James Harrison ~ Pioneering Genius

Page 1

JAMES HARRISON ~ PIONEERING GENIUS W.R.(ROY) LANG


JAMES HARRISON - PIONEERING GENIUS W.R. (ROY) LANG Some said he was talented. Others said he was a genius. One man declared he was an epochmaker. All three were right. James Harrison (1816–93), a printer’s devil out of Scotland, became an epochmaker in world refrigeration, a field which ranks with the invention of the steam engine, as one of the forces, which have shaped our civilisation. Harrison’s genius took him from Geelong in far away colonial Victoria, where he had conceived and built a refrigerator, to London’s sophisticated steam engineering in 1856. In 1857, he gave industry its first successful large-scale commercial ice-making machines and by 1861, there were units bearing his name from Europe to Peru, and from Argentina to Australia. As a colleague of John Pascoe Fawkner, he was witness to early Victorian history, he was foundation editor of the Geelong Advertiser in 1840. His energy and talents combined made him a spirited citizen-sometime postmaster, racing club secretary, parliamentarian, town councillor, and board member of industrial and charitable institutions. His greatest talent led to his 53 years of highly competent journalism in Victoria and England, which included 27 years with David Syme’s newspapers, the Age and the Leader, during which he developed a flair for popular science, meeting as he did with John Tyndall, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin and others. In 1892 he returned to Geelong, and at Point Henry experimented with solar salt evaporation rates, considering the possibilities of sodium carbonate manufacture. This man of rare excellence died in harness when writing a column for the Age. He was then 77. W.R. Lang B.A., D.Sc., is also a Fellow of the Textile Institute (UK), of the Australian College of Education, of the Australian Institute of Physics, and the Institute of Physics (U.K.). He was awarded the Warner Memorial medal of the British Textile Institute in 1966 for research in textile science and was Chairman of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian College of Education in 1969–71. He was foundation head of the Textile College, and later Head of the School of Applied Sciences and Deputy Principal of the Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong. In retirement he is Honorary Archivist of The Geelong Hospital and a Committee Member of the Geelong Historical Society. He is Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary and was President of the Rotary Club of Geelong (1966– 67); was President of the YMCA of Geelong (1955–59); and was a member of the Colombo Plan Mission to the Union of Burma on Textile Education in 1956.

Cover by courtesy of Robert Ingpen.


James Harrison Text.indd 1

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 2

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 3

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 4

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 5

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 6

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 7

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 8

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 9

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 10

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 11

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 12

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 13

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 14

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 15

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 16

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 17

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 18

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 19

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 20

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 21

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 22

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 23

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 24

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 25

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 26

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 27

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 28

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 29

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 30

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 31

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 32

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 33

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 34

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 35

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 36

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 37

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 38

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 39

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 40

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 41

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 42

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 43

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 44

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 45

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 46

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 47

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 48

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 49

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 50

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 51

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 52

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 53

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 54

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 55

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 56

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 57

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 58

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 59

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 60

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 61

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 62

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 63

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 64

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 65

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 66

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 67

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 68

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 69

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 70

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 71

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 72

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 73

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 74

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 75

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 76

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 77

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 78

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 79

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 80

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 81

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 82

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 83

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 84

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 85

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 86

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 87

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 88

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 89

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 90

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 91

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 92

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 93

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 94

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 95

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 96

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 97

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 98

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 99

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 100

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 101

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 102

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 103

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 104

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 105

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 106

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 107

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 108

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 109

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 110

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 111

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 112

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 113

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 114

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 115

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 116

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 117

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 118

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 119

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 120

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 121

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 122

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 123

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 124

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 125

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 126

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 127

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 128

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 129

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 130

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 131

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 132

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 133

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 134

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 135

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 136

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 137

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 138

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 139

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 140

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 141

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 142

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 143

18/3/20 8:49 am


James Harrison Text.indd 144

18/3/20 8:49 am


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.