Memories of Erith London UK- A Beautiful Poem from a long time residence of Erith
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2015-06-01
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Memories of Erith London UK- A Beautiful Poem from a long time residence of Erith
"Memories of Erith" by Patricia Butler given to my mother at Erith Bowling (cray cottage) Avenue road
Background Music "Nostalgia" by Del
Nostalgia by Del is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
http://bit.ly/DelNostalgia
All material used is in the public domain
A Beautiful Poem from a long time residence of Erith
Once a bustling town over night turned into a ghost town
Imagine todays Headlines:
Erith on the Thames
Come and visit this most historic town in South East London,
Steeped in Architecture Home of a Royal Dockyard
Full of charm and delight as you wonder through the tiny streets
A Town steeped in History
And lets not forget Edward Butler an Unknown Inventor
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?a...
The son of a Devonshire farmer, was apprenticed when 17 to the firm of Brown and Mays Ironworks in Devizes. A year later he moved to London and spent the next three years working for a general engineering company while he worked on ideas for a tri-car with a petrol engine. In 1884 he took out a provisional patent on this invention which specified:-
"A petroleum motor tricycle or small automobile carriage since it is not provided with auxiliary pedalling gear and was fitted with a comfortable seat and footboard"
All this a year before Gottleib Daimler patented his two-wheeled motor cycle and when Butler was still only 21 years old.
Butler's motor-tricycle, called the Velocycle, was announced in 1884 and by 1887 a syndicate was formed to exploit the machine. Butler then applied for another provisional patent for an improved tri-car to be called the Petro-cycle. This was made by Merryweather of Greenwich, (well known for their fire engines) and in June 1888 the one and only petro-cycle was tested at the Invicta Works, Bromley-By-Bow in East London.
The machine needed further modification and so Butler replaced the ignition system and invented a spray type of carburetor called the Inspirator. The petrocycle ran well; too well for the limits of the 4mph Locomotive Act and Butler again modified it to lower it's running speed. When the 'Man and Red Flag Act' was repealed in 1896 Butler and his wife (Erith's first lady motorist) drove the petrocycle at 12mph on the private roads inside Cory's at Erith. Mrs Butler drove with Edward running alongside shouting instructions.
(Cory's is now Morrisons Car Park)
Butler's hopes of commercial development were dashed by lack of financial backing and by what may have been Erith's first motor accident. "On the second occasion, a week or so later, I startled a baker's horse, which incident closed my careering about the road outside Shuttleworth's Shipyard". Shortly afterwards the petrocycle was taken to Coventry and scrapped for the 163 lbs of metal it contained.
Butler died in 1940, aged 77, a bitterly disappointed man whose work was unrewarded and, until the discovery of many of his manuscript notes and diaries in 1951, he was largely unknown even to early motorcycle enthusiasts.
The Town has also a charter for a market
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/?articleid=3136
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erith
http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/kent/erith.html
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol2/pp227-263
http://www.playhouse.org.uk/whoswho.htm
"Memories of Erith" by Patricia Butler given to my mother at Erith Bowling (cray cottage) Avenue road
Background Music "Nostalgia" by Del
Nostalgia by Del is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
http://bit.ly/DelNostalgia
All material used is in the public domain
A Beautiful Poem from a long time residence of Erith
Once a bustling town over night turned into a ghost town
Imagine todays Headlines:
Erith on the Thames
Come and visit this most historic town in South East London,
Steeped in Architecture Home of a Royal Dockyard
Full of charm and delight as you wonder through the tiny streets
A Town steeped in History
And lets not forget Edward Butler an Unknown Inventor
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?a...
The son of a Devonshire farmer, was apprenticed when 17 to the firm of Brown and Mays Ironworks in Devizes. A year later he moved to London and spent the next three years working for a general engineering company while he worked on ideas for a tri-car with a petrol engine. In 1884 he took out a provisional patent on this invention which specified:-
"A petroleum motor tricycle or small automobile carriage since it is not provided with auxiliary pedalling gear and was fitted with a comfortable seat and footboard"
All this a year before Gottleib Daimler patented his two-wheeled motor cycle and when Butler was still only 21 years old.
Butler's motor-tricycle, called the Velocycle, was announced in 1884 and by 1887 a syndicate was formed to exploit the machine. Butler then applied for another provisional patent for an improved tri-car to be called the Petro-cycle. This was made by Merryweather of Greenwich, (well known for their fire engines) and in June 1888 the one and only petro-cycle was tested at the Invicta Works, Bromley-By-Bow in East London.
The machine needed further modification and so Butler replaced the ignition system and invented a spray type of carburetor called the Inspirator. The petrocycle ran well; too well for the limits of the 4mph Locomotive Act and Butler again modified it to lower it's running speed. When the 'Man and Red Flag Act' was repealed in 1896 Butler and his wife (Erith's first lady motorist) drove the petrocycle at 12mph on the private roads inside Cory's at Erith. Mrs Butler drove with Edward running alongside shouting instructions.
(Cory's is now Morrisons Car Park)
Butler's hopes of commercial development were dashed by lack of financial backing and by what may have been Erith's first motor accident. "On the second occasion, a week or so later, I startled a baker's horse, which incident closed my careering about the road outside Shuttleworth's Shipyard". Shortly afterwards the petrocycle was taken to Coventry and scrapped for the 163 lbs of metal it contained.
Butler died in 1940, aged 77, a bitterly disappointed man whose work was unrewarded and, until the discovery of many of his manuscript notes and diaries in 1951, he was largely unknown even to early motorcycle enthusiasts.
The Town has also a charter for a market
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/?articleid=3136
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erith
http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/kent/erith.html
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol2/pp227-263
http://www.playhouse.org.uk/whoswho.htm
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