Thomas Aveling
From GracesGuide
Thomas Aveling was the founder of Aveling and Porter and is known as the 'father of the Traction Engine'.
- 1824 Born at Elm, Cambridgeshire in September 1824 but moved to Rochester when his mother remarried. Not a happy childhood due to a strict clergyman father.
Thomas was apprenticed to a farmer Edward Lake of Hoo St. Weburgh.
- 1850 Later farmed at Court Lodge in Ruckinge in 1850.
- 1856 He set up a agricultural repair business and in 1856 produced a steam plough that won him an award.
- In 1858 he acquired premises in Rochester High Street.
- See Aveling and Porter.
- 1882 Died and succeeded by his son Thomas Lake Aveling.
