Victorian bright ideas

This design for a portable cooking apparatus was registered by Henry Madden in 1845. Its design allows for multiple types of foods to be cooked simultaneously in three conical metal boilers and three triangular ovens, as shown in the accompanying colourful drawing.

There were many designs registered for different types of portable cooking equipment at the time, perhaps to cater for increasing numbers of people travelling to more remote destinations.

Henry Madden was actually a wine merchant, but he had a keen interest in inventing. He registered a variety of designs under the 1843 Utility Designs Act, including a knife cleaner and a coffee percolator.

Victorian designers came up with many new inventions to help people keep clean while travelling. William Day registered this design for a portable shower-bath in 1845. It was designed to allow water to collect inside a waterproof ‘reservoir’ before being allowed to escape when a valve was pulled upwards or pushed downwards.

Day was interested in making large everyday objects more portable. He started in 1812 as a trunk maker with a business on the Strand in London and advertised sets of campaign furniture (intended for travel, and particularly military campaigns). By 1865 the company was trading as W. Day & Son.

Ventilated spaces were considered conducive to good health in the Victorian era, due to the contemporary medical belief that disease was caused by foul-smelling air. The ‘miasma’ theory was debunked by John Snow in 1849, who showed cholera to be a water-borne disease, although this was not widely accepted as fact until many years after.

This design for a window pane perforated with holes for air to pass through the glass was registered by Robert Bowie. Bowie was a surgeon working as an inspector for the General Board of Health in the mid-19th century. In this role, he reported on the conditions of workhouses, lodging houses, and asylums and advised on how they could be improved for the benefit of the inhabitants.

Foster, Porter & Company were an established wholesale drapery and hosiers, with premises in Cheapside, London. They produced fashionable goods for a middle-class clientele. They registered their more innovative designs to protect them from being copied by their competitors.

This muffler or necktie was designed to conceal a metal spring mechanism that wrapped around the neck of the wearer and kept the collar tight. Made-up ties like this saved the wearer time and effort when getting dressed.

Victorian inventors were often inspired by problems around the home. In this case a professional gardener, presumably fed up with wildlife picking at his fruit, designed a protective glass bubble that could be fastened over it with a wire.

The damage to the record seen in the image of this design happened during the working life of the document

The British Empire was expanding during the nineteenth century and more people were travelling around the world, colonising and establishing settlements. With this came the growing need for portable prefabricated buildings.

Samuel Hemming had a business manufacturing these buildings based at Clift House in Bristol, and later moved to Bow in London. His business may have originated when he designed his first portable house for his son who was emigrating to Australia.

In 1853, Bishop Charles Perry, with the support of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, issued a tender for the production of portable churches for import to Melbourne, Australia. Samuel Hemming won the contract which greatly benefitted his business. He registered this design for a portable fireproof building in 1855.

Nineteenth-century journeys could be long and uncomfortable, and inventors made many attempts to develop items which could make the travelling experience more bearable.

Walter Jessop registered this design for his ‘Pillow Cap for Travellers’ in 1860. It worked by forming ‘a soft pillow or cushion round the head so that the same may rest easily against the back or side of the carriage or other place and thus afford additional ease to the wearer when sleeping or otherwise.’

As well as an inventor, Jessop was also a surgeon and member of the Royal College of Surgeons. His son, also called Walter, was born in 1852 and went on to become a famous surgeon and President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom between 1915 and 1917.

John Joseph Mechi was born in 1802, the son of James Mechi, an Italian refugee. John had a keen interest in innovation from a young age. In 1827, he set up a business in Leadenhall Street, London, as a cutler and dressing case maker. A few years later he invented the ‘magic razor-strop’, a tool for sharpening razors, which became very popular. He also took an interest in agriculture, and bought a small farm in Essex where he experimented with improvements to farming methods.

In 1859 he partnered with Charles Bazin to form Mechi & Bazin. In 1861 they registered this design for ‘The United Service Travelling Case.’ This case included multiple compartments, making it possible to use ‘as a writing case and despatch box and as a dressing case or lady’s work box, according to the fittings introduced therein’.

This design, described as a ‘cheap and simple instrument’ was for an earthenware container that could be filled with hot water and inserted into a boot to warm them before wearing.

The hot-water bottle for boots was registered by pottery manufacturer, inventor and entrepreneur Henry Doulton (1820–1897) who was one of the founders of the Royal Doulton firm.