "Chunk" Conundrum; Mr. Jones & 95 the Battle for the Britannia Nail Manufactory Chapter 5: Marriage, Family and Invention 148 Version 2: 03-10-2017 !5 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard Introduction Richard Prosser c1835 - Miniature (Darby Collection) If every picture does tell a story, what can we learn from the portrait of the young man depicted in the miniature above? Sitting in an upholstered high backed chair, he appears to have been small in stature and slight of build; he is well, but not flamboyantly, dressed. His age is uncertain - perhaps middle to late twenties. His carefully styled curling hair is dark brown and (in the close up on the next page) his eyes appear to be grey or blue, perhaps an indication of his ancestry; his complexion is pale, untanned from outdoor pursuits, whether of work or leisure. His features, in partial profile, indicate a prominent nose under a high forehead, a firm mouth and the hint of the Version 2: 03-10-2017 !6 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard dimple that he had in his slightly prominent chin. However, it is his eyes and expression that holds the clues to what I believe was happening in his life at the time the portrait was painted. He looks very tired, if not exhausted, the artist has not disguised the swelling and lines underneath each eye. His expression is serious, uncertain, as he looks beyond the artist, perhaps dwelling on the fears that then beset him; may be actually frightened as to his immediate future, but trying to conceal his anxiety. The portrait we know is of Richard Prosser; there is a note glued to the back of the miniature written in the crabbed hand of his eldest son, Richard Bissell Prosser: I believe the portrait was actually painted between August 1835 and March 1836, when Richard was in fact aged 31. During this period he was very gainfully employed, probably for the first time in his life, and could have afforded to sit for the miniature, even though he would have had little time to Version 2: 03-10-2017 !7 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard spare. He would have been extraordinarily busy making and developing complicated machinery and superintending operations at one of Birmingham's largest manufactories; this alone might explain his exhausted look. But why did he make time to have his portrait painted and for whom, surely not himself? It is my belief that Richard had the miniature painted as a keepsake for the young woman he loved, in the event that he was soon to be forcibly parted from her and sent to the other side of the world, probably never to return. A fanciful romantic notion on the face of it, but not beyond the bounds of possibility in the light of the events recounted in chapter 3 of the narrative that follows this introduction. My late mother-in-law "Betty", Edith Elizabeth Darby née Prosser (1916-2001), was a great granddaughter of Richard Prosser and the only grandchild of his eldest son Richard Bissell Prosser (1838-1918). Her father Richard Ellis Prosser (1873-1935) was a mining engineer; he and his wife were both in their later thirties when they married at St. John's Hampstead in 1912 and for much of their married life Richard Ellis was working abroad elsewhere in Europe or in Africa or South America. His wife Edith Annie Prosser née Daniel (1876-1963) stayed at home in Golders Green where their only child Betty was born and brought up until her father's death when she was eighteen years old. Betty's mother was left in a precarious fi n a n c i a l p o s i t i o n a f t e r h e r husband's death and could no longer afford the Golders Green house; she and Betty had to lodge in "rooms" in various parts of north London. In 1945 Betty moved to the Midlands with her new husband Sam Darby, a school master, who she had met when they both worked in British Intelligence during the Second World War; Betty's mother joined them and lived with their family for the rest of her life. (Richard Ellis Prosser Pedigree Tree - Screenshot Ancestry) It is therefore not surprising that Betty knew more about her mother's family than her long deceased, and often absent, father's. Although very much a Londoner, Betty was proud of her Daniel heritage; she knew that through this, Version 2: 03-10-2017 !8 Prosser The Engineer The First Story Rescuing Richard once wealthy, family from the Staffordshire Potteries she was distantly related to the Wedgwood family and Charles Darwin. Some of the Daniel family history seeped down to her three children: Elizabeth the eldest; (Richard) John, my husband; and David. Of the Prosser family history virtually nothing was heard by Betty's children, just a few snippets: her grandfather Prosser was "head" of the Patent Office and had written a book, he and Betty's own father were buried in a family plot in Highgate Cemetery; an ancestor had lived at the bottom of Broad Street near the future site of the Hall of Memory in the centre of Birmingham, the city where her two sons had lived and worked since the 1970s; a relative was buried in Kings Norton churchyard - that was about it. As is so often the case in families, by the time her children, busy with their own commitments, thought to question her in depth about her family history it was too late. We have a recording of Betty made a year or two before her death recounting some of these memories; her recollections have proved to be substantially correct.

Load more