In a previous blog, volunteer Roger Burns highlighted the career of Walter Taylor of Southampton and his success in exclusively contracting with the Royal Navy for the supply of 100,000 rigging blocks per annum during the second half of the 18^th century. This would not have been possible without their inventive machinery which, together with their pump manufacture, Roger discusses and also highlights Walter’s philanthropy.

Walter  Taylor 1734 – 1803 

Figure 1: Portrait attributed to Gainsborough Dupont, 1780 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Just visible, he is holding one of his circular saws.

Source: Sotonpedia.

Walter Taylor’s success in an excusive contract with the Royal Navy between 1759 and 1803 to supply 100,000 rigging blocks per annum required machinery, rather than the hand-made blocks previously supplied by others has been related in a previous blog in which we mention his father’s experience of rigging blocks at sea, and subsequent investigations he himself undertook with existing block makers.

Blocks made in the first half of the 18^th century were prone to problems when rapid response was required resetting sails or moving guns, for example in battle, as often, excessive friction between the pin and sheave prevented rotation, mainly due to inaccurate profiling of the hole in which the pin rotated. The Taylors ensured accurate and repetitive profiling by producing a boring machine which ensured accuracy of the pin hole and was also square to the block faces. The machines were made of wood, unsurprisingly from the Taylors’ background as carpenters, with steel and iron drills, faces subject to wear were metal faced, and means of making a variety of adjustments in use were included. The machines together with the incorporated fittings were subject to a 1762 patent, which is much too long to include here but the patent summarised in our previous mentioned blog included not only their products but the machinery and tools to produce them. Other machines were designed for the sheaves, and the horse gin used for driving these early machines employed an elaborate arrangement for the requisite drive belts. Sawing machinery was also designed by the Taylors, and they are credited with their invention of the circular saw as being the first in the UK.

Prior to Taylor, pumps used in ships were essentially of three kinds, a piston suction pump, bucket pump also called a baling pump, and a chain pump. The chain pump was in use by the Royal Navy from the late 17^th century, and there is an interesting analysis of one from the Northumberland Protected wreck which was lost with the Stirling Castle in the same storm. A section of a chain pump is on display at the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum recovered in 1982 from the Pomone, wrecked at the Needles. The chain had cast bronze articulated links, the other links a permanent rivet and at the opposite end there was a backing flange that accommodates the ‘floating’ pump disc.

Figure 2: Section of a Chain Pump recovered from the Pomone.

Courtesy of the Isle of Wight Council Heritage Service

Each of these pumps were problematical, blocking or breaking, and Taylor applied improved workmanship to the baling pump and marketed these to the Navy. He also developed the piston pump by ensuring that the valves therein would not block with debris, and in 1799 he was granted a Patent described here and the pump is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Taylor’s Pump

Source: The Taylors of Southampton: Pioneers in Mechanical Engineering by J.P.M. Pannell, M.B.E., M.I.C.E.

Courtesy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

Elm was the wood of choice for pumps in this period and the Salisbury and Winchester Journal of 15 July 1799 carried an advertisement from Messrs Walter Taylor and Son stating “Wanted – to make Pumps for his Majesty’s Navy, SOME STRAIGHT ELM TIMBER, from 14 feet to 24 feet long, measuring 16 inches diameter at the butt and 10 inches at the top end” (c.4.27 to 7.3m & 40.6 to 25.56cm).

Taylor with his son diversified, and developed his woodworking background to making wooden water pipes, examples shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Taylor Pipes

Source: The Taylors of Southampton: Pioneers in Mechanical Engineering by J.P.M. Pannell, M.B.E., M.I.C.E.

Courtesy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

And, in the Southampton archives, there is an Agreement dated 5 November 1779 between Walter Taylor and John Rider of London for sending to Bengal a complete model of a gun carriage with Jack Roller and castors as a template for making more in India. It was planned to take it on the Duke of Kingston, an East India Company merchant ship, to Bengal. The castors were to facilitate moving it more easily.

With the income from the Naval contract, Taylor involved himself in the local community. Examples included:

• On 07 February 1788, he was appointed with others on the new Committee of the Southampton Society of Guardians which was for the Protection of Property and Persons within the District of the Town. From the Hampshire Chronicle, 18/02/1788.
• On 30 June 1794, the Royal family visited Southampton which included a visit to Woodmill block factory. From the Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal, 04/07/1794.
• On 12 December 1795, he was appointed one of the Committee to investigate and procure a bridge locally over the river Itchen. From the Hampshire Chronicle, 12/12/1795.
• On 25 August 1796, he was appointed in similar fashion for another local bridge over the river Hamble at Bursledon. From the Hampshire Chronicle, 10/09/1796.
• He and his son Samuel each contributed £300 (c.£21.3k in 2025) ) to a fund for the completion of the Salisbury and Southampton canal. From the Hampshire Chronicle, 13/01/1800.
• He was one of many local townspeople to subscribe for the import at customs of herring from the Firth of Forth to supply the public at large and the industrious poor in particular. From the Hampshire Telegraph, 29/12/1800.
• On 04 July 1801, he was one of the guards of honour for the king entering Southampton through the Bargate in his role as founder of a local Volunteer Company. From the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 06/07/1801.
• The date is uncertain but possibly 1803. His daughter-in-law Maria Spilsbury’s painting depicting a New Year’s tea party held for the wives and children of his workforce at Woodmill, hangs in Southampton’s Sea City Museum.

Walter Tayor died on 23 April 1803. The Morning Post of 07 May said of him “he left behind an irreproachable character” and the Hampshire Telegraph of 02 May 1803 published the following article: “On Saturday last, at an advanced age, after a long illness, which he bore with great patience and resignation, Walter Taylor, of Portswood Green near Southampton, Esq. In his family, an extensive circle of friends, and society at large, have sustained a great loss; his life uniformly displayed in a most eminent degree the sincere Christian, and the indefatigably useful member of society happily united. His Philanthropy and benevolence knew not a bound. Every Institution in this country calculated to promote the welfare of the human race had his support; and every deserving object of charity within his reach, shared in his bounty. The nation, besides many useful discoveries, is indebted to him for an invaluable invention of ship pumps the best ever used; and for blocks for ships the best known in Europe, for both of which he had patents. He has left a numerous family to bemoan his loss; and his memory will be ever endeared to those who enjoyed his friendship, as it will be respected by those who knew his worth”.