Thomas Parker (inventor)

The ironworks had been founded by Abraham Darby I in the early 18th century, and Parkers had worked there for several generations.

[2][4] Later in that year he moved to Birmingham, to get more experience as a moulder; during this time he attended lectures of the nonconformist preacher George Dawson.

[4][1] In December 1867 they moved to Coalbrookdale; Parker, initially working as a foreman, was soon offered the post of chemist in the electroplating department.

[4] In 1876 he and Philip Weston, a machinist at Coalbrookdale, received a patent for an improved steam pump.

"Parker and Weston's Patent Pump", manufactured only by the Coalbrookdale Company, was awarded a medal at the International Inventions Exhibition of 1885.

[4] Around this time there was national concern about the detrimental effect of coal smoke on cities, publicized by the Kyrle Society.

In June 1882 Parker and Paul Bedford Elwell took out patents for improvements in dynamos and electric lighting.

[4][1] In October 1882, Parker and his family moved to Wolverhampton to set up in business with Paul Bedford Elwell (1853–1899).

The business began to expand: there was soon a demand for dynamos, from the Manchester Edison Company and from Trafalgar Colliery in the Forest of Dean, for electric lighting in the mine.

)[9][10] In 1892 he designed the high voltage DC system for distributing electricity in the cities of Oxford and Birmingham and in the London area at Charing Cross, Chelsea, Sydenham and Shoreditch.

[11] In 1905 he actively promoted a decimal system of his own creation, based on English weights, measures and currency.

[13] He died, aged 71, of a brain tumour[3] at home in Ironbridge in 1915, and was buried nearby at St Michael's Church, Madeley.