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lawrence hargrave, gentleman inventor
AVIATION PIONEER LAWRENCE HARGRAVE MADE HISTORY WITH HIS FLIGHT ATTEMPTS AT STANWELL PARK
Words Erin Huckle @chucklecommunications
Lawrence Hargrave is a name synonymous with Wollongong, but how many of us really know his story? You might have cursed his name as you’ve sat in the weekend traffic on Lawrence Hargrave Drive, the scenic road which links Thirroul with Wollongong’s most northern suburbs.
Or perhaps you remember his face gracing the Australian $20 note, which is where it appeared from 1966 to 1994.
You might’ve even stopped to take a look at the Lawrence Hargrave monument at Bald Hill while visiting Stanwell Park.
Born in England in 1850, Lawrence Hargrave came to Australia when he was 15. It was a time of exploration and discovery, and young
Hargrave was keen to be involved. Not long after arriving in Sydney, he joined an expedition to circumnavigate Australia on the ship Ellesmere. Those months at sea, rather than at the books, are attributed with Hargrave’s failure to pass his matriculation exam when he returned.
The voyage might have sunk his future plans as a lawyer, but it sparked in him a love of expeditions, research and discovery. After being apprenticed to the Australian Steam Navigation Company, where he learnt his engineering skills, Hargrave went on to be an engineer on six expeditions between 1872 and 1877. Exploring New Guinea and theTorres Strait: looking for gold, documenting wildlife, and even assessing the possibility of setting up a British pearl farm.
In 1878 Hargrave took a job at the Sydney Observatory, where he observed the transit of Mercury, and the impact of the greatest volcanic eruption in history – Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883.
1883 was also the year Hargrave decided to commit to his research and inventing full-time, enjoying a decent income from his father’s sensible investments. He became a ‘gentleman inventor’, thanks to this luxury.
Throughout his years of travel and research, Hargrave developed a keen interest in the anatomy and movement of animals, and how this might be used to inform designs for man to fly.
He said: “It will appear further that the movements of the tail of the fish and the wing of the insect… can be readily imitated and reproduced. These facts ought to inspire the pioneer of an aerial navigation with confidence.” He spent years experimenting with monoplanes, trying different wing shapes and configurations, and developing a three-cylinder rotary engine which was used in future aircraft for many years.
But his biggest achievement took place on the beach at Stanwell Park. Hargrave had moved to Stanwell Park from Sydney with his wife and six children in 1893 – it turns out people were heading to Wollongong for its cheaper real estate and beautiful beaches even then!
It was in November 1894 that Hargrave changed the course of history. He was the first person to create man-made wings which provided lift, safety and stability.
On that historic day, he rose 16 feet in the air, using an elaborate set-up with four box kites and a sling seat to carry him safely into the sky.
In a paper published by the Royal Society of New South Wales, Hargrave wrote:“... an extremely simple apparatus can be made, carried about, and flown by one man; and that a safe means of making an ascent with a flying machine, of trying the same without any risk of accident, and descending, is now at the service of any experimenter who wishes to use it.”
Hargrave shared his information freely with the global aviation community, and American aviator Octave Chanute reported that the skies were soon “red with Hargrave Kites” and groups of US aviators dubbed themselves “Hargrave disciples”.
In his later life, Lawrence Hargrave continued his research and discovered that a curved wing surface gives twice the lift of a flat one. He’s known today as one of aviation's early pioneers.
