Sarah Guppy
Sarah Guppy | |
---|---|
Born | Sarah Beach 1770 Birmingham, England |
Died | 1852 |
Nationality | English |
Spouse(s) | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
|
Children | Six children, including Thomas Richard, Grace and Sarah |
Engineering career | |
Engineering discipline | Inventor |
Significant projects | Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge |
Significant design | A tea or coffee urn that also cooked eggs, the fire hood, a candlestick that made candles burn longer |
Significant advance | Improvements in ship caulking and barnacle prevention |
Sarah Guppy, née Beach (1770–1852) was an English inventor who contributed to the design of Britain's infrastructure including the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, and developed several domestic products.[1][2]
Contents
Early history and inventions
Sarah Guppy was born in Birmingham, England. In 1811 she patented the first of her inventions, a method of making safe piling for bridges. Thomas Telford asked her for permission to use her patented design for suspension bridge foundations, and she granted it to him free of charge.[3] As a friend of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his family she became involved in the Great Western Railway, writing to the directors with ideas and giving her support. In 1841 she wrote a letter recommending planting willows and poplars to stabilise embankments. She continued to offer technical advice despite the fact that, as she wrote, "it is unpleasant to speak of oneself—it may seem boastful particularly in a woman."[4]
Patents and publications
The family took out 10 patents in the first half of the nineteenth century, including a method of keeping ships free of barnacles that led to a government contract worth £40,000. Other inventions included a bed with built-in exercise equipment, a device for a tea or coffee urn which would cook eggs in the steam as well as having a small dish to keep toast warm and a device for "improvements in caulking ships, boats and other vessels." In later life she wrote The Cottagers and Labourers Friend and Dialogues for Children, invented the fire hood or Cook’s Comforter, and patented a new type of candlestick that enabled candles to burn longer.[5][6]
Marriage and family
She married Bristol merchant Samuel Guppy and lived in Queen Square and Prince Street,[7] a leading light of the Bristol and Clifton social scene. The couple had six children, including Thomas Richard, Grace and Sarah. Although Thomas Richard went into the family’s sugar refining business, he later became an engineer and was an associate of Brunel, contributing significantly to the design of SS Great Western and SS Great Britain. Brunel painted a portrait of the younger Sarah Guppy c. 1836.[8]
Later life
In 1837 the widowed Sarah, now 67, married Richard Eyre-Coote, 28 years her junior. For a while they lived at Arnos Court, Brislington, but Richard ran through his rich wife's money at a rapid rate, spending on horses and neglecting her. Sarah moved into 7 Richmond Hill, Clifton in 1842. She bought the land opposite the house for the benefit of Clifton residents and it still remains green space.[9]
Notes and references
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- ↑ PRO RAIL 1014/8/7
- ↑ One Hundred Key Facts on the Bristol City – region and Science
- ↑ Plaque #932 – Open Plaques
- ↑ Bristol Record Office BCC/F/E/3285, BCC/F/E/3140
- ↑ Brunel: 'In Love with the Impossible' ISBN 978-0955074202
- ↑ BBC – Bristol – Entertainment – Shows of strength
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Pages with broken file links
- English civil engineers
- British bridge engineers
- Structural engineers
- People of the Industrial Revolution
- British people in rail transport
- English engineers
- English inventors
- Women inventors
- Women in engineering
- 1770 births
- 1852 deaths
- Railway engineers
- Women in technology
- People from Birmingham, West Midlands