John Joseph Rawlings (1 June 1860 – 4 August 1942) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

mechanical engineer and inventor of the

wall plug A wall plug (UK English) also known as an anchor (US) or " Rawlplug" (UK), is a fibre or plastic (originally wood) insert used to enable the attachment of a screw in a material that is porous or brittle, or that would otherwise not support the ...

, also known from his name as the rawlplug. He was the founder of the Rawlplug manufacturing company.

Biography

Rawlings was born in 1860 in

Southfields Southfields is a district of inner London located within the London Borough of Wandsworth, England, 5.6 miles (9 km) south-west of Charing Cross, with a small portion of the area extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Merton. So ...

, Wandsworth, London, the eldest son of carman John Rawlings and Sarah Payne. He worked as a

whitesmith A whitesmith is a metalworker who does finishing work on iron and steel such as filing, lathing, burnishing or polishing. The term also refers to a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals, and is sometimes used as a synonym for tinsm ...

and later a mechanical engineer. In 1896, he married Millicent Dale, with whom he had a son, Ralph John Rawlings, and daughter, Kathleen Millicent. He retired to

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, where he died in 1942.

Rawlplug

Rawlings invented the wall plug around 1910–11, registered a patent in 1911, trademarked the "rawlplug" name in 1912 and was granted the patent in 1913. In 1919, his company, formerly known as the Rawlings Brothers, was renamed to Rawlplug Ltd. The factory was in Mill Hill, London. The original device was a

jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

fibre cylinder inserted into a hole drilled in the masonry and into which the screw was inserted. The deeper the

screw A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...

penetrated, the more the fibre expanded and the greater the grip against the masonry. The jute was replaced by a

thermoplastic A thermoplastic, or thermosoftening plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling. Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains as ...

plug in the 1960s, injection moulded singly, or in multiples attached together by the original sprue. Each plug can be easily twisted off the sprue when needed. The company went on to develop the Rawlbolt, a fitting with similar function but much greater size and strength.

References

External links

Short note
British mechanical engineers People from Putney 1860 births 1942 deaths Articles containing video clips {{UK-engineer-stub