William Lloyd Wise
Sir William Lloyd Wise (1846-1910)
1910 Obituary [1]
Sir WILLIAM LLOYD WISE was born at Manchester on 13th June 1845, being the son of Mr. Francis Wise, Member, who was, when a young man, chief draughtsman and designer to the firm of which the late Sir Joseph Whitworth was the head.
At the close of his scholastic career in Ghent and London he adopted the profession of engineering, and was articled to his father, who had previously become a consulting engineer and patent agent in Westminster.
His time was divided between his father's office and the works of Messrs. Siebe and Co., of Mason Street, Westminster Bridge Road.
Owing, however, to the failure of his father's health, he, when only twenty years of age, became responsible for the sole charge of the practice. On the former's death in 1868 he found himself at an early age in the responsible position of professional adviser to some of the most prominent inventors of that time.
He took a keen interest in the reform of the Patent Law, and when only twenty-five years of age he entered the field against Mr. Macfie, M.P., and others who were agitating for the abolition of Patents. This action introduced him to the notice of the late Mr. Thomas Webster, Q.C., father of Lord Alverstone, and these two became closely associated in the campaign against abolition and in favour of further reform, working together till the death of Mr. Webster.
In 1875 he read an interesting Paper on this subject at the International Law Congress held at the Hague in 1875, and most of the improvements suggested by him became law in 1902. He was a prolific compiler of literature relating to patents, and in 1880 he commenced an illustrated Patent Record in Engineering. This undertaking showed the feasibility of weekly issues of similar abridgments by the Patent Office so long before advocated by him, which was subsequently provided by the Act of 1883.
He was one of the founders of the Institute of Patent Agents in 1882, which was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1891, and he was the first President, occupying that position for over seven years. Outside his professional practice he devoted much time to public business.
In the 'eighties' he was a member of the Southend-on-Sea local governing body, and took a prominent part in the movement for the erection of the new pier, with its electric railway.
In 1889 he was elected the first county councillor for the Southend division of Essex, an office he retained for nine years, and for many years of his councillorship was chairman of the Parliamentary and Local Government Committees. He was a Deputy-Lieutenant of, and Justice of the Peace for, the County of Essex, and also a Justice of the Peace for the Borough of Southend-on-Sea.
A knighthood was conferred upon him in 1904.
He took great interest in the defence forces of his country, and threw himself into the business of raising the necessary men when the Territorial forces came into being.
He retired partly from active business in 1907, as the internal malady from which he suffered rendered it necessary for him to take more rest.
His death took place at his residence in London, on 6th January 1910, in his sixty-fifth year. He became a Member of this Institution in 1872. He was Senior Past-President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, a Member of the Iron and Steel Institute, and an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Naval Architects.
1910 Obituary [2]
SIR WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, one of the founders of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents and for 7 years President of that body, died in London on the 6th January, 1910, aged 64.
Educated at Ghent and in London, he was trained as an engineer under his father, the late Mr. Francis Wise. An expert on Patent Law and for many years an advocate of reform, he was the author of the novelty-examination scheme embodied in the Patents Act, 1902, and he also drafted the compulsory licensing provisions of the Canadian Patents Act, 1903.
He was elected an Associate on the 9th April, 1872.
1910 Obituary [3]
Sir LLOYD WISE died on January 6, 1910, at the age of sixty-four.
Though not actually an engineer by profession, he was the son of an engineer - the late Francis Wise, M.I.Mech.E. - and throughout his life was largely associated with engineers and engineering matters.
Moreover, after his early education in London and Ghent, he was trained as an engineer in his father's office and also in an engineering works. His name, however, has been much snore closely connected with patents and patent law than with engineering. His business was that of a patent agent. He was one of the original members of the Institute of Patent Agents, and at the time when this Institute obtained its charter, nine years later, he happened to be president, a post which he held for some years.
A great deal of his time was occupied in efforts to reform the patent law. He was a member of the Patent Law Association of Washington, and a foreign member of the Australasian Institute of Patent Attorneys, and Le Syndicat des Ingenieurs Conseils en Matiere de Propri6te Industrielle in France. He represented the Society of Arts as delegate to the International Congress held in Paris, in 1878, on Industrial Property, and was vice-president d'honneur at the International Congress on Patents held in the same city in 1900.
In addition to the foregoing he was a member of the British Committee of the Paris International Exhibition of 1889. He was an examiner under the Register of Patent Agents' Rules in 1893. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; the senior Past-President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents; a member of the Royal Institution, of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Naval Architects.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1879. He was a regular visitor at the Institute meetings, and in 1906, when the Institute received the members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, he acted as Vice-Chairman of the London Reception Committee. Again in 1909, when the Autumn Meeting was held in London, he served on the General Reception Committee, and rendered valuable services.
1910 Obituary [4]