Thomas Parker (inventor)

Thomas Parker (22 December 1843 – 5 December 1915) was an English electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. He patented improvements in lead-acid batteries and dynamos, and was a pioneer of manufacturing equipment that powered electric tramways and electric lighting. He invented the smokeless fuel Coalite.

He was described by Lord Kelvin as "the Edison of Europe".

Parker was born at Lincoln Hill in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, son of Thomas Wheatley Parker and Ann née Fletcher. His father was a moulder at the Coalbrookdale Ironworks. The ironworks had been founded by Abraham Darby I in the early 18th century, and Parkers had worked there for several generations. Thomas attended the local Quaker school. His first work was as a moulder, with his father.

He attended the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was one of four representatives of the Coalbrookdale Company. He was inspired by the technology shown there, which included the electric telegraph and the wet battery.

Later in that year he moved to Birmingham, to get more experience as a moulder; during this time he attended lectures of the nonconformist preacher George Dawson. He later moved to the Potteries, where in 1866 he married Jane Gibbons, daughter of engine-driver Lewis Gibbons. They moved to Manchester where he attended chemistry lectures of Henry Enfield Roscoe and others.

In December 1867 they moved to Coalbrookdale; Parker, initially working as a foreman, was soon offered the post of chemist in the electroplating department.

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