John Roebuck
John Roebuck | |
---|---|
Born | 1718 |
Died | 17 July 1794 |
Resting place | Carriden Churchyard, Bo'ness |
Nationality | English |
Education |
|
Alma mater | Edinburgh University |
Occupation(s) | Industrialist, inventor, mechanical engineer, physician |
John Roebuck of Kinneil
Life and work
John Roebuck was born in Sheffield, where his father, also John Roebuck, had a prosperous manufacturing business.
After attending
Roebuck next became involved in the manufacture of iron, and in 1759 founded the Carron Company ironworks at Carron, Stirlingshire with Garbett and other partners (Ebenezer Roebuck, Thomas Roebuck, William Cadell, William Cadell and Benjamin Roebuck).[3] There he introduced various improvements in methods of production, including the conversion (patented in 1762) of cast iron into malleable iron "by the action of a hollow pit-coal fire" urged by a powerful artificial blast. Ebenezer was killed in 1771 in a "melancholy accident: While viewing the works, a huge piece of iron fell on this gentleman, which killed him on the ſpot".[4] Ebenezer had been a vigorous contributor to the success of the ironworks, and quality declined after his death. Its Royal Navy contracts were cancelled in 1773 and a Royal Artillery inspection in 1774 found that "on the death of [Ebenezer] Roebuck the Carron Guns had through the carelessness of the workmen very much deteriorated, and the firm lost ground."[5]
Roebuck had also leased a
Roebuck's troubles at the Carron Works and the colliery, aggravated by the failure of an attempt to manufacture alkali, brought him into financial difficulties and he was forced to sell his share in Watt's engine to Matthew Boulton in return for cancellation of a £1200 debt. Subsequently, though Roebuck had to give up his interest in the Bo'ness works, he continued to manage them and to reside at the neighbouring Kinneil House, where he occupied himself with farming on a considerable scale.
In 1784, Roebuck obtained a pottery from the Cadell family where he pursued his interest in new technologies.[8]
Roebuck died in Edinburgh in 1794 and was buried at Carriden Churchyard near Bo'ness.[9]
He was grandfather to John Arthur Roebuck.[10]
Honours and affiliations
- 1764 - Fellow of the Royal Society of London
See also
References
- ^ Derry, Thomas Kingston; Williams, Trevor I. (1993). A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. New York: Dover.
- ^ Kiefer, David M. (2001). "Sulfuric Acid: Pumping Up the Volume". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
- ^ Famous Men and Carron Works: VII John Roebuck, M.D. Falkirk: Carron Company. 1931. p. 5.
- ^ The Scots Magazine, vol. xxxiii, p. 558.
- ^ "A List of the other Papers of the Society which are preserved". The Journal of the Royal Artillery. 1: 21. 1858. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
- ^ Smiles, Samuel (1878). Lives of the engineers : the steam-engine : Boulton and Watt. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. pp. 90–94.
- ^ Carnegie, Andrew. James Watt (Famous Scots Series). Edinburgh: Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier. pp. 48–51.
- ^ Gregory, Sydney (1992). Calatria: The Journal of the Falkirk Local History Society. John Roebuck: 18th Century Entrepreneur. Vol. 2. Falkirk. pp. 17–26.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Salmon, Thomas James. "Bo'ness - Who's Who Historically". Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2008.
- ^ "John Roebuck (B.1718)".
Further reading
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Roebuck, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 450–451. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the