Robert Foulis

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Robert Foulis (born May 5, 1796 in Glasgow , Scotland , † January 26, 1866 impoverished in Saint John , New Brunswick ) was an inventor . He is the inventor of the steam powered foghorn , i. H. the fog whistle .

After studying engineering, he moved to Belfast in 1816 , where he married Elizabeth Leatham . His wife gave birth to a daughter named Euphemia, but died giving birth in 1817. In 1818 he left his daughter with his aunt and moved to Halifax , Canada, where he worked as a surveyor and in the construction of steamboats, a harbor ferry and a lighthouse .

In 1852 he patented a new gas lighting principle based on albertite , an asphalt variant made from rock formations in Albert County . A year later, in 1853, he converted the Partridge Island lighthouse to his new lamp system. Partridge Island was both a lighthouse and fog warning site. A cannon for warning shots was installed there in 1791, and a 1000 pound bell was added in 1832. The hearing range of these signaling devices was limited, which is also preserved in angry reports from the seafaring. When he presented his gas lighting in 1852, Foulis also presented his idea of ​​a steam whistle as a replacement for the fog bells to the authorities. Each location should be given an identifier from defined horn intervals so that they can be clearly distinguished acoustically. However, the responsible authority was not impressed by the idea and instead tried to improve the existing fog cover.

In 1858 he put his idea forward again, and Isaac Woodward in charge of the lighthouses asked him for concrete plans. Woodward handed these plans over to Vernon Smith , a steam engine engineer, who submitted them to the authorities after minor changes. Finally, in 1859, Smith built the first steam smoke pipe on Partridge Island.

When Foulis found out about this, he contacted the authorities and tried to be recognized as the actual inventor of the steam whistle. The government initially did not reply to his letters. After mentions in the press, a commission finally worked out a report on the authorship of the steam pipe. In 1864 the commission submitted the government report and attributed the idea to Foulis.

In the meantime, the American Celadon Daboll had received a patent in 1851 for a slightly differently constructed steam whistle, so that Foulis could no longer make any financial profit from his invention.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume6/98-101.htm ( Memento from February 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Foulis, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION inventor
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1866
Place of death Saint John , New Brunswick