Beauchamp Tower (13 January 1845 – 31 December 1904) was an English

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and railway

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who is chiefly known for his discovery of full-film or

hydrodynamic In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in moti ...

lubrication Lubrication is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and wear and tear in a contact between two surfaces. The study of lubrication is a discipline in the field of tribology. Lubrication mechanisms such as fluid-lubr ...

Early life

Beauchamp Tower was born the son of Robert Beauchamp Tower, rector of Moreton, Essex and educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils 13–18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. ...

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

. He decided at the age of 16 that he wanted to become an engineer and received early training at the Armstrong Works at Elswick, where he stayed for a few months as a draughtsman after completing his four-year

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

Inventions

Beauchamp Tower held several patents regarding an apparatus for maintaining a constant plane in a floating vessel. The apparatus is based on the gyroscopic principle. One of the possible applications of this patent was steadying guns on shipboard. In 1977, he was named by Duncan Dowson as one of the 23 "Men of Tribology".

Influence

Tower's work on lubrication influenced many other engineers, including

Osborne Reynolds Osborne Reynolds (23 August 1842 – 21 February 1912) was an Irish-born British innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics. Separately, his studies of heat transfer between solids and fluids brought improvements in boiler and condenser ...

, who acknowledged Tower in his 1886 paper on lubrication and the viscosity of olive oil.

Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 182417 December 1907), was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), professor of Natur ...

credited Tower with the idea of a chain and pulleys as part of his Tide-predicting machine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tower, Beauchamp 1845 births English railway mechanical engineers English inventors 1904 deaths People from Epping Forest District Tribologists People educated at Uppingham School