Influential figures in tech history: Lawrence Hargrave

Influential figures in tech history: Lawrence Hargrave

Who was Lawrence Hargrave?

BY CHIDI NWOSU

(Image via: wetterdrachen.de)

Lawrence Hargrave (1850-1915)

Lawrence Hargrave was an engineer, explorer, astronomer, and aeronautical pioneer. But of all the things he accomplished during his lifetime, he is perhaps best known for inventing the rotary engine in 1889 and conducting grounbreaking research in aerodynamics that inspired others, including Alexander Graham Bell.

Hargrave was born in England in 1850 and migrated to Australia in 1865, where he took an engineering apprenticeship in Sydney. He chose to dedicate his life to research following the death of his father, and took particular interest in flying machines. Hargrave was the first to invent box kites, and his work on them was eventually used to improved the lift-to-drag ratio of early gliders. What’s more, his research provided the structural rigidity and aerodynamic stability that eventually helped airplanes work on rotary engine power, which powered many aircraft up until the 1920s.

Hargrave was devoted to his family, and many suspect that his sorrow over the death of his son, Geoffrey, in 1915 left him heartbroken, leading to his own death soon thereafter. ■