The John Hutton Screen

The inventive genius of Tyneside's famous sons is depicted on the engraved glass screen by John Hutton and illustrates from left to right the steam locomotive, the turbine, electric lamp bulb and rifled gun.

George Stephenson
The Hon. Sir Charles Parsons
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan
Lord Armstrong

George Stephenson

George Stephenson (1781-1848), the 'Father of the Railways', is the most widely known of the great industrial pioneers of Tyneside. He was born at Wylam on Tyne where his father was engine man at the Wylam Colliery winding house. Aged 14 George became an assistant to his father and later followed in his footsteps to become the engine man at the Killingworth Colliery, north of Newcastle, where he developed one of the earliest locomotives, the 'Blucher', which he ran on the Killingworth Colliery railway in 1814. From the period 1814 to 1826 Stephenson was virtually the only engineer building and developing new locomotives. In 1819 Stephenson became involved in a project to build a railway for Hetton Colliery near Houghton le Spring. This railway was in its time the largest in the world and served as a prototype for Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway of 1825. In 1824 George Stephenson with his son Robert opened an engineering business and workshop in Forth Street Newcastle, specifically to build locomotives. It was there that Stephenson's most famous locomotive, the Rocket, was built, famous for achieving a world record speed of 36 miles per hour at the Rainhill Trials held near Liverpool in 1829.

Back to Top

 The Hon. Sir Charles Parsons

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, born on 13th June 1854, son of the Third Earl of Rosse (a famous astronomer), began his career as an apprentice to William Armstrong. Later he became a partner in the Tyneside firm of Clarke Chapman with whom, in 1884, he developed the steam turbine for the generation of electricity. The first vessel to take advantage of such an engine was the 'Turbinia' built by the Parson's Marine Steam Turbine Company at Wallsend in 1897. Later ships to use the Parsons Turbine included the Wallsend built 'Mauretania' of 1907, a liner which for 22 years held the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. Charles Parson's Turbine is important in the history of shipping, and is recognised as one of the greatest steps forward in the development of electric power generators.

Back to Top

 Sir Joseph Wilson Swan

Joseph Wilson Swan was born in Sunderland on October 31st 1828. He began his career as an apprentice to a local chemist. In 1862 he moved to Gateshead and, as a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, expressed a strong desire to research and experiment in the field of chemistry. Some of Swan's earliest developments were in the field of photography, where he perfected the carbon process of photographic printing and developed the rapid photographic plate. He also patented the first Bromide paper in 1879, allowing photography to become a popular hobby. Swan is better known for his development of the incandescent filament electric lamp, the first practical electric light bulb, first demonstrated by its inventor at Literary and Philosophical Society on February 3rd, 1879. Following this successful demonstration he established the world's first electric light bulb factory. Later Swan went on to light up Mosley Street in Newcastle City Centre, the first street in the world to be lit by electric light.

Back to Top

 Lord Armstrong

William George Armstrong (1810-1900) was a scientist, scholar, engineer and an enterprising industrialist. He was born in the Shieldfield area of Newcastle on 26th November 1810, son of the proprietor of a corn merchant business on the Newcastle Quayside, who was a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society. Armstrong trained to be a solicitor but had interests in the field of science and engineering. Around 1846 he persuaded wealthy Newcastle businessmen to back him in the development of hydraulic cranes for Newcastle which were powered with the assistance of the town's Whittle Dene Water Company. The scheme was such a success that in 1847, Armstrong gave up his legal practice to establish the Newcastle Cranage company at Elswick, which later became known as 'Armstrong's Factory'. Following the Crimean War in the 1850s Armstrong became increasingly involved with the manufacture of armaments - his eighteen pound breach loading gun was one of many world class Armstrong weapons ordered by armies and navies from Russia and Japan to the United States (indeed, Armstrong supplied both sides of the American Civil War). From 1863 Armstrong became less and less involved in the day to day running of his company affairs and began to pursue other interests, such as landscape gardening, initially carried out at Jesmond Dene, later at Cragside near Rothbury, the first house in the world to be lit by Hydro Electric power.

Back to Top