William samuel henson biography for kids
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William Samuel Henson
British-born aviation pioneer, engineer and inventor
William Samuel Henson (3 May 1812 – 22 March 1888) was a British-born pre-Wright brothers aviation pioneer, engineer and inventor. He is best known for his work on the aerial steam carriage alongside John Stringfellow.
Biography
[edit]Henson was born in Nottingham, England on 3 May 1812.[1][2] Henson was involved in lace-making in Chard[3] and he obtained a patent on improved lace-making machines in 1835. Henson is best known as an early pioneer in aviation but he patented many other inventions, some of which are in wide use today.[4]
In 1849 William Henson and his wife, Sarah, left England and moved to the United States, joining his father and settling in Newark, New Jersey. Henson never did any further aviation research while in the United States and worked as a machinist, civil engineer and inventor.[5][6] He had 7 children, only
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John Stringfellow was born at Attercliffe in Sheffield in 1799 and became an apprentice in the lace trade. His ability with all things mechanical helped him to establish a successful business, and led him to an interest in flying machines – and in particular their power source.
John Stringfellow
Partnership
Stringfellow moved to Chard in Somerset in 1820 and met William Samuel Henson, a manufacturer of lace making machinery and a man himself very interested in mechanical flight. Both had an interest in engineering and agreed to work together.
William Samuel Henson
Invention
In 1842 Henson patented his Locomotive Apparatus and Machinery for conveying Letters, Goods and Passengers from Place to Place through the Air created interest throughout the world - some of it admiring, some scornful. He proposed that the craft should be launched down the side of a hill so that gravity might create the force needed to lift it, the engine then maintaining
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With the exception of Sir George Cayley, the first half of the 19th century witnessed little significant development in aeronautics until William Samuel Henson (1812-1888) published in 1843 his design for an advanced fixed-wing monoplane configuration known as the 'Aerial Steam Carriage'.
Born in Nottingham in 1812, the son of William Henson a lacemaker, in 1830 Henson moved moved to Chard in Somerset with his father, where he was initially employed as a machinist in the local lacemaking industry. He soon set up in business on his own behalf as WS Henson, Lace Manufacturer.
From 1840 Henson began experiments with gliding models, corresponding with John Stringfellow (1799-1883) about his engine designs, and on 29 September 1842 submitted his patent application for a flying machine. This was formally published in April 1843 as Description, specification, and drawings, of Mr. Henson's locomotive apparatus for the conveyance of passengers, etc. through the air. ('Aerial' Steam Carri