John Fulton (instrument maker)

John Fulton

The John Fulton Memorial Hall
Born 1803
Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland
Died 1853
Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Burial Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Full name
John Fulton

John Fulton (1803–1853), was originally a cobbler or shoemaker by trade.[1] He built three orrerys in a workshop attached to at his home, now demolished, in the Kirton Brae area of Fenwick[2] and was eventually appointed instrument maker to King William IV, moving to London, but retiring to Fenwick. He is buried in the Fenwick Kirk graveyard.[1]

Life

It is recorded that John's father, also a cobbler, was a subscribing member to the library set up in the village by the Fenwick Weavers and with access to this library, he pursued his interest in astronomy, mathematics, physics, and other disciplines that led to his career as an instrument maker of outstanding ability and achievement.[1][3] Largely self-taught, he studied botany, learned several foreign languages, constructed a ‘velocipede’ or early bicycle, and experimented with the production of coal gas. He had left school at the age of only thirteen.

However astronomy held a particular fascination for him and led to his constructing, in his spare time, three working models of the solar system, known as orrerys.[4]

Orrerys

Fenwick Kirk, burial place of John Fulton.

The Society of Arts, who awarded him a silver medal,[5] calculated that his third orrery was the most perfect built up to that time.[6] He built three orrerys between 1823 and 1833, the last of which is now on display in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. This was the most intricate and it took him four years to finish it, measuring 1000mm x 3000mm x 3000mm. Entirely his own work it has 175 wheels and more than 200 moving parts. It is acknowledged to be one of the best in the world.[7]

Fulton took the orrery on a tour of the United Kingdom. Such was the public interest that in 1869 a group of Glasgow businessmen led by William Walker bought the orrery for the city. It was brought up from London and then toured around Glasgow schools and museums until the 1930s when it found a more permanent home in the Old Glasgow Museum.[8]

A local story relates that Fulton 'borrowed' his grandmother’s candlesticks, and melted them down and used the brass for his first Orrery model.[1]

John Fulton Memorial Hall

This is the public meeting hall for Fenwick, maintained by East Ayrshire Council. It was previously the Guthrie Memorial Free Church of 1844,[9] and following a worldwide fund raising campaign sufficient funds had been raised by 1919 and the hall was opened in 1920.[1]

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Fenwick Weavers Retrieved : 2012-07-24
  2. ↑ Love, Page 102
  3. ↑ Adamson, Page 120
  4. ↑ Future Museum Retrieved : 2012-07-24
  5. ↑ Intellectual Icons Retrieved : 2012-07-24
  6. ↑ Love, Page 103
  7. ↑ Glasgow Museums Retrieved : 2012-07-24
  8. ↑ The Glasgow Story Retrieved : 2012-07-24
  9. ↑ Adamson, Page 107
Sources
  1. Adamson, Archibald R. (1875). Rambles Round Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock : T. Stevenson.
  2. Love, Dane (2003). Ayrshire : Discovering a County. Ayr : Fort Publishing. ISBN 0-9544461-1-9.

External links

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