John Charles Taite
John Charles Taite (1852-1922) of Taite and Carlton, 63 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.
1922 Obituary [1]
JOHN CHARLES TAITE was born in London on 8th May 1852, was educated at Crawford College.
He served his time at the works of Messrs. John Dewrance and Co., afterwards going as an improver to Sharp, Stewart and Co., Atlas Works, Manchester, and then to Nasmyth Wilson and Co., Patricroft.
In 1875, in partnership with the late Mr. T. W. Carlton, whose father was Manager of the Locomotive Works of the Great Western Railway at Swindon, he established the firm of Taite and Carlton. The firm was largely interested in the introduction of pressed steel wagons and under-frames for British and Colonial railways, and introduced the Holden liquid fuel burner, the invention of Mr. James Holden, late Locomotive Engineer of the Great Eastern Railway.
This was extensively used in the oil-producing countries, particularly South Russia, Rumania, etc. Mr. Taite attended trials with this apparatus in the Mont Cenis and other sections of the Italian State Railways, where difficulties owing to asphyxiation of the engineers had occurred in the tunnels, and considerable success resulted. This was, of course, prior to electrification.
He was also interested in the "Worsdell" two-cylinder compound engine which is still in use on Argentine railways.
At a later date Mr. Taite became interested in pneumatic tools and was Chairman of the Taite-Howard Pneumatic Tool Co., Ltd., until it was taken over by an amalgamation of pneumatic tool companies. In this connexion he read a Paper at the Glasgow Meeting of the Institution in 1901.
He was also Chairman of the Wycliffe Foundry Co., Ltd. which specialized in the production of malleable castings.
His death took place in London on 26th June 1922, at the age of seventy.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1878.