Goldsworthy Gurney

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney ( born February 14, 1793 in Treator at Padstow, Cornwall, † February 28, 1875 in Reeds in Bude, Cornwall) was a typical British amateur scientist and inventor of the Victorian age. He worked as a surgeon, chemist, lecturer, consultant, architect and as a designer.

Among his many merits include the oxy-hydrogen cutting torch, which he further developed later into a new light, the Bude light, a very bright oil lamp, named after the place Bude. He also built an early form of steam-powered road vehicles, and the blowpipe ( SteamJet ), a key component for the success of steam locomotives, machinery and other coal-fired plants. Gurney's " SteamJet " invention is Stevenson's locomotive have given the speed that made him win the Rainhill race in 1829. 1863 Gurney was beaten by Queen Victoria knighted.

Gurney's steam carriage

From 1825 to 1829 Gurney built several steam-powered road vehicles ( steam Omnibuse ). He had plans to build a transport business, the Gurney Steam Carriage Company. The cars were built in its manufactory in Regent 's Park and reached a speed of 32 km / h

One of his vehicles made ​​in July 1829, two months before the race of Rainhill, a longer trip from London to Bath, reaching an average speed of 22 km / h The steam cars were not commercially successful because of various difficulties and so Gurney went bankrupt with huge debts. Various circumstances at this failure of his company at the time led to polarizing controversy.

Other inventions and achievements

• He invented an oxygen -hydrogen torch. Usually, this invention is otherwise the chemist Robert Hare attributed.
• Gurney dealt in 1822 with an ammonia machine with which he drive a locomotive.
• In 1856 he patented a furnace, the Gurney Stove, for heating buildings. In several English cathedrals they are still in operation today.
• He improved the lighting of theaters with his Bude - light, a gas light.
• He has built from 1852, the gas lights, heating and ventilation in the House of Parliament in Westminster.
• He built lamps for lighthouses, steam engines, electric telegraphs, and musical instruments, including a piano.
• He smothered the fire in a burning mine for 30 years with a nitrogen - carbon dioxide gas mixture.

His daughter Anna Jane later led to extraordinary campaigns to obtain recognition of the blowpipe and other things as his invention.

Works

• Lectures on the Elements of Chemical Science