This article is about science and invention in Birmingham, England.
People from the West Midlands are the most successful innovators in Britain.
Statistics published by the UK’s patent office confirm that in 2002 more than a quarter (28.7 per cent) of all applications filed with the Patent Office by West Midlands residents were granted, well above the national average of 16.4 per cent.
Some of the City's more groundbreaking inventors include Frederick William Lanchester who was arguably the single most innovative automobile developer in the UK, he patented disc brakes in 1902, and in 1895 he and his brother built the first petrol driven four-wheeled car in Britain. Fred also experimented with the wick carburetor, fuel injection, turbochargers and invented the accelerator pedal and the Pendulum Governor for controlling the speed of an engine. In 1893 Fred designed and built his first engine (a vertical single cylinder) which was fitted to the first all British powerboat.
John Roebuck was a physician, chemist, and inventor. He acted as a chemical consultant to local industries in Birmingham and invented the lead chamber process of manufacturing sulfuric acid and a process for producing malleable iron .
In 1876 William Bown patented a design for the wheels of roller skates which embodied his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving, apart. Bown worked closely with Joseph Henry Hughes who drew up the patent for a ball or roller bearing race for bicycle and carriage wheels which includes all the elements of an adjustable system in 1877. These two men are thus responsible for the modern day roller skate and skate board wheels as well as the ball bearing race inclusion in velocipedes later to become motorbikes and automobiles.
George Elkington and Henry Elkington founded the electroplating industry in England in the early 1800's. In 1840 they aided John Wright who discovered that potassium cyanide was a suitable electrolyte for gold and silver electroplating. Wright first showed that items could be electroplated by immersing them in a tank of silver held in solution, through which an electric current was passed.
Matthew Boulton was proprietor of the Soho engineering works, his partnership with James Watt made the steam engine into the power plant of the Industrial Revolution, the term "horsepower" was coined by Watt. The measurement of watts also originated there.
Watt also invented the letter copying machine , a forerunner of the photocopier.
William Murdock, who worked for Boulton and Watt at Soho, Handsworth, developed gas lighting. His cottage at Soho Foundary was the first domestic building to be lit by gas in 1798.
Sir Francis Galton, who created eugenics (the "science" of breeding "better" humans), questionnaires and many important tools in statistics, was born in Birmingham. Galton avidly supported the theories of his cousin Charles Darwin, who was born in nearby Shrewsbury, he also furthered the most important advances in fingerprinting.
X-Ray photography for medical purposes was pioneered by Major John Hall-Edwards who took the first ever radiograph used to assist in an operation in Birmingham in 1896. (See here for more information). In February 1950 the first hole-in-the heart operation in England was performed at Birmingham Children's Hospital .
The city has also become an internationally important centre for cancer research.
In 1921, the first British patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Mills Munitions of Birmingham.
John Boyd Dunlop chose to build the first and greatest of his factories in Birmingham called Fort Dunlop and in 1929 Foaming Latex was invented in a research lab in the complex. E. A. Murphy and W. H. Chapman collaborated to produce this material.
In 1905 an improved Vacuum cleaner device was invented by Walter Griffiths Manufacturer of 72, Conybere Street, Highgate. It was originally patented as 'Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparartus for Removing Dust from Carpets'. The idea of using a vacuum as a cleaning device was originally patented by H. Cecil Booth in 1901, this subsequently gave way to other prototypes, Griffith's design is arguably the closest that bears a resemblance to modern day electric cleaners.
Darby's electrical Heat-Indicator and Fire Alarm was patented by George Andrew Darby in 1902.
Custard powder and Brylcreem were also invented in the city.
Possibly one of the most significant inventors from Birmingham was Alexander Parkes who invented the very first celluloids which were eventually combined with electroplating to give birth to film. Parkes also showcased parkesine at the Great International Exhibition in London (otherwise known as the World's Fair) which is the first ever form of plastic. This substance -- which the public dubbed parkesine -- was an organic material derived from cellulose that could be molded after heating, but retained its shape when it cooled. (As opposed to Bakelite (also a primarily Birmingham produced substance), which is entirely synthetic.)
In 1850 the first commercial use of Uranium in glass was developed by Lloyd & Summerfield of Brum.
The magnetron, the core component in the development of radar and the first microwave power oscillators were developed at Birmingham University during World War II (the microwave oven owes it's existance to these developments).
