Henry Sutton (inventor)

Henry Sutton (4 September 1855, Ballarat, Victoria – 28 July 1912) was an Australian designer, engineer, and inventor credited with contributions to early developments in electricity, aviation, wireless communication, photography and telephony. Branch is Sutton's great-granddaughter

Early life

Family

Henry Sutton, the second of the eleven children of Richard Henry Sutton (1831 – 1876), and Mary Sutton (1835 – 1894), née Johnson, was born in a tent on the Ballarat goldfields on 4 September 1855. He had three brothers, with whom he was associated in the ''Sutton Brothers'' musical business originally centred on Ballarat,Sutton's Proprietary, Limited, ''The Ballarat Star'', (Saturday, 29 December 1900), p.1Sutton Bros. and Their Staff, ''The Ballarat Star'', (Tuesday, 1 January 1901), p.6.
/ref> and two sisters. He married Elizabeth Ellen Wyatt (1860-1901) in 1881,Deaths: Sutton, ''The Australasian'', (Saturday, 2 November 1901), p.60.
/ref> and Annie May Tatti (1884-), on 17 September 1902,Marriages: Sutton—Tatti, ''The Leader'', (Saturday, 11 October 1902), p.44.
/ref> who bore four and two sons, respectively.

Education

Up to the age of ten, Sutton was schooled by his mother, then attended a state school, and then Gracefield college between 1869 and 1872. Sutton was self taught in the field of science, having read all the available books in
library of the Ballarat Mechanics’ lnstitute by the age of 14.

Sutton trained as a draftsman at the Ballarat School of Design where he won a silver medal and 30 other prizes for drawing.

Sutton studied at the Ballarat School of Mines.

Ballarat

Sutton lectured at the Ballarat School of Mines from 1883 to 1886.
In 1883, as a consequence of his work on batteries, Sutton was admitted as an associate of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians. M. Louis Adolphe Cochery minister of Post and Telegraph Office in France invited Sutton to membership of the Société Internationale des Electriciens. Sutton was also offered membership of Electrical societies from America, Belgium and Russia.
In 1890 prior to leaving for England, a farewell dinner was held by the citizens of Ballarat, where Sutton was presented with an Illuminated address.

London: 1890–1893

Sutton registered Sutton's Process Syndicate in November 1891 at an address in London to exploit his ''Suttontype'' printing process. The process was not considered particularly innovative and it was reported to be unreliable. He abandoned the business to return to Australia.

In 1892, he was introduced to Nikola Tesla by Lord Rayleigh and William Preece.

On the return voyage to Australia in 1893, Sutton used his printing process to contribute pictures to a shipboard newspaper called the ''Red Sea Scorcher''.

Melbourne

Sutton travelled with Alexander Graham Bell from Melbourne to Ballarat on 15 August 1910 where they discussed their respective discoveries.

Sutton died suddenly, at his residence ("Waltham", 9 Erskine Street, Malvern), on 28 July 1912, at the age of 56 and was buried in the Brighton Cemetery.

Inventions

Printing

Sutton's ''Suttontype'' process for converting photographs into a printing surface was patented in 1887.Victoria Government Gazette 104
Friday, October 28th 1887
Victoria Government Gazette 108
Friday, November 11th 1887

Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute, Branch (2018). p.283.

Wireless telegraphy

Sutton discovered, and patented, a galena "detector" that had superior performance over other devices used to that time.An improved detector of electric oscillations for wireless telegraphy and like purposes
Australian Patent No. 2621/11, 29 September 1911, Branch (2018). p.297.

Sutton had also built the world's first portable radio and held a number of other patents relating to wireless transmission and reception.Improved means of producing electric oscillations for wireless telegraphy and other purposes
Branch (2018). p.299.
Improvements relating to the production and transmission of hertzian waves, Branch (2018). p.297.
Improved means for preventing 'arcing' of the gap in the production of high potential electrical oscillations, Branch (2018). p.297.
Improved means for detecting acoustic electric, or like waves, Branch (2018). p.297.

Other endeavours

Aviation

Sutton built a clockwork-driven ornithopter operating on a fixed arm and presented two papers on flight to the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, in 1878, entitled "On the Flight of Birds and Aërial Navigation"The first page of the article (p.30) does not display Sutton's name but it is to be found at the foot of the previous page and "Second Paper on the Flight of Birds".

Batteries

In 1881, Sutton had developed a new rechargeable battery which was patented the following year. He also wrote of a four-volt cell compound battery invention which was described as impossible by the ''English Mechanic and World of Science'' in 1890.

Lighting

Sutton demonstrated a light globe sixteen days after Edison's demonstration on 31 December 1879.

Subsequently Sutton's vacuum pump design which overcame deficiencies in the Sprengel pump, was used for the production of light globes by the Edison Swan company.

Telephony

After reading of Bell's 1876 announcement of the invention of the telephone, Sutton had designed about twenty different telephones within a year. Sutton was said to have "believed in the free flow of information as a gift to science ... patented little, although sixteen of his twenty original telephone designs were patented by others overseas".

The first Australian telephone connection was made in Ballarat and Ballarat East, linking fire stations in the two towns. The exact location of one of the telephone sets can be seen in the Ballarat East Fire Station. The device once allowed communication between the two fire brigades in Ballarat so that they could more accurately locate fires from their watch towers. Sutton had also wired up Sutton's Music Stores, his family business warehouses and offices, with a telephone network two years before an official Australian telephone system. Sutton devised a method for using gas and water pipes as part of a telephone circuit.Victoria Government Gazette 122
Friday, November 12th 1886

ttp://ballaratmi.com.au Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute

Microscopy

In 1885 after cholera outbreak on a ship in Queensland, Sutton obtained a slide and managed to photograph the cholera germ at 1000 times magnification. A letter to this effect, from Sutton, was published in '' The Argus'' on 28 December 1885.

Photography

In the 1880s Sutton also devised a colour photography process but, although examples of this work exist, he did not commercialize it.

Television

In 1885, Sutton designed, but did not construct, a mechanical television apparatus to see the Melbourne Cup in Ballarat.
Sutton had published his Telephane designs in 1890. According to historian Ann Moyal, the concept was never successfully demonstrated: "Sutton's 'TV system', which he called 'telephany', used all the latest technology, such as the recently-invented Kerr effect, the Nipkow disc (which Baird was to use in the 'twenties) and the selenium photocell. But its weak link in the 1870s was that the signal had to be transferred by telegraph lines, as radio had yet to arrive, and these were too slow to transmit the dashing horses of the Melbourne Cup successfully."

Facsimile

Sutton used his telephane system to demonstrate facsimile transmission with the help of Nicola Tesla

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