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One of the joys of modern technology is being able to find, digitise and put online beautiful and informative items that have until now been virtually hidden. The workbooks and notebooks of Henry Wright (1807-1905) from his time as an apprentice at Boulton & Watt are just such items, containing beautiful illustrations and details of the company’s installations.
Henry’s father William Wright had been apprenticed to Boulton & Watt in 1792 where he worked on erecting steam engines for cotton and other mills. Hoping Henry would also be a mechanical engineer, William sent him to learn mathematics and mechanical and architectural drawing. Aged 14, Henry was apprenticed to Boulton & Watt, where he worked for 17 years, during which time he became a qualified mechanical engineer.
In 1838 Henry was appointed as the first general manager of the Patent Shaft and Axle-Tree Company in Wednesbury, West Midlands. By December 1841 he was managing the Rotherham Iron Works but a slump in business meant he was made redundant. This led him to work until 1853 as an independent valuer of railway stores. Valuations of ironworks followed and in 1852 Henry acted as secretary to a group of south Staffordshire ironmasters in their attempt to obtain an act of parliament to remedy the shortage of pure water in the area. The shortage was caused by mining activities and eventually a new waterworks was built.
The Wright family, along with some other families, then emigrated to Madison, Wisconsin. The party sailed to Philadelphia and then travelled by train, steamboat and covered wagon. Henry built a house and established a land office to which he added the parcel-carrying agency of Wells Fargo, New York. He later became city and county assessor for taxation, city clerk and city treasurer. In 1856 he co-founded the St George’s Society for the purposes of relieving brethren in distress.
Perhaps there he would have stayed if not for a bout of serious illness which saw him return to Britain in 1860. By 1861 he was secretary of the Gloucester Wagon Company, and he worked for the firm for six years. The Wrights moved to Birmingham in 1871, where it seems they lived off savings.
In September 1878, however, the 71-year-old Henry was elected a director of the Wagon Company and then, on 18 September that year, deputy chairman. The late 1870s were a time of depression in the railway wagon-building trade and shareholders were ready to listen to Henry’s ideas to improve the business.
Later he replaced Joseph Reynolds as chairman of the Wagon Company. Such was the reputation that Henry had earned that the directors, management and staff self-funded banquets and costly gifts for both his golden and diamond wedding anniversaries.
In 1901, aged 94, Henry resigned the chairmanship of the Wagon Company, apparently owing to slight deafness. He died in 1905.
Henry has left us a rare treasure. His Boulton & Watt workbooks contain detailed information on the firm’s engines and products, and wonderful illustrative sketches of them, such as the iron melting furnace at Soho Foundry. The notebooks include details such as the results of engine trials.
The books are online at https://archives.imeche.org/archive/engines/boulton-watt/henry-wright
To see all our Boulton & Watt materials visit https://archives.imeche.org/archive/engines/boulton-watt
If you are interested in providing descriptions for individual pages of the books, please email: archive@imeche.org