Philip Taylor (civil engineer)

Philip Taylor (1786–1870) was an English civil engineer. A significant innovator of the 1820s in steam engine design, he moved abroad to become an industrial leader in France and Italy.

He was the fourth son of John and Susannah Taylor of Norwich; and the brother of Richard Taylor, Edward Taylor, John Taylor and Sarah Austin. He was educated at Dr. Houghton's school in Norwich.

Between 1801 and 1805 Taylor was with his brother John, who was employed by a copper mine in western Devon, for the Martineau family of Norwich. They came to know the Cornish engineer Arthur Woolf, though in Philip's case this was at a later point. Taylor had been sent to study surgery under Dr. Harness at ; but this apprenticeship did not result in a career. He returned to Norwich, where he joined a Mr. Chambers as a druggist; and worked with Dr. Fitch in a pharmacy business. He set up a factory to make wooden pillboxes, turning the first specimens on a small lathe powered by a pet spit-dog.

In 1812 Taylor moved to the neighbourhood of London, as a partner in the chemical works of his brother John at Stratford. Initially Philip was concerned with pharmaceuticals and apparatus, while John worked on metallurgical chemistry. They were backed by the Martineau family. One joint invention was an "acetometer", used to check excise duty on vinegar. Philip Taylor resided in the adjoining parish of Bromley. He went into business with John Martineau the younger, as Taylor & Martineau of City Road. The partnership was dissolved in 1827.

The City Road business of Taylor & Martineau was a foundry and engineering works. It produced steam engines, gas generators, and pumps. The elder John Martineau was involved in the business, at least financially.

John Taylor took out a patent in 1815 for decomposing animal oils into gas. This discovery led in 1823 to what Philip Taylor's son later wrote of as "the battle of the gases": the commercial contest between gas lighting derived from coal and from oils. About 20% of new gas undertakings of the 1820s were based on oil.

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