Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,074 pages of information and 246,707 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Henrietta Vansittart

From Graces Guide

Henrietta Vansittart (nee Lowe) (1833-1883)

of 4 Maid of Honour Row, Richmond.

of Kent House, Sheerness. (1869).

1833 Born in Surrey, daughter of James Lowe and Mary Lowe (nee Barnes)[1]

1855 July. Married Frederick Vansittart, of the 14th Light Dragoons

She continued her father's experiments with propellers

1868 Henrietta Vansittart of Richmond, in the county of Surrey, gave notice in respect of the invention of "improvements in the construction of screw propellers." This was set out in her petition recorded as #2877 in the Patent office on the 18th day of September, 1868[2]. This concerned a further improvement to her father's invention, which she called ‘the Lowe-Vansittart propeller.’ This was fitted to many government ships, and was found to be a valuable invention.[3]

1881 The 1881 census recorded that her husband took out patent No. 2877.

1881 Living in Twickenham[4]

1883 Died in Twickenham[5]


Note: In 1870 N. P. Burgh wrote a detailed letter, with illustrations, to support his argument that the screw propeller covered by the 1863 Lowe-Vansittart patent had been anticipated by the 1853 patent of Robert Griffiths. He added that Griffiths' propeller was tried on HMS Fairy in 1856, 'with no better result than with the true screw blade.'[6]. No doubt counter-arguments ensued. Griffiths' 1853 patent model is (or was) on display in the Science Museum.

See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. 1851 census
  2. London Gazette 27 Oct 1868
  3. The Engineer 1870/07/01
  4. 1881 census
  5. National probate calendar
  6. [1] The Engineer 21 Jan 1870, pp.33-4