Matthew Piers Watt Boulton facts for kids

Matthew Piers Watt Boulton (born September 22, 1820 – died June 30, 1894) was a British thinker, scientist, and inventor. He was also known by the name M. P. W. Bolton. He is most famous for inventing the aileron, a very important part of an airplane's flight control system. He received a patent for the aileron in 1868. This was 36 years before it was first used in a manned flight by Robert Esnault-Pelterie in 1904.

Matthew Piers Watt Boulton came from a very famous family. His father was Matthew Robinson Boulton, and his grandfather was Matthew Boulton. His grandfather was a key figure in the Industrial Revolution. He founded the Soho Manufactory and the Soho Mint. He also started the Soho Foundry with James Watt, where they built steam engines.

Because his family was wealthy, Matthew Piers Watt Boulton received a broad education. He studied classic literature, philosophy, and science. He became an expert in steam engine design. Later, he became interested in early ideas for jet propulsion and rocket motors. He inherited his father's mint business but soon lost interest. He closed and sold the mint in 1850. After that, he spent his time studying, writing, and inventing. He earned many patents for things like the aileron flight control system. He also patented different types of engines, propellers, pumps, and even ideas for solar energy and photography.

Even though he was married twice and had a large family, Boulton was known for being a private person. He didn't seek fame during his lifetime. His achievements are mostly known through his patents and writings.

Early Life and Education

Matthew Piers Watt Boulton was born on September 22, 1820, in Mose Old Norton, Staffordshire, England. His parents were Matthew Robinson Boulton and Mary Anne Wilkinson. He was baptized at St. Mary's Church in Handsworth.

His grandfather, Matthew Boulton, and James Watt had perfected the steam engine in the 1770s. This invention helped start the Industrial Revolution. Matthew Piers Watt was named after his famous grandfather and his grandfather's business partner, James Watt.

In 1815–1816, Matthew's father bought the large Great Tew Estate in Oxfordshire. The family later added a Gothic Revival library and a Tudor style section to the manor house. This estate stayed in the Boulton family for many years.

Matthew Piers Watt Boulton went to a private school in Royal Leamington Spa. He also studied at Eton, where he focused on classics, philosophy, and sciences. In October 1838, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. There, he studied mathematics, logic, and classics. He won several awards for his essays and poetry. One of his Latin poems was about "Vehicles driven by the power of steam."

Even as a young man, Boulton avoided attention. He didn't want to compete for university scholarships. He believed these awards were more important for students who truly needed financial help. He graduated from Cambridge with his B.A. degree in 1845.

Family Life

Soho House, in Handsworth, Birmingham, one of several Boulton family residences

Matthew Boulton was married twice. His first marriage was on November 27, 1845, to Frances Eliza Cartwright. She was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel William Ralph Cartwright, a Tory politician. Matthew and Frances had two daughters: Marianne Aubrey and Ethel Julia.

After selling Soho House and his father's mint in 1850, Boulton moved to his family's estate at Great Tew in Oxfordshire. He also lived in London. He was listed as a landed proprietor in an 1851 census.

After Frances Eliza passed away in 1864, Boulton married Pauline Gleissberg. Pauline was from Germany. Together, they had four children: Clara Gertrude, Matthew Ernest Kensington, Pauline Margaret, and Frederick Montagu.

Later Years: Inventions and Writings

Matthew Boulton became a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant. He also served as High Sheriff of Oxfordshire before he was 30. He was part of the landed gentry because of his family's estates. He improved the Tew estate by making the manor house larger and adding gardens.

When his father died in 1848, Matthew inherited a large fortune. This wealth allowed him and his family to live comfortably. He had little interest in continuing his family's businesses, so he closed them. His financial freedom allowed him to focus on his studies and writings. He became a philosopher-scientist, exploring many different subjects.

He wrote pamphlets about early photographs and translated classic works like Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Æneid. He also wrote papers on metaphysics (the study of reality) and two pamphlets on solar energy. He earned over a dozen patents for his inventions, especially for aircraft propulsion systems.

Boulton was known for being very private. He didn't seek fame or power, even though he was wealthy and talented. He preferred to stay out of the public eye. Because of this, he wasn't as well-known as other important people of his time.

However, some researchers have highlighted Boulton's achievements. For example, Britain's leading aviation magazine, Flight, mentioned his patents in 1911. Aviation historian C. H. Gibbs-Smith also wrote about "The First Aileron." Boulton's flight control device, described in his 1868 patent, was praised by pioneering U.S. aeronautical engineer Charles Manly.

Boulton was a member of the Metaphysical Society, a group of Britain's most gifted philosophers and thinkers. He was elected in 1874. Even though he was a member, he was one of the least famous. However, former British Prime Minister William Gladstone read Boulton's philosophical paper, Has a Metaphysical Society Any Raison d'être? (Does a metaphysical society have any reason to exist?), at a meeting in 1878. This paper was considered very important for the society.

Death and Legacy

Matthew Piers Watt Boulton died in London on June 30, 1894, at the age of 73.

After Boulton's death, his eldest son, Matthew, kept the Great Tew Estate. However, after his son's death in 1914, the estate fell into disrepair for many years.

Tribute

Boulton Peak is a mountain peak in Antarctica. It was named in 1960 to honor Matthew Piers Watt Boulton for his invention of the aileron.

Aeronautical Works

In 1868, long before powered aircraft flight became common, Boulton patented the first aileron. This was even before the Orville and Wilbur Wright were born! The aileron system he designed could be controlled by hand or by an automatic pendulum device. This device was an early idea for a single-axis autopilot. Boulton's idea for a lateral flight control device may have come from French Count Ferdinand Charles Honore Phillipe d'Esterno. D'Esterno had studied how birds fly and published his findings in 1864.

Even though Boulton's aileron system worked, he and others at the time didn't fully understand aerodynamics. Because of this, an airplane he designed never actually flew.

Ailerons are crucial for controlling an airplane's side-to-side movement, which is called lateral flight control. They are still used on almost all airplanes today, from small planes to large jetliners. In 1873, five years after Boulton's patent, a French engineer named Charles Renard built a small unmanned glider. This glider used ailerons (which he called "winglets") and was controlled by Boulton's pendulum device.

Boulton's British patent was issued in 1868. This was more than 35 years before ailerons were "re-invented" in France. Later, Glenn Curtiss also patented ailerons in the United States around 1911. Boulton's 1868 patent was largely forgotten until around that time. Aviation historian C. H. Gibbs-Smith recognized Boulton's priority of invention. He said that if Boulton's patent had been known during the Wright brothers' legal battles, they might not have been able to claim they invented lateral control for flying machines.

Even though Boulton described ailerons in 1864 and patented them in 1868, no one used them in a manned aircraft until Robert Esnault-Pelterie's glider in 1904. Esnault-Pelterie first tried the Wright brothers' wing warping design, but it didn't work well. So, he switched to ailerons.

The French journal L'Aérophile published photos of Esnault-Pelterie's glider with its ailerons in 1905. Other aircraft designers then copied the idea. Ailerons became widely used by 1915. The Wright brothers, who had fought against others using lateral flight control without paying them, also quietly switched from wing warping to ailerons around that time. It's not known if Esnault-Pelterie knew about Boulton's patent or if he invented ailerons on his own.

Gibbs-Smith wrote in 1960 that "Boulton invented a method of control identical with the modern aileron control system in 1868. Had it not been overlooked, the history of the practical aeroplane would have been radically different." This shows how important Boulton's invention was, even if it wasn't recognized at the time.

Patent Description of Ailerons

Boulton's patent clearly and completely described his aileron control system. It was the first time someone understood the need for active control of an aircraft's side-to-side movement. This invention marked the beginning of the modern three-axis control system used in airplanes today.

Boulton's patent didn't say to put the ailerons on the back edge of the wings. Instead, it suggested placing them "on arms projecting from the vessel laterally." The first ailerons used by Robert Esnault-Pelterie in 1904 were placed between the wings, not on the wing edges.

Other Aeronautical and Engine Research

In 1864, Boulton also studied how to burn fuel at a constant pressure for industrial gas turbines. His British patent, No. 1636 of 1864, showed interesting ideas. He realized that the high speed of gas coming out of a jet engine was a problem. He suggested using a series of wider nozzles to slow down the gas, similar to how a modern turbofan jet engine works.

Boulton also tried to build an ornithopter. This is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings, like a bird.

Family Connection to Other Aviation Works

The Boulton family name is also linked to the famous British company Boulton Paul Aircraft. This company built and modified aircraft for others, and also designed some notable planes like the Boulton Paul Defiant. The company started in 1914 and continued until 1961.

The company's roots go back to an Norwich ironmonger's shop founded in 1797. William Staples Boulton joined a firm in 1844, which later became Boulton & Paul Ltd. This company started its aircraft manufacturing division in 1914–1915.

Published Works

Works Under His Name

Boulton's known works include:

• Essay on the Decline and Fall of the Persian Empire (won the Eton Prize, 1839).
• Remarks on Some Evidence Recently Communicated to the Photographic Society, 1863.
• Remarks Concerning Certain Photographs Supposed to be of Early Date, London: Bradbury and Evans, 1864.
• Translations of Book I of Homer's Iliad; also passages from Virgil, Aristophanes, Moschus, and Catullus (in verse), London: Chapman and Hall, 1875.
• Translation of the Sixth Book of Virgil's Aeneid and Book VIII, lines 652–713 (in verse), London: Chapman and Hall, 1877.
• Has a Metaphysical Society Any Raison d'être? (Does a metaphysical society have any reason to exist? —a paper read before the Metaphysical Society), London, 1878.
• Songs from Heine and other Pieces (translated into English Verse by M. P. W. Boulton), 1880.
• Considerations on the Subject of Solar Heat, London: Chapman and Hall, 1890.
• On Solar or Stellar Heat, London: Chapman and Hall, 1891.

Works Under a Different Name

Some researchers believe that Boulton also wrote under the name M. P. W. Bolton. This is because no one else with that name seems to have existed, and Boulton's family name was sometimes spelled without the 'u' in earlier generations. Also, his younger brother was once admitted to a law society as "Matthew Bolton."

Under the name 'Bolton', several philosophical works were published by Chapman & Hall, the same publisher as most of Boulton's works. These include:

• Examination of the Principles of the Scoto-Oxonian (1861).
• Inquisitio Philosophica: An Examination of the Principles of Kant and Hamilton (1866).

These 'Bolton' writings strongly disagreed with the ideas of philosophers like Sir William Hamilton. Using a different name might have allowed Boulton to express his views more freely. John Stuart Mill, a famous English thinker, praised the author of Inquisitio Philosophica as an "acute thinker" and the work as "able."

Researchers have found other clues that suggest Bolton and Boulton were the same person. For example, a letter from an M. P. W. Bolton is kept at Trinity College, Cambridge, but the university's records only show a student named Boulton. Also, the handwriting in letters from both 'Bolton' and 'Boulton' looks very similar.

Patents

Boulton's patents include:

See also

• Wright brothers patent war