Arthur William Savage

Arthur William Savage (May 19, 1857 – September 22, 1938), was a British businessman, inventor, and explorer. He is most famous for inventing the

He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies. His father was Welsh, a special commissioner to the West Indies, charged with setting up an educational system for the slaves emancipated in 1834.^[2]

Travels

In the late 1880s he took his family to Australia, homesteading in a covered wagon. He came to own what was then the largest cattle ranch in Australia.^{[2][dubious – discuss]} Eleven years later he sold it and bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica.^[2] In 1892 he moved to Utica, New York, and hired himself to a railroad, the Utica Belt Line Street Railroad (See List of New York railroads). He also got part-time work at a gun factory, the Utica Hammer Magazine Company.^[2]

Savage Arms

Savage and his son Arthur John began designing guns. His first model in 1887 was a lever-action rifle with the magazine in the stock, rather than under the barrel.^[3]

Six years later, he patented a lever-action rifle able to shoot then-modern

While in California in 1901, Savage attempted to grow oranges, but this failed. Savage formed the Savage Tire company, a $5 million corporation formed to make tires and inner tubes. He later moved to San Diego, where he invented radial tires^[1] as well as new production methods.^[2][9] Savage formed another gun company with his son, Arthur John, in 1917, but this also failed. Savage later sold Savage Tire in 1919.

Savage tried a number of other occupations before his death, including oil drilling, gold mining, pipe, brick and ceramics. Savage also managed the San Gabriel Water Company. In 1938, Savage was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Faced with a slow and painful death, Arthur Savage died by suicide at the age of 81, on September 22, 1938, in San Diego,^[10] while still director of his successful tire company.^[11][12]

References