Died 21 February 1914 | ||
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Born October 21, 1844 ( 1844-10-21 ) Stepney, London, England | ||
Joseph William Sutton (21 October 1844 – 21 February 1914), also known as J. W. Sutton, was an Australian engineer, shipbuilder, inventor, pioneer in electric lighting and x-ray pioneer in Queensland.
Contents
Life and times
In 1844, Sutton was born in Stepney, London, England. His parents were George Sutton and Elizabeth Kemmesat. He was christened on 1 December 1844. He married Mary Hurley (15 September 1847 – 11 July 1926) on 21 October 1869 in Balmain, Sydney. The couple built a home, Hurlton (a name derived from their surnames Hurley and Sutton) in Laurel Avenue, Chelmer in Brisbane. Sutton died in 1914 and was buried at Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane. After the death of his widow, Hurlton was purchased in 1928 by William Robert Black, a philanthropist who donated it to the Presbyterian Church for use as a children's home; the house, which is highly modified, is now listed on the Brisbane Heritage Register.
Sutton was a prominent figure in Brisbane at the end of the 19th century. Throughout his life, he was keen on experimenting and inventing. Of particular note is the invention of the gold extraction process, which was utilized at the Mount Morgan field. Sutton was interested in the early development of telephones, electric lights and Rontgen rays.
Early career
After Elizabeth's death, the George Sutton with three of his children (Hannah, Henry and Joseph) moved from London and arrived in Sydney 15 October 1852 on board the "Coldstream". Joseph received his education in Sydney then indentured at the Sydney firm of John Fitzpatrick, coppersmith. One year after Sutton became a journeyman, he moved to Brisbane. In May 1870, he started business with his friend James Hipwood as Hipwood and Sutton. The partners, with others, started the Bulimba Smelting Works, Mr. Sutton taking the position of manager. To illustrate the language and sign of the times, the following advertisement of 9 June 1870 in The Brisbane Courier is provided.
Notice.
To all those interested in Sugar Making, Distilling, Brewing, Engineering, &c. Messrs. HIPWOOD & SUTTON will commence business as COPPERSMITHS, BRASSFOUNDERS, FINISHERS, PLUMBERS, &c. about MONDAY, June 13, and are prepared to execute any orders that they may be favored with. Vacuum, Wetzel, Bour, and Tache Pans, Clarifiers, &c.; Rum Stills from 100 to 2000 gallons; Wine and Whiskey Stills, 15 to 100 gallons; Brewing Coppers and Tinned Copper Pipes of all sizes; Copper and Iron Pipes, Lamps, Oil Feeders, &c., and every requisite for the Engine Room. Address: Hipwood & Sutton, Northern Copper Works, Eagle-street, Brisbane. 4858. - The Brisbane Courier
The company of Hipwood and Sutton did business as coppersmiths and brassfounders, and remained in business until 1877, at which time the company disbanded.
J. W. Sutton and Company
Sutton reorganized and continued in business as J. W. Sutton and Company, Engineering Works. In 1880, the business was expanded to Kangaroo Point, as Sutton foresaw the growth of the company to meet the needs of the sugar industry and the engineering trades. At Kangaroo Point, two partners were brought into the business, W. Bussell and W. Hiley.
In the 1880s the J. W. Sutton and Company's shipbuilding yard and foundry was a prominent industrial complex at Kangaroo Point. Prior to establishing J. W. Sutton and Company, Sutton was manager at the tin smelting works and foundry at Bulimba.
In 1885, the city directory listed the business: “SUTTON, J. W., and Co. (J. W. Sutton and W. Hiley), engineers, iron and brass founders, coppersmiths, and iron ship builders, 29 Eagle street; tel. 43. Works, Kangaroo Point; tel. 48.” The listing (presumably Sutton's residence) that preceded this entry was: “Sutton, J. W. (J. W. Sutton and Co.), Stonehenge, Bowen terrace”. Pugh's Almanac in 1885 listed J.W. Sutton and Co. at Kangaroo Point as a boat and ship builder; as coppersmith and brass founders at 25 Eagle-street and Kangaroo Point; as engineers and iron-founders at Eagle-street with boiler works at Kangaroo Point, smelter and assayer at Eagle-street. The Alexandra Mine and Battery at Palmerville Station, Maytown, Queensland was equipped with a battery plant. The battery plant that supplied electricity included a Cornish boiler in a brick mount with a flue leading to an intact nine metre high metal chimney. The Cornish boiler was manufactured by J. W. Sutton & Co. The firm provided materials and aided in bridge construction for the South Coast railway line in Queensland. In addition, several key sugar factories were equipped with machinery from J. W. Sutton and Co. During the floods of 1893, the original foundry was destroyed. Sutton rebuilt the foundry and was flooded again in the same year. Not long after, the company was sold to Evans, Anderson and Phelan.
Electrical pioneer
On 9 December 1882, at Brisbane, Queensland the public was introduced to electricity by having a demonstration that utilized eight arc lights, erected along Queen Street. The lamps were erected on 20 foot cast iron standards. The power to supply these arc lights was taken from a 10 horsepower Crompton DC generator driven by a Robey steam engine in the foundry of J. W. Sutton & Co. at Adelaide Street. Later, the Brisbane Courier newspaper received electricity supplied from the foundry of J. W. Sutton at Foundry Lane, later called Isles Lane (now the site of a multi storey building). The power was from a 10 hp Crompton DC generator. On 10 December 1882, the J. W. Sutton & Co. offices at Adelaide Street in Brisbane were lighted by electricity for the first time in Queensland. Sutton was the father-in-law of Edward Barton who was also heavily involved in Brisbane's electric lighting.
Education pioneer
Sutton was keenly involved in all things educational. Sutton was a founding member of the Brisbane Technical College from September 1882. The college was originally part of the Brisbane School of Arts. In November 1892 Sutton was involved in organising the separation from the School of Arts. Sutton became the chairman of the subcommittee (1897), handling the separation and obtaining a new building. By 1900 Sutton was Chairman of the Brisbane Technical College 1899-1901. In Aug 1900 Sutton was appointed a member of the council of the Brisbane Technical College. By donating to the building fund Mr and Mrs Sutton became life members of the college. By June 1901 Sutton's health (most likely deteriorating from his exposure to radiation) caused him to give up the chair. Sutton was reappointed to the council in November 1903. He remained as an ordinary member till post 1904. Sutton was also involved with having physics as a foundation discipline in its own right included in the curriculum for the University of Queensland.
Displays and Awards gained at the Queensland Exhibition
"The prismatic (or fairy) fountain, which has been constructed by Mr. J. W. Sutton for the council of the National Association, was tried on Friday evening, and was found to act admirably; it is placed under the dome of the building, and will add greatly to the beauty of the exhibition, while tending to keep the atmosphere cool and pleasant."
Sugar Industry Inventor
In 1878, Sutton developed a better method to extract sugar from sugar cane juice.
"What looks like a decided improvement upon the open air methods hitherto followed to evaporate cane juice has just been patented by Messrs. J. W. Sutton and Co., coppersmiths, Brisbane. Mr. Sutton aims at evaporating juice at a heat of from 120° to 180°. This he does in the open air. He obtains the required temperature by means of a steam coil running around his evaporating pan, which is of the ordinary circular form. This heat will not boil the liquor, of course; that he accomplishes by menus of a perforated pipe or coil coming in at the bottom of the evaporating pan. Through this latter coil, a current of air is forced by a fan blast. The air may either be of atmospheric temperature, or it may be heated, as seems most desirable. In the event of heated air being forced into the liquor, or through it, the air is passed through furnaces in a series of pipes, by which means it becomes highly rarefied, and the temperature is raised at the same time. We have seen the apparatus at work, cold air being used, and there was a particularly brisk ebullion, while the temperature of the liquid at first barely marked 130°. Mr. Sutton's calculation at the time was that three gallons were evaporated per hour from each superficial foot of liquid while the temperatures was 180°. The evaporation was certainly very rapid, and the temperature completely under control. Two pans upon this principle have been ordered, one by Mr. R. Muir, of Nerang, who intends to have it at work early next month. The advantage claimed are- at least double the ordinary rate of evaporation by open fire-boiling, with absolute security from burning, and perfect control over the entire apparatus, including facilities for skimming and cleaning the liquor and syrups on the boiling proceeds. Mr. Sutton has gone into this matter, as he has into other improvements, with energy and skill, and deserves the success likely to flow from his efforts."
"Messrs. J. W. Sutton and Co. have been granted a patent for an improvement in the manufacture of sugar, and, from the many trials to which it has lately been subjected, is pronounced by those most interested in judging its capabilities a very decided success."
"A trial of Messrs. J. and W. Sutton and Co's new patent atmospheric battery for concentrating cane juice was held yesterday afternoon at Mr. O. Randle's sugar plantation, Eagle Farm."
X-ray pioneer
Sutton had been unsuccessfully trying to obtain x-rays experimenting with spent incandescent lamps and Geisler tubes, and it wasn't until he obtained Röntgen's Crookes tube that he finally became successful. In July 1896, Sutton was the first to demonstrate X-rays in Brisbane for physician Dr. John Thompson. On 8 August 1896, at the invitation of the Royal Society of Queensland, Sutton performed a demonstration of Röntgen rays and in doing so left his mark in the annals of history an Australian pioneer of X-rays in Queensland. Sutton opened with a review of the historical aspects of what was known of the subject. Then he produced a diagram on the blackboard of the electromagnetic spectrum and reviewed the various portions that included the visible, ‘infra red’, ‘heat rays’, ‘ultra violet’ spectrums and the 'unmapped rays'. An account of the evening recalled:
"He proceeded to state that photography had revealed the fact that photographically active rays extended a distance of nine or ten times the length of the visual spectrum. and both from the ultra violet and the infra red portion of the spectrum; there emanated a long series of rays which, though quite invisible, possessed chemical energy and heat, and with which it was quite possible to make radiographs through many opaque substances, and it was supposed that somehow in these outskirts of the spectrum, the X-rays would be found if they are associated with light at all."
Sutton then explained the apparatus he had prepared to demonstrate. The contraption consisted of an electric battery and large induction coil which provided the electric current to illuminate the Crookes focus tube. He asked the audience to observe an ordinary vacuum tube or Geissler tube. He passed electric current through the tube, a large three-bulb tube, and the tube was instantly filled with the well-known phosphorescent glow. Sutton remarked that X-rays were emanating from the tube, but the rays were so diffuse as to be of no effect. Next, the Geissler tube was replaced by a Crookes tube. Electric current was passed through the Crookes tube. He explained that the Crookes tube had “a more complete vacuum” and “other improvements made”. Sutton explained that it was necessary to make additional improvements and refinements in the vacuum tube which required “a more complete vacuum”. The final step involved an arrangement of aluminium and platinum discs utilized to focus the X-rays. Further recollections of the evening:
"Having thus explained the apparatus, Mr. Sutton made several exposures of plates with remarkably good results. One interesting exposure was a collection of various articles, offering various degrees of opacity to the rays. The development of the plates was admirably carried out by Mr. Ferguson under circumstances decidedly unfavourable to such delicate work, with capital results. The exhibition of articles on the fluorescent screen, where the wonderful effects of the X-rays were at once visible, called forth frequent applause. Coins placed in a cigar case were plainly seen, and so were similar articles placed between two-inch thick deal boards, or in the middle of a thick book. Neither the wood nor the paper seemed to offer much resistance to the light. The proceedings were terminated by a hearty vote of thanks to the lecturer and demonstrator."
There are many references in the newspapers of the time of Sutton subsequently performing many demonstrations of these invisible rays using himself and other volunteers from his audiences. He later went on to also demonstrate the invisible rays of radium.
Ships built by J. W. Sutton and Company
The following is a partial list of ships built by J. W. Sutton and Co. at Kangaroo Point. Information obtained from Lloyd's Register and other sources. See also "Steamers on the River" from Ipswitch to the sea. by William Torrance.
Professional service
Patents
“Joseph William Sutton, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of Ohelmer, in the county of Stanley and Colony of Queensland, have invented a certain new and useful improved rotary apparatus to be used in the generation of chlorin gas and its application to the chlorination of finely divided auriferous material and silver ores…” - J.W. Sutton, U.S. Patent No. 527,899.