Inventors – Can you help? – Epsom & Ewell History Explorer

Inventors – Can you help?

A Heath Robinson Cartoon

A number of inventors lived in, or were connected with, our area and we usually produce full articles on them. However occasionally we come across one where the information we have found is too limited to justify a full article. So we decided to create this page to acknowledge their contribution to knowledge and ask for your help to produce a more rounded account of their lives.

Peter John Nicholas Brown – Various Chemical Patents

Peter patented various chemical inventions including:

Fluorinated polyphenylenes
Lubricant additives
An Isomerisation Process and an Effluent Treatment with Clifford William Capp

Clifford William Capp – Various Chemical Patents

Clifford’s birth on 02 May 1923 was registered in Hemsworth, Yorks. His father was Frederick W P Capp and his mother was Hilda M Crooks. Clifford was admitted to the Chemical Society in 1943 and married Elsie M Kerry (marriage registered in Gipping, Suffolk, in the quarter ending June 1948. By 1965 they were living at 30 Langton Road (? Langton Avenue), Ewell. Clifford co-patented various chemical inventions including

An Isomerisation Process and an Effluent Treatment with Peter John Nicholas Brown of Epsom
Improvements in or relating to the production of acetic acid with Brian Walton Harris

His death on 17/1/2005 was registered in East Surrey.

Robert Hodgson and the ‘Hodgson’s Propeller’

On 1790 June 16 June 1790 Robert Hodgson was baptised at Hull the son of Robert Hodgson and his wife Mary

Robert Hodgson invented a ‘parabolic submarine propeller’ in 1844.

Specification of patent and drawing.

This London engineer proposed improvements in propelling vessels by attaching blades of his propeller to the shaft, not at right angles, but such an angle as caused the cutting edge of his propeller to describe a parabolic or conical figure.

Hodgson’s screw was tested on HMS Rattler, in the famous trial on 3 April 1845 when screw-driven Rattler and paddle-operated HMS Alecto struggled for mechanical advantage lashed stern to stern. It was not judged a satisfactory performance. A form of Hodgson’s screw was, however, subsequently adopted in France, Holland, and other countries of the Continent. In some cases, in which a common screw was been superseded by a screw of this description, an improvement had been obtained in the speed of about a knot an hour.

Having been resident on Princes Street, Clapham Road, Surrey, Hodgson had moved to Neckinger Road, Bermondsey, London, by 1846. In the Great Exhibition catalogue from 1851, however, his address was given as Ewell.

The 1851 census shows he was living at Epsom Road, Ewell: Robert Hodgson (age 60 born Hull), Steam Boat Propulsion (Unmarried). With his three sisters Elizabeth Hodgson (age 66 born Hull), Charlotte Hodgson (age 63 born Hull) and Esther Hodgson (age 62 born Hull). Also his nephew R. Robert Hodgson (age 13 born Southwark).

On 8 February 1853, he wrote from Ewell to the Editor of The Artisan complaining that his invention was being used ‘without sanction on the continent’ and to remark that he was working on an atmospheric engine.

By the 1861 census he was an unmarried Accountant living at Cottage, Twickenham with his widowed sister-in-law Caroline Hodgson (age 57 born Cobham) who had married Henry Hodgson at Lambeth in 1844.

Thereafter he disappears.

Researched by Brian Bouchard 2022
With thanks to Graces Guide

James Hunt of Ewell Powder Mill

All we know of James Hunt is that he patented the Invention of “Improvements in preparing Peat or Peat Earth” see Google patents

William Page of The Parade, Epsom

All we know of William Page is that he patented “Improvements to Riddles or Sieves” see Google Patents. It is possible that he signed over the rights in this invention to Mr. John Smith, the well – known milling engineer and millwright, of the Grove Iron Works, Carshalton

Some Local Inventors we have already researched

Author

Peter Reed