Isaac Lowthian Bell

Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell

Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, 1st Baronet FRS (* February 18, 1816 - December 20, 1904 ), often led only under Lowthian Bell , was a British steel industrialist and liberal politician. At times he was one of the wealthiest British people thanks to his extensive industrial holdings. His most important industrial holdings included iron works near Port Clarence on the north bank of the Tees , which he owned together with his brothers. He was the founder of the first British industrial facility for the production of aluminum.

In addition to his economic ventures, he was both scientifically and politically active. He researched in particular on improvements in iron and steel production and was, among other things, a member of the Royal Society . He was mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne twice and he sat in the British Parliament from February to June 1874 and from 1875 to 1880. He was the founder of a steel industry association, which he chaired from 1873 to 1875. In 1874 he was the first to be awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal, donated by Henry Bessemer . In 1884 he was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers . Since 1876 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

On July 21, 1885 he was given the hereditary title of Baronet , of Rounton Grange in the County of York and of Washington Hall in the County of Durham.

In private he was married from 1842 to Margaret Pattinson, the daughter of Hugh Lee Pattinson , who had developed the Pattinson process for the separation of silver and lead. His children include his title heir Thomas Hugh Bell , who in turn was the father of the orientalist and British explorer Gertrude Bell .

literature

• Janet Wallach: Queen of the Desert. The extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell . Munich, Goldmann 1999, ISBN 3-442-15062-0 .
• Liora Lukitz: A quest in the Middle East: Gertrude Bell and the making of modern Iraq . London, Tauris 2006, ISBN 1-85043-415-8 .
• Tim Healey, Andreas Held (translator): Discoverer and adventurer. Row: Our 20th Century. Publisher Reader's Digest - The Best. Stuttgart 1999 ISBN 3870708301 (with numerous illustrations)