John Ridley (inventor)
Encyclopedia
John Ridley was an English
-born miller, inventor, landowner, investor, farming machinery manufacturer, farmer and preacher who lived in Australia
between 1839 and 1853. He is best known for the development, manufacture and invention of "Ridley's Stripper", a machine that both reaped and threshed grain. The suburb of Ridleyton
was named for him.
, England. His father, also John Ridley, was a miller who died when his son was five years old. His mother, Mary (a cousin of John Sr.), carried on the business; when Ridley was 15 years of age he began to share in its management. Ridley had little formal education, but had a love of books and a remarkable memory. He had come across an encyclopaedia soon after he was able to read, and took the greatest interest in the scientific articles which he read and re-read. Science and theology were the great interests of his life. He began preaching at 18, and at 23 was a recognized local preacher in the Sunderland circuit.
After his mother's death in 1835, Ridley married Mary Pybus, and in November 1839 sailed for South Australia
aboard the Warrior with his wife and two infant children.
close to Adelaide
, took over the flour-mill of the South Australian Company, installed the first steam engine (a Watt's Beam
) in South Australia able to cut wood and grind meal, and began growing wheat at Hindmarsh. Foreseeing that the heavy spending by governor George Gawler
would lead to depression and increased rural production, Ridley let his farm and devoted his time to seeking grain for his mill, purchasing land, and investing in the developing copper-mine at Burra
. Being much interested in mechanical inventions, he also spent some time on a horizontal windmill to be used for raising water. It was said of him at this period that if his child cried in the night, his first thought would be how to make an apparatus for rocking the cradle.
By 1843 the colony's expanding wheat crop threatened to exceed the capacity of the work force available to harvest it. Ridley gave much time to the problem of devising a mechanical method of harvesting the wheat and building a reaper based on a woodcut in John Claudius Loudon
's An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture (3rd ed., London, 1835). In September 1843 the corn exchange committee offered a prize of £40 to anyone submitting a model or plans of a reaper of which the committee would approve. Ridley did not compete because his machine was nearing completion. On 23 September 1843 it was reported that several models and plans had been submitted, but no machine had been exhibited which the committee felt justified in recommending for general adoption. In October Ridley's machine was ready for its first tests, and a month later a rebuilt machine was successfully tested on his tenant's crop, reaping 70 acres (28.3 ha) in a week. On 18 November 1843 the Adelaide Observer announced that "a further trial of Mr Ridley's machine has established its success". Over the next year he planned the improvement and manufacture of the machine, in 1845 he made seven machines, and by 1850 over 50 machines were operating in the colony and others had been exported.
His altruism and passion for practical improvement were sincere, and meant more to him than his own financial success. His self-reliance made him eschew government rewards in South Australia, where his memory is honoured by the Ridley memorial scholarship at Roseworthy Agricultural College
, memorial gates to the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society's showground at Wayville and the electoral district of Ridley.
The machine, which both reaped and threshed corn, has been of inestimable benefit to Australia. Though no doubt it was improved in detail as the years went by, no substantial advance was made on it until Hugh Victor McKay
constructed his harvester some 40 years later. Ridley not only declined to patent his machine, but refused all suggestions of reward.
(1804-1886), and that Bull's idea was stolen and then commercially exploited by the Hindmarsh flour-miller John Ridley (1806-1887). Indeed, following Sutton, most modern Australian agricultural and general historians have accepted this view without question, and incorporated it into their own works. Ridley and his supporters, however, always staunchly denied the charge (which was originally laid by J.W. Bull in 1845), insisting that Ridley himself was the sole and unaided inventor.
Although it was claimed that the machine was invented in principle by John Wrathall Bull, none disputed that Ridley was its first practical producer. In 1844 he was awarded a special prize by the Agricultural and Horticultural Society and in 1858 he was thanked by the South Australian parliament for a service that had helped to make possible the vast increase of wheat-growing in the province.
The rival claims of Bull and Ridley to the title of inventor of the stripper were the subject of long controversy. In 1843 Ridley had the limelight. The controversy was revived in 1875. Supported by influential friends and by mechanics who had made the original harvesting machine, Bull petitioned parliament in 1880 for a grant in recognition of his invention. After long inquiry he was given £250 in 1882 "for services in improving agricultural machinery".
Bull claimed that he was the real inventor of Ridley's reaping machine, his claims are set out in his volume Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia. Bull sent in a model that was rejected by the committee, and his contention was that Ridley had seen his model and constructed his machine on its principles. Ridley, a man of the great probity, denied this, and his denial is borne out by the fact that his machine had had two successful trials within two months of the models being exhibited. In those days a machine could be constructed in Adelaide only by primitive methods, and it would have been virtually impossible to make a machine, overcome all the practical difficulties of adjustment, and have it in working order in so little time.
Bull devised an idea for a machine based on the comb and beater principle which reaped and threshed on his Mount Barker farm in 1842. He had the assistance of his good friend, brother-in-law and respected colonist Thomas Hudson Beare to create a working model for exhibition at the Corn Exchange committee meeting in 1843. "Having no wish for any personal gain, he donated his design for the good of the colony". "Much to Bull's surprise, John Ridley, (who exhibited no machine, or any proposals for one, at the Corn Exchange committee meeting), later emerged with a machine which was based on similar principles to those designed by Bull". Many other colonists backed Bull in testimonials and letters which appear in his book and also papers of the day.
In Ridley's final letter to the Adelaide Register written in 1886, he said that the first suggestion of his machine had come from a notice of a Roman invention given in John Claudius Loudon
's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, and that "from no other source whatever did I receive the least help or suggestion".
More recent work by L. J. Jones presented at the Second National Conference on Engineering Heritage in 1985 states:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born miller, inventor, landowner, investor, farming machinery manufacturer, farmer and preacher who lived in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
between 1839 and 1853. He is best known for the development, manufacture and invention of "Ridley's Stripper", a machine that both reaped and threshed grain. The suburb of Ridleyton
Ridleyton, South Australia
Ridleyton is an inner northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Charles Sturt.-History:The area incorporating the current suburb of Ridleyton was originally granted to Osmond Gilles in March 1839. He later transferred it to John Ridley, inventor of the stripper or...
was named for him.
Early life
Ridley was born near West Boldon, Tyne and WearTyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
, England. His father, also John Ridley, was a miller who died when his son was five years old. His mother, Mary (a cousin of John Sr.), carried on the business; when Ridley was 15 years of age he began to share in its management. Ridley had little formal education, but had a love of books and a remarkable memory. He had come across an encyclopaedia soon after he was able to read, and took the greatest interest in the scientific articles which he read and re-read. Science and theology were the great interests of his life. He began preaching at 18, and at 23 was a recognized local preacher in the Sunderland circuit.
After his mother's death in 1835, Ridley married Mary Pybus, and in November 1839 sailed for South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
aboard the Warrior with his wife and two infant children.
Career in Australia
On arrival in South Australia he bought a piece of land at HindmarshHindmarsh, South Australia
Hindmarsh is an inner urban suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Charles Sturt.-History:The suburb is named after South Australia's first Governor, Sir John Hindmarsh....
close to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, took over the flour-mill of the South Australian Company, installed the first steam engine (a Watt's Beam
Beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
) in South Australia able to cut wood and grind meal, and began growing wheat at Hindmarsh. Foreseeing that the heavy spending by governor George Gawler
George Gawler
-External links: – Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK...
would lead to depression and increased rural production, Ridley let his farm and devoted his time to seeking grain for his mill, purchasing land, and investing in the developing copper-mine at Burra
Burra, South Australia
Burra is a pastoral centre and historic tourist town in the mid-north of South Australia. It lies east of the Clare Valley in the Bald Hills range, part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges, and on Burra Creek. The town began as a single company mining township that, by 1851, was a set of townships ...
. Being much interested in mechanical inventions, he also spent some time on a horizontal windmill to be used for raising water. It was said of him at this period that if his child cried in the night, his first thought would be how to make an apparatus for rocking the cradle.
By 1843 the colony's expanding wheat crop threatened to exceed the capacity of the work force available to harvest it. Ridley gave much time to the problem of devising a mechanical method of harvesting the wheat and building a reaper based on a woodcut in John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor.-Background:...
's An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture (3rd ed., London, 1835). In September 1843 the corn exchange committee offered a prize of £40 to anyone submitting a model or plans of a reaper of which the committee would approve. Ridley did not compete because his machine was nearing completion. On 23 September 1843 it was reported that several models and plans had been submitted, but no machine had been exhibited which the committee felt justified in recommending for general adoption. In October Ridley's machine was ready for its first tests, and a month later a rebuilt machine was successfully tested on his tenant's crop, reaping 70 acres (28.3 ha) in a week. On 18 November 1843 the Adelaide Observer announced that "a further trial of Mr Ridley's machine has established its success". Over the next year he planned the improvement and manufacture of the machine, in 1845 he made seven machines, and by 1850 over 50 machines were operating in the colony and others had been exported.
Return to England
Although Ridley's returns from the harvesting machine were substantial, they were meagre compared with the dividends from his original shares in the Burra copper-mine, his flour-mill and his land investments. He was in comfortable circumstances, and in 1853 he and his family left Australia for a lengthy journey through Europe. After several years they eventually settled in England where he devoted "his eccentric enthusiasm to invention and religion". At his own cost he had printed tens of thousands of copies of sermons and tracts that appealed to his principles and distributed them widely to grateful and ungrateful recipients. He was also an energetic lay preacher and made many gifts to evangelical churches and missions.Legacy
Ridley died on 25 November 1887 in London and was survived by two daughters. A silver candelabrum, presented to him by old South Australian colonists in 1861, is now at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute.His altruism and passion for practical improvement were sincere, and meant more to him than his own financial success. His self-reliance made him eschew government rewards in South Australia, where his memory is honoured by the Ridley memorial scholarship at Roseworthy Agricultural College
Roseworthy College
Roseworthy Agricultural College was an agricultural college in Australia. It is north of Adelaide and west of Roseworthy town. It was the first agricultural college in Australia, established in 1883. It is now part of the University of Adelaide....
, memorial gates to the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society's showground at Wayville and the electoral district of Ridley.
The machine, which both reaped and threshed corn, has been of inestimable benefit to Australia. Though no doubt it was improved in detail as the years went by, no substantial advance was made on it until Hugh Victor McKay
Hugh Victor McKay
Hugh Victor McKay CBE, was an Australian inventor of the Sunshine Harvester and industrialist.-Early life:...
constructed his harvester some 40 years later. Ridley not only declined to patent his machine, but refused all suggestions of reward.
Controversy regarding the inventor of the Stripper
For more than 140 years an argument has continued, off and on (and sometimes acrimoniously) over the invention of the South Australian wheat "stripper". Some, such as G. L. Sutton (1937), have claimed that the real inventor was a farmer, John Wrathall BullJohn Wrathall Bull
John Wrathall Bull was an early settler, inventor and colonial author of South Australia.Born in St. Paul's Cray, Kent, England, he was a dairy farmer in Cheshire and Bedfordshire, before applying as a farmer and shepherd for free passage to the new colony of South Australia...
(1804-1886), and that Bull's idea was stolen and then commercially exploited by the Hindmarsh flour-miller John Ridley (1806-1887). Indeed, following Sutton, most modern Australian agricultural and general historians have accepted this view without question, and incorporated it into their own works. Ridley and his supporters, however, always staunchly denied the charge (which was originally laid by J.W. Bull in 1845), insisting that Ridley himself was the sole and unaided inventor.
Although it was claimed that the machine was invented in principle by John Wrathall Bull, none disputed that Ridley was its first practical producer. In 1844 he was awarded a special prize by the Agricultural and Horticultural Society and in 1858 he was thanked by the South Australian parliament for a service that had helped to make possible the vast increase of wheat-growing in the province.
The rival claims of Bull and Ridley to the title of inventor of the stripper were the subject of long controversy. In 1843 Ridley had the limelight. The controversy was revived in 1875. Supported by influential friends and by mechanics who had made the original harvesting machine, Bull petitioned parliament in 1880 for a grant in recognition of his invention. After long inquiry he was given £250 in 1882 "for services in improving agricultural machinery".
Bull claimed that he was the real inventor of Ridley's reaping machine, his claims are set out in his volume Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia. Bull sent in a model that was rejected by the committee, and his contention was that Ridley had seen his model and constructed his machine on its principles. Ridley, a man of the great probity, denied this, and his denial is borne out by the fact that his machine had had two successful trials within two months of the models being exhibited. In those days a machine could be constructed in Adelaide only by primitive methods, and it would have been virtually impossible to make a machine, overcome all the practical difficulties of adjustment, and have it in working order in so little time.
Bull devised an idea for a machine based on the comb and beater principle which reaped and threshed on his Mount Barker farm in 1842. He had the assistance of his good friend, brother-in-law and respected colonist Thomas Hudson Beare to create a working model for exhibition at the Corn Exchange committee meeting in 1843. "Having no wish for any personal gain, he donated his design for the good of the colony". "Much to Bull's surprise, John Ridley, (who exhibited no machine, or any proposals for one, at the Corn Exchange committee meeting), later emerged with a machine which was based on similar principles to those designed by Bull". Many other colonists backed Bull in testimonials and letters which appear in his book and also papers of the day.
In Ridley's final letter to the Adelaide Register written in 1886, he said that the first suggestion of his machine had come from a notice of a Roman invention given in John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon
John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor.-Background:...
's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, and that "from no other source whatever did I receive the least help or suggestion".
More recent work by L. J. Jones presented at the Second National Conference on Engineering Heritage in 1985 states:
- It will be shown that certain purely engineering considerations can significantly assist in settling this matter; these have not been taken into account previously. Further, these engineering factors, taken together with some additional historical evidence recently brought forward, now enable us to see that Ridley was unjustly accused, and that in fact he is fully entitled to the credit for the "stripper's" invention as well as for its introduction.
External links
- Encyclopaedia of Agriculture online book