It's National Inventors Day and I'm celebrating with a look back at a South Tyneside genius - or two
South Tyneside has had its fair share of brilliant minds and here’s our celebration of locals who could claim to be incredible borough innovators.
Today is National Inventors Day and what better way to mark it than looking at genius on our own doorstep.
He took action after shipwrecks on the Tyne
William Wouldhave was born in North Shields in 1751 and his first venture into the world of work was as an apprentice house painter in South Shields.
Later, he became a parish clerk from South Shields and is commemorated locally for designing a lifeboat concept in the late 1700s after tragic shipwrecks near the Tyne including that of The Adventure which went aground near the coast at the mouth of the Tyne.
Mr Wouldhave lived until 1821. After his death, a memorial stone was erected at St Hilda’s Church in South Shields.
But his claims to have first invented the lifeboat were disputed - and there was more than one rival including another person from South Shields.
Awarded £1,200 after petitioning Parliament
Henry Greathead, who was born in Richmond but moved to South Shields in 1763, also made claims to be the inventor of the famous vessel in the early part of the 19th century. He petitioned Parliament and was awarded £1,200.
He became a ship’s carpenter and was shipwrecked a year later near Calais. He returned to South Shields and started a boat-building business in 1785.
Yet the claim does not end there as a third man also made a claim to be the true inventor.
A third claim to be the true inventor
Lionel Lukin, born in 1742 in Essex, was granted a patent in 1785 for a boat with increased buoyancy and which would stay afloat if it was swamped with water.
The debate has raged for centuries but of note is that South Tyneside could claim to have brilliant minds which were intent on helping others.
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