John Ridley (inventor) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Ridley
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| Born | 26 May 1806 near West Boldon, County Durham, England
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| Died | 25 November 1887 (aged 81) London, England
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| Occupation | miller, inventor, landowner, investor, farming machinery manufacturer, farmer and preacher |
| Known for | Ridley harvesting machine |
| Spouse(s) | Mary White Pybus (1807–1884) |
| Children | born England: Mary Elizabeth Ridley (1836–1840), Anne Eleanor Ridley (1839–1924); born Hindmarsh, South Australia: Mary Elizabeth Ridley (1843–), Jane Taylor Ridley (1845–1929) |
John Ridley (26 May 1806 – 25 November 1887) was an English miller, inventor, landowner, investor, farming machinery manufacturer, farmer and preacher who lived in Australia between 1839 and 1853. He is best known for the development, manufacture and invention of "Ridley's Stripper", a machine that removed the heads of grain, with the threshing being done later by a separate machine. The suburb of Ridleyton in the city of Adelaide, Australia was named for him.
Early life
Ridley was born near West Boldon, County Durham, England. His father, also John Ridley, was a miller who died when his son was five years old. His mother, Mary (a cousin of John Sr.), carried on the business; when Ridley was 15 years of age he began to share in its management. Ridley had little formal education, but had a love of books and a remarkable memory. He had come across an encyclopaedia soon after he was able to read, and took the greatest interest in the scientific articles which he read and re-read. Science and theology were the great interests of his life. He began preaching at 18, and at 23 was a recognised local preacher in the Sunderland circuit.
After his mother's death in 1835, Ridley married Mary Pybus, and in November 1839 sailed for South Australia aboard the Warrior with his wife and two infant children, arriving in Adelaide on 17 April 1840.
Career in Australia
On arrival in South Australia he bought a piece of land at Hindmarsh close to Adelaide, took over the flour-mill of the South Australian Company, installed the first steam engine (a Watt's Beam) in South Australia able to cut wood and grind meal, and began growing wheat at Hindmarsh. Foreseeing that the heavy spending by governor George Gawler would lead to depression and increased rural production, Ridley let his farm and devoted his time to seeking grain for his mill, purchasing land, and investing in the developing copper-mine at Burra. Being much interested in mechanical inventions, he also spent some time on a horizontal windmill to be used for raising water. It was said of him at this period that if his child cried in the night, his first thought would be how to make an apparatus for rocking the cradle.
By 1843 the colony's expanding wheat crop threatened to exceed the capacity of the work force available to harvest it. Ridley gave much time to the problem of devising a mechanical method of harvesting the wheat and building a reaper based on a woodcut in John Claudius Loudon's An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture (3rd ed., London, 1835). In September 1843 the corn exchange committee offered a prize of £40 to anyone submitting a model or plans of a reaper of which the committee would approve. Ridley did not compete because his machine was nearing completion in the factory of John Stokes Bagshaw. On 23 September 1843 it was reported that several models and plans had been submitted, but no machine had been exhibited which the committee felt justified in recommending for general adoption. In October Ridley's machine was ready for its first tests, and a month later a rebuilt machine was successfully tested on his tenant's crop, reaping 70 acres (28 ha) in a week. On 18 November 1843 the Adelaide Observer announced that "a further trial of Mr Ridley's machine has established its success". Over the next year he planned the improvement and manufacture of the machine, in 1845 he made seven machines, and by 1850 over 50 machines were operating in the colony and others had been exported. The Ridley stripper received a Historic Engineering Marker from Engineers Australia as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.
Return to England
Although Ridley's returns from the harvesting machine were substantial, they were meagre compared with the dividends from his original shares in the Burra copper-mine, his flour-mill and his land investments. He was in comfortable circumstances, and in 1853 he and his family left Australia for a lengthy journey through Europe. After several years they eventually settled in England where he devoted "his eccentric enthusiasm to invention and religion". At his own cost he had printed tens of thousands of copies of sermons and tracts that appealed to his principles and distributed them widely to grateful and ungrateful recipients. He was also an energetic lay preacher and made many gifts to evangelical churches and missions.
Legacy
Ridley died on 25 November 1887 in London and was survived by two daughters. A silver candelabrum, presented to him by old South Australian colonists in 1861, is now at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute.
His altruism and passion for practical improvement were sincere, and meant more to him than his own financial success. His self-reliance made him eschew government rewards in South Australia, where his memory is honoured by the Ridley memorial scholarship at Roseworthy Agricultural College, memorial gates to the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society's showground at Wayville and the electoral district of Ridley.
The machine, which both reaped and threshed corn, has been of inestimable benefit to Australia. Though no doubt it was improved in detail as the years went by, no substantial advance was made on it until Hugh Victor McKay constructed his harvester some 40 years later. Ridley not only declined to patent his machine, but refused all suggestions of reward.
He was commemorated in 1933 by the erection of the Ridley Gates at the Adelaide Showgrounds, Wayville.
The Adelaide suburb of Ridleyton and Ridley Grove, a thoroughfare in the suburbs of Ferryden Park and Woodville Gardens, were named for him.
