EDWARD

See also:

• LYON, MARY MASON (1797-1849)
• LYON, NATHANIEL (1818-1861)

LYON

See also:

• EDWARD LYON BERTHON (1813-1899)

BERTHON (1813-1899)  , English inventor, was born in London, on the 20th of February 1813, the son of an army contractor and descendant of an old Huguenot family . He studied for the medical profession in Liverpool and a.t Dublin, but after his marriage in 1834 he gave up his intention of becoming a doctor, and travelled for about six years on the continent . Keenly interested from boyhood in mechanical science, the made experiments in the application of the screw propeller for boats . But his model, with a two-bladed propeller, was only ridiculed when it was placed before the British admiralty . Berthon therefore did not complete the patent and the idea was left for Francis Smith to bring out more successfully in 1838 . In 1841 he entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in order to study for the Church . There he produced what is usually known as " Berthon's log," in which the suction produced by the water streaming past the end of a pipe projected below a ship is registered on a mercury column above . In 1845 he was ordained, and after holding a curacy at Lymington was given a living at Fareham . Here he was able to carry on experiments with his log, which was tested on the Southampton to Jersey steamboats; but the British admiralty gave him no encouragement, and it remained uncompleted . He next designed some instruments to indicate the trim and rolling of boats at sea; but the idea for which he is chiefly remembered was that of the "Berthon Folding Boat " in 1849 . This invention was again adversely reported on by the admiralty . Berthon resigned his living at Fareham, and subsequently accepted the living of Romsey .

In 1873, encouraged by

Samuel Plimsoll, he again applied himself to perfecting his collapsible boat . Success was at last achieved, and in less than a year he had received orders from the admiralty for boats to the amount of £15,000 . Some were taken by Sir George Nares to the Arctic, others were sent to General Gordon at Khartum, and others again were taken to the Zambezi by F . C . Selous . Berthon died on the 27th of October 1899 .