Malcolm Smith's Family History Archive

Biography of

Thomas  PARKER

[Ref. P.45]

Ancestors Profile More Index for PARKER

 
Thomas Parker was born on 22 December 1843, the eldest child of Thomas Wheatley and Ann Parker of Lincoln Hill, Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. His education took place in the Quaker school Coalbrookdale then, at the age of 9, he went to work with his father as an iron moulder in the Coalbrookdale foundry. He would have worked for sixty hours per week, the same as the adults. The census of 1861 showed him still in that occupation and living at Upper Forge.

Thomas was sent by the foundry to the Great Exhibition in London in 1863. What he saw there awakened his imagination into scientific matters, a course which he was soon to persue.

The following year, Thomas left Coalbrookdale and spent some time away working in Manchester during which time he studied under professor Roscoe at Hulme town hall. Henry Enfield Roscoe was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Manchester, from 1857 to 1886, and built the first ever practical chemistry laboratory in Britain. In 1858 Roscoe also reputedly produced the world's first flashlight photograph. The Roscoe Medal, commemorating this distinguished Victorian chemist is awarded for outstanding contributions to and excellence in Chemistry in the UK. Roscoe believed that students should be given a careful and complete general training. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Thomas then moved to work in Birmingham and continued his studies at the Midland Institute. It was here that he met his wife to be, Jane Gibbons, who was a native of the town. He next moved to Stoke-on-Trent and there he married Jane early in 1866. They were living in Dudley when their first child Ellen was born at the end of 1866, but she sadly survived for less than a year.

By 1868, Thomas and Jane had returned to Coalbrookdale and he was taken on as foreman of the engineering foundry. The 1871 census shows him living in the Hodge Bower area of Ironbridge. Thomas' toolbox, still containing his casting tools, survives in the care of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

A few years later, Thomas was put in charge of the Chemical Department which included the electro-depositing functions of the company. He soon advanced to become manager of the engineering section of the company, doubtless as a result of his able and inventive mind.

Around 1875 Thomas and his colleague Philip Weston patented the Parker and Weston Patent Steam Pump and exhibited it at the Royal Birmingham Agricultural Show that year. The Coalbrookdale Company was always looking to increase their range of cast iron goods and were often quite inovative and they started to produce the pump.

Thomas was also working on efficient methods of producing an electrical current, both by battery but also by generation. His improved design of acid batteries were used in the Royal Navy's first experimental submarine Nautilus. In 1878 he designed and constructed a dynamo for use in the factory.

Amongst the items that the Coalbrookdale Company manufactures were the Iron Bridge series of fire grates. With a national move towards smokeless fuels, Thomas had invented the Kyrle open grate, which was the first in which anthracite coal could be burned. In 1881, it was awarded the Silver Medal at the Smoke Abatement Exhibition in South Kensington. The smokeless fuel Coalite was also developed by him.

According to the census of 1881, Thomas and his family were living at 70 Alexandra Street in the Lady Wood district of Birmingham.

In 1882, Thomas left the Coalbrookdale Company and went into partnership with Paul Bedford Elwell, who owned the Patent Tip and Horseshoe Company in Wolverhampton. His involvement with the company led to it's rapid success in the production of electrical equipment and in 1884 the name was changed to the Wolverhampton Electric Light, Storage and Engineering Company. The company had been manufacturing and installing dynamos which were revolutionising production for many types of industry. The company name changed again to Elwell-Parker Ltd. and was now engaged in providing systems of electric traction, starting with a tramway at Blackpool between 1884-6. In 1888 one of their electric locomotives first ran on Birmingham tramways.

In 1889 the company was absorbed by The Electric Construction Company and Thomas was reduced to the position of Works Manager. With this company, Thomas was involved in 1892 with the provision of a lighting plant for the City of Oxford, and a tramway system for the South Staffordshire Tramway using overhead wires for power collection. The next year the company changed it's name to the Electric Construction Company and undertook the electrification of the Liverpool Overhead Railway.

A detailed account of the period of the period Thomas spent with ECC was published in The Electrical Times on 28 April 1921.

He left the Electrical Construction Company in 1894 and went into business on his own account as Thomas Parker Ltd., having a factory in Wednesfield Road in Wolverhampton in which dynamos were manufactured. He was appointed Consulting Engineer for the electrification of the Metropolitan Railway in London which was completed in 1905.

The census of 1901 shows Thomas and Jane living at the Manor House in Upper Green, Tettenhall in Staffordshire with their two youngest sons. His occupation was given as an Electrical Engineer. Around this time, his generators were being installed at various municipal electricity works such as Folkestone, Maidstone and Oxford.

Thomas retired in 1907 and went to live in Severn House which he had bought from the Maws family that year. It was reported by a friend that the house and his workshop were filled with scientific treasure from his achievements. He also purchased the Court Works in Madeley and installed his son Thomas with a view to developing their ideas. His retirement was not total as he did continue to deliver lectures. Outside his work, he had put his mind to other matters such as new systems of coinage, weights and measures. He had also successfully designed a shallow draught boat suitable for the shallow river Severn.

Thomas was a religious man who did not seek the limelight. However, he had stood for parliament as Liberal canditate for Kingswinford in 1892 but failed to be elected. His demeanour had earned him the name of Honest Tom.

Thomas passed away at the age of almost 72 on 5 December 1915. There was a well attended funeral at Madeley church and he was laid to rest in the Fletcher family vault there. Obituaries were published detailing his life and listed those at his funeral. Probate was granted on his Will on 22 February 1916.

 

Top of page