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Berek--Berek (talk) 23:06, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

=[Robert Wilson (engineer)]=

[http://www.irvineayrshire.org/propeller.htm Who invented the screw propeller?]

Robert Wilson 1803-1882

championed by Dunbar on Scotland's east coast

Wilson, always interested in boats (seeing paddle-wheels on a fishing boat at age 5; he lost his father in a boat rescue at age 7), had the idea from watching a windmill. He worked on the invention while apprenticed to a joiner and cabinetmaker. In 1827, the Earl of Lauderdale unsuccessfully approached the Admiralty, the "Edinburgh Mercury" recorded the "new invention", and in 1828, the first practical screw propeller was trialled on the Union Canal (the model being in the Royal Scottish Museum). The Admiralty again rejected the idea in 1833. In 1880, aged 77, the War Office granted him £500 for the use of his double-action screw propeller as applied to the fish torpedo.

A 4-ton propeller at Dunbar harbour was unveiled as a memorial to him, on the anniversary of his birth in Sept. 2003.

Robert Wilson went on to be a highly successful engineer, taking out patents for valves, pistons, propellers and hydraulic and other machinery.