Walter Taylor (engineer)

Walter Taylor (1734–1803)[1] of Southampton, supplied wooden rigging blocks and ship's pumps[2] to the Royal Navy,[1] greatly improving their quality and reliability[1][3] via technological innovations which were a significant step forward in the Industrial Revolution.

From the age of 14 Taylor served as an apprentice to a Mr Messer, a ship's block maker in Westgate Street, Southampton.

[5] On acquiring the blockmaking business, at Messer's death in 1754, Taylor and his father developed hand-powered sawing, boring and turning machinery to mass-produce the rigging blocks,[1] repeatedly and to an exact specification.

[4] Encouraged by Hans Stanley, MP for Southampton and one of the Lords of the Admiralty, they submitted a specimen set of their blocks to the Board of Ordnance.

[4] When his father died, in 1762, he continued the business and a patent for the machinery they had developed was taken out in his mother's name [7] In a field trial in 1762 Captain Bentinck had his ship, HMS Centaur, equipped with Taylor's blocks of half the usual size.