John Whitehurst

John Whitehurst FRS (10 April 1713 – 18 February 1788), born in Cheshire, England, was a clockmaker and scientist, and made significant early contributions to geology.

[1] Receiving only a slight formal education, the younger Whitehurst was taught clockmaking by his father, who also encouraged the boy's pursuit of knowledge.

[citation needed] About 1736, Whitehurst entered into business for himself at Derby, where he soon obtained great employment, distinguishing himself by constructing several ingenious pieces of mechanism.

In 1775, on the passage of the act for the better regulation of the gold coinage, without any solicitation on his part, he was appointed stamper of the money-weights on the recommendation of the Duke of Newcastle.

[citation needed] In 1772 - aged 59 years- he invented the "pulsation engine" (not to be mixed up with a Pulser pump), a water-raising device which was the precursor of the hydraulic ram.

[6] In 1787, age 74, a year before his death, he published An Attempt towards obtaining invariable Measures of Length, Capacity, and Weight, from the Mensuration of Time (London).

In 1788 Whitehurst died, 75 years old, at his house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, and was buried beside his wife in St Andrew's burying-ground in Gray's Inn Road.