James William Hunter

James William Hunter of Thurston Manor FRSE (May 1783 – 3 December 1844) was a Scottish landowner, inventor and agricultural improver.

[1] This created a very convenient apparatus for land measurement, and is still the basis for modern day mechanical surveying odometers.

The larger version was attached to the rear of a carriage and was the first known instrument calculating total vehicle distance travelled in a precise and visually clear way.

From around 1798 he served in India then returned to Scotland to run the family estates following the death of his father.

His proposers were Thomas Charles Hope, Sir David Brewster and Basil Hall.