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In
Wolverhampton, Elwell and Parker began to manufacture accumulators (lead-acid batteries). From 1883 they manufactured dynamos. The business began to expand: there was soon a demand for dynamos, from the Manchester Edison Company and from Trafalgar Colliery in the
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In 1893, the company was in difficulty and was reformed as the
Electric Construction Company. In 1894, Parker resigned from the company and set up Thomas Parker Ltd. in Wolverhampton, making electrical equipment. (The company was eventually wound up in 1909.)
285:. He took out a patent in 1882, which coincided with Gaston Planté's own patent for the same improvement; two separate patents were granted. In June 1882 Parker and Paul Bedford Elwell took out patents for improvements in dynamos and electric lighting.
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In 1889, the
Electric Construction Corporation (E.C.C.), was founded by a syndicate to manufacture electrical equipment, and it purchased the Elwell-Parker company and others making similar equipment. A new factory was built in
317:, for electric lighting in the mine. (This is thought to be the first time electric lighting was used underground.) Elwell-Parker dynamos supplied lighting in industrial works, and equipment was supplied for a tramway in
461:, near Coalbrookdale, where he purchased Severn House. He had a laboratory and workshop at his home, and in Coalbrookdale he gave a series of lectures on science. In 1910 he bought an ironworks on the local
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He had twelve children, of whom nine survived to maturity. His son
Charles Henry Parker ran the company that produced Coalite; his son Thomas Hugh Parker was an inventor, building prototype motor cars.
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were built. Between 1884 and 1887, further patents were taken out by Parker and Elwell for electrical equipment. In 1887 he developed a process to extract phosphorus and chlorate of soda by
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368:, Wolverhampton. Parker failed to become a company director, but was appointed Works Manager. In 1893 an American branch of Elwell-Parker was founded in
252:. This was Parker's first major invention. "Parker and Weston's Patent Pump", manufactured only by the Coalbrookdale Company, was awarded a medal at the
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in London, where he was one of four representatives of the
Coalbrookdale Company. He was inspired by the technology shown there, which included the
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to set up in business with Paul
Bedford Elwell (1853–1899). (Elwell's family had a factory there, that made nails and horseshoes.)
403:. In 1897, he formed the Midland Electric Corporation, the first company in the world to distribute electricity over a wide area.
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In
December 1867 they moved to Coalbrookdale; Parker, initially working as a foreman, was soon offered the post of chemist in the
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A commemorative plaque was unveiled at the former Severn House, now a hotel (The Best
Western Valley Hotel), on 10 October 2015.
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In 1899 Parker resigned as managing director of Thomas Parker Ltd. He moved to London, where he was consulting engineer to the
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Report by Toby Neal, title refers to Thomas Parker day being held 10 October 2015, organized by
Madeley Living History Group.
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In 1905 he actively promoted a decimal system of his own creation, based on
English weights, measures and currency.
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Around this time there was national concern about the detrimental effect of coal smoke on cities, publicized by the
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in 1885, the first electric tramway in the country. A prototype battery-powered tram was tested on the tramway in
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in the early 18th century, and Parkers had worked there for several generations. Thomas attended the local
270:. The Coalbrookdale Company produced the "Kyrle Grate", invented by Parker; it was an open grate in which
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In the electroplating department, he replaced battery cells, which powered the process, with a large
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which he had designed and built; it was probably the first time a dynamo was used for this purpose.
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In 1876 he and Philip Weston, a machinist at Coalbrookdale, received a patent for an improved
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was opened in 1904 as part of the project. Parker stayed in London until retirement in 1908.
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In 1892 he designed the high voltage DC system for distributing electricity in the cities of
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could be burnt. It was awarded a silver medal at the Smoke Abatement Exhibition in 1881.
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Website of the present-day Elwell-Parker company founded in America in 1893
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company, involved in the electrification of the underground railway. The
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estate, and he ran this company, Court Works Ltd, with his son Charles.
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Commemorative plaques by John McKenna (2007), featuring an electric tram
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Wolverhampton History and Heritage Website, accessed 29 July 2015.
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Commemorative plaque of Thomas Parker in Wolverhampton, by
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school. His first work was as a moulder, with his father.
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at home in Ironbridge in 1915, and was buried nearby at
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English electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist
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In 1904 he invented a new smokeless fuel, marketed as
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Thomas Parker: Politics and the 1892 General Election
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Thomas Parker: The Electric Construction Corporation
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708:Thomas Parker: Coalite, a School and a Plaque
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518:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
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639:TheTrams.co.uk, accessed 8 August 2015.
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144:. He invented the smokeless fuel
691:Thomas Parker: Thomas Parker Ltd
512:Freund, Paul. "Parker, Thomas".
625:Thomas Parker:Elwell-Parker Ltd
579:. 8 September 2015. p. 16.
348:, where he was defeated by the
213:Later in that year he moved to
848:Sustainable transport pioneers
803:20th-century British inventors
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793:19th-century British inventors
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128:. He patented improvements in
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606:Thomas Parker:The Early Years
338:general election of July 1892
200:1862 International Exhibition
808:British electrical engineers
532:UK public library membership
474:St Michael's Church, Madeley
352:candidate, the incumbent MP
179:Fletcher. His father was a
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843:People from Coalbrookdale
818:Engineers from Shropshire
289:The Elwell-Parker Company
661:Thomas Parker: The 1890s
468:He died, aged 71, of a
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185:Coalbrookdale Ironworks
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60:(1915-12-05)
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783:1915 deaths
778:1843 births
208:wet battery
153:Lord Kelvin
74:Nationality
772:Categories
534:required.)
487:References
459:Ironbridge
453:Retirement
401:Shoreditch
323:Birmingham
306:Tettenhall
250:steam pump
227:Manchester
215:Birmingham
173:Shropshire
163:Early life
82:Occupation
66:Ironbridge
39:1843-12-22
407:In London
370:Cleveland
319:Blackpool
256:of 1885.
68:, England
49:, England
397:Sydenham
366:Bushbury
206:and the
155:as "the
122:inventor
444:Coalite
393:Chelsea
336:In the
183:at the
181:moulder
146:Coalite
134:dynamos
98:pioneer
77:British
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419:(2007)
385:Oxford
261:dynamo
193:Quaker
157:Edison
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399:and
374:Ohio
140:and
132:and
124:and
113:MICE
109:FRSE
55:Died
33:Born
520:doi
177:née
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