Sir William George ArmstrongBorn 26 Nov 1810; died 27 Dec 1900 at age 90. Baron of Cragside, William George Armstrong was an English inventor, engineer and industrialist in hydraulic engineering, shipbuilding and artillery. He invented a hydroelectric machine which produced frictional electricity (1843), a hydraulic crane (1846), a hydraulic accumulator to power machinery (1850), the Armstrong breech-loading gun made of successive rings of metal shrunk upon an inner steel barrel with rifle bore (1855), prototype of all modern artillery, and a breech-loading gun with wire-wound cylinder (1880). He founded Elswick Engineering Works (1847) which merged (1927) its armament and shipbuilding activities with Vickers' Sons and Co. to form Vickers Armstrong, Ltd. His mansion, Cragside, was the first British home lighted by hydroelectricity.« |
