Robert William Thomson (1822-1873): Inventor of the Pneumatic Tyre
Every so often there is a mad scramble for the credit to be given to an inventor of something. Here in Scotland, we tend to think of John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn in Ayrshire as the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, which he patented in 1888, but he was beaten to this invention by another Scot. Robert Thomson of Stonehaven received a patent for what he called the “aerial wheel” in 1845, which was a hollow leather tyre surrounding a rubber tube filled with air. He demonstrated his invention in Regent’s Park in London in 1847, but Dunlop’s improved version proved to be cheaper. Both were Presbyterian Christians.
Robert Thomson’s inventive mind was not just applied to the pneumatic tyre. Among his patents were the fountain pen; steam boilers; steam omnibuses; applying steam power in agriculture; elastic wheel tyres; road steamers; the ribbon saw, and a host of other inventions or developments.
Revd Patrick Bell (1799-1869): Inventor of the Combine Harvester
From time to time, I love to stop and watch a combine harvester at work. What an extraordinary machine it is! Just think of all the labour it saves, and the efficiency with which it serves us. Taking the history of the development of the combine harvester back to its beginning, we arrive at Revd Patrick Bell, the minister of Carmyllie Parish Church in Scotland. Before his ordination he had worked on his father’s farm in Auchterhouse in Angus where he invented what he called the “reaping machine”, which in those days was pushed along by horses. By 1828 his invention was being used successfully in this area of Scotland.
Bell was more eager to use his skills for the benefit of humanity, than to make his name as an inventor; for this reason, he did not apply for a patent. It was the Americans, William Manning (1831) and Obed Hussey (1833) who copied Bell’s invention, receiving patents, and Cyrus McCormick (1834), an evangelical Christian who developed the machine more effectively, putting this technology on the agricultural map before the invention of traction engines from 1858-1880s, when motors began to replace horses.
“Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2, KJV).
Image 1: Robert William Thomson (1822-1873) and Kwik Fit for tyres: No machine-readable author provided. Taras assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Image 2: Revd Patrick Bell (1799-1869) with his Reaping Machine, George Heriot Swanston, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons