Misplaced Pages

#635364

26-558: The Ironworks was established by John Guest and Isaac Wilkinson in 1763, but the venture was unsuccessful and transferred to Anthony Bacon in 1765. On his death in 1788, Richard Hill became the owner. Anthony Hill, a later owner, adopted the Bessemer process . On his death in 1862, the company was taken over by Fothergill, Hankey and Bateman until its closure in 1882. 51°44′07″N 3°22′11″W  /  51.7352°N 3.3696°W  / 51.7352; -3.3696 This article about

52-402: A Welsh company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a Welsh building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Anthony Bacon (industrialist) Anthony Bacon (baptised 24 January 1716 – 21 January 1786) was an English-born merchant and industrialist who was significantly responsible for the emergence of Merthyr Tydfil as

78-460: A detailed account of the metal to the Royal Society , stating that he had seen no mention of it in any previous accounts of known minerals. Brownrigg wrote up Wood's experiments and did some of his own. He was the first to recognise it as a new element and by bringing the new metal to the attention of The Royal Society encouraged other scientists to start investigating it. Brownrigg also produced

104-552: A government contractor for shipping and victualling in partnership with London merchant William Biggin , also from Whitehaven. In 1738, Bacon became master of the ship York , a tobacco trade vessel owned by John Hanbury. In 1740, under contract from Andrew Reid esq. and in accordance with the Transportation Act 1717 , Bacon used this ship to transport 115 convicted felons (women, men and children) from Newgate Prison in London to

130-504: A major treatise on salt manufacture. He hoped that improved domestic production could make Britain self-sufficient in this valuable resource thereby improving the fishing industry and economy both in Britain and America. Much of the best quality salt was 'bay salt' produced in France and Spain; the two European powers with whom Britain was most likely to be at war with in the eighteenth century. When

156-515: A member of parliament was disabled from undertaking government contracts in 1782, when the forge and some of the gunfoundry business were leased to Francis Homfray . Bacon married Elizabeth Richardson, but their only son died in 1770, aged 12. His brother Thomas also died in Maryland, and one of Thomas' daughters (Elizabeth) had sailed to England to assist Anthony's family. Bacon therefore made Elizabeth and his illegitimate sons his heirs. When he died,

182-486: A nearby coal mine through lead pipes. Brownrigg developed methods of collecting and transferring the gases and supplied James Lowther with gas filled bladders to show to The Royal Society which then elected Brownrigg as a Fellow. His experiments on gases continued and after visiting a spa resort in Germany he became interested in gases to be found in mineral waters. A paper he published entitled "Experimental inquiry concerning

208-721: A paper based upon his book was read at the Royal Society in June 1748 (whilst the negotiations which were to lead to the peace treaty ending the War of the Austrian Succession were still under way), it was considered the most important paper read there in the last fifty years. In 1771 Benjamin Franklin was on a tour of Britain with Sir John Pringle who advised him to visit William Brownrigg. Franklin stayed at Brownrigg's home of Ormathwaite in

234-474: The Province of Maryland where they were sold for a 7 to 14-year penal transportation sentence. Between 1760 and 1766, Anthony Bacon was full or partial owner of five ships that completed a total of six Atlantic slave trade voyages: the ship Sarah in 1760 to Virginia ; the ship Kepple in 1760 to South Carolina ; the ship Charming Molly 1762 to Maryland ; the ship Two Sisters in 1763 to Maryland ; and

260-521: The Hirwaun ironworks in 1780. Bacon's government contracts included supplying ordnance. In 1773, after the Carron Company 's guns had been withdrawn from service as dangerous, Bacon offered to provide three cannon for a trial, made respectively with charcoal, coke, and mixed fuel. He also delivered a fourth with then 'cast solid and bored'. This gun was reported to be 'infinitely better than [those cast] in

286-505: The Lake District and was presented with a signed copy of his book on salt. Franklin demonstrated his experiment of adding oil to the water surface of Derwent Water to calm the waves. He later corresponded with Brownrigg on the subject leading to another paper for The Royal Society's transactions. Brownrigg was a businessman as well as a doctor and scientist. He went into partnership with Anthony Bacon from Whitehaven in 1765 to develop

SECTION 10

#1732851374636

312-465: The connection may be spurious or illegitimate. Following the death of both his parents, William Bacon and Elizabeth Richardson, Anthony moved to Talbot County Maryland to live with his maternal uncles, tobacco merchants Thomas and Anthony Richardson. He became a merchant and mariner, expanding the business to include Virginia and the import of Spanish wine. During the Seven Years' War Bacon became

338-420: The earliest English references to puerperal fever . In 1741, Brownrigg married Mary Spedding. Mary's father and uncle ran the collieries for James Lowther, whose family had developed Whitehaven into a major seaport. This increased William's local influence and also promoted his interest in the health and welfare of the miners. Later in 1771, with the threat of an epidemic from Europe, Brownrigg who had studied

364-511: The environment where the clinician practises medicine. He gained the degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD). Brownrigg returned to Britain and took up medicine with an established doctor called Richard Senhouse in Whitehaven. Senhouse died soon after, making Brownrigg the principal doctor in the area for many years to come. His casebook for 1737-1742 survives and was recently transcribed. It contains descriptions of his patients and remedies and some of

390-639: The iron industry in Wales which led to the expansion of Merthyr Tydfil , particularly the Cyfarthfa Ironworks . He also inherited a share of John Speddings ropery and invested in the Keswick Turnpike Trust. With his retirement to Ormathwaite, he became interested in improving the local agriculture, made a study of minerals, and encouraged Thomas West to write A Guide to the Lakes , the first guide book to

416-487: The iron-smelting centre of Britain. Bacon was born at St Bees near Whitehaven in Cumberland , the youngest son of William Bacon, a ship's captain trading in coal from that port to Ireland. His eldest full brother was Thomas and his father also had a son William from his first marriage. The family claimed descent from Sir Nicholas Bacon (1540–1624); however, since very little is known about his ancestry and upbringing,

442-469: The mineral-rich land very cheaply, they employed Charles Wood to build Cyfarthfa forge using his patented potting and stamping process to make pig iron into bar iron . This was followed by a blast furnace at Cyfarthfa , 50 feet high and opened in 1767. In 1766, Bacon took over the Plymouth Ironworks to supply pig iron to his forge. Brownrigg partnership was dissolved in 1777. Bacon leased

468-510: The nature of the mineral elastic spirit or air contained in the Pouhon water, and other acidulae" earned him the prestigious Copley Medal in 1766. In 1741, Brownrigg's relative, Charles Wood , a British metallurgist , found various samples of Colombian platinum in Jamaica, which he sent to Brownrigg for further investigation. In 1750, after studying the platinum sent to him by Wood, Brownrigg presented

494-428: The ordinary way, because it makes the ordnance more compact and consequently more durable', despite the greater expense. This led to a contract in 1774. These guns were apparently cast by John Wilkinson until Bacon's contract with him ended in 1776. The next year, Bacon asked for Richard Crawshay 's name to be included in his warrants, and from this time the cannon were cast at Cyfarthfa. This continued until Bacon as

520-479: The same time to aid his business in government contracts, he was elected as Member of Parliament for the venal borough of Aylesbury , which he represented until 1784, by which time the participation of MPs in government contracting had been prohibited. In 1765 Bacon went into partnership with William Brownrigg of Whitehaven, taking out a lease on 4,000 acres (16 km ) of land in the Merthyr valley. After obtaining

546-479: The ship King of Bonny in 1765 to Barbados & in 1766 to St. Kitts . In 1763, the ship Two Sisters was co-owned by Anthony Bacon and his nephew, Anthony Richardson Jr. The following year, 1764, Bacon withdrew from the tobacco trade, and concentrated on trade to and contracting in new British colonies (the ceded islands— St Vincent , Tobago , Dominica , and Grenada ) in the West Indies and west Africa. At

SECTION 20

#1732851374636

572-504: The sons received princely amounts for the time. Bacon's eldest son, Anthony Bushby Bacon (1772–1827) was to receive the Cyfarthfa estate when he came of age. The second son Thomas Bacon was to receive the Plymouth furnace, etc. In addition, "The Hirwaun furnace and collieries became the joint property of Anthony II and Thomas, while Robert, it seems, had the mines, etc., at Workington. Elizabeth

598-458: The subject from outbreaks of typhus at Whitehaven, published a paper "Considerations on the means of pestilential contagion, and of Eradicating it in Infected Places." His medical interest led him to investigate the gases the miners breathed – fire damp ( methane ) and choke damp (oxygen depleted air). Carlisle Spedding helped to build a laboratory for Brownrigg and fed it with gases from

624-509: Was a British doctor and scientist, who practised at Whitehaven in Cumberland . While there, Brownrigg carried out experiments that earned him the Copley Medal in 1766 for his work on carbonic acid gas. He was the first person to recognise platinum as a new element. He was created a Fellow of the Royal Society . He was born at High Close Hall near Plumbland , the son of local gentry, George Brownrigg. William's mother, Mary Brownrigg,

650-501: Was from Ireland. William was educated in Latin and Greek by a local clergyman from the age of 13 and by the age of 15 was an apprentice to an apothecary in Carlisle . Then followed two years studying under a surgeon in London before going to Leiden where he studied under Boerhaave , 's Gravesande, van Royen and Albinus . He graduated in 1737 with his thesis "De Praxi Medica Ineunda" – about

676-638: Was to receive a clear annuity of £300 when she became 21. William, then a baby, was to receive the remainder of the trust funds, provided the sum did not amount to more than £10,000, when he came of age." The sons showed little or no interest in their father's businesses and rapidly sold or leased them, Anthony II to Richard Crawshay , who was one of the witnesses to the father's will, and Thomas to his uncle Richard Hill . Both took on estates in Berkshire . William Brownrigg William Brownrigg (24 March 1712 [ O.S. 13 March 1711] – 6 January 1800)

#635364