Name Index

To

Biographical notice of the Late Mr Thomas Fowler, of Torrington, with Some Account of His Inventions

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 7 (1875), pp. 75-78 (1899), pp. 171-178.

by

Rev Hugh Fowler

Prepared by Michael Steer

Thomas Fowler (born 1777 at Great Torrington - died March 31, 1843) was an inventor of the thermosiphon that forms the basis of most modern central heating systems. Fowler patented it in 1828. It was the first convective heating system. A system based on his design was installed at Bicton, part of the Rolle Estate and received acclaim in the Gardener's Magazine of 1829. Due to innate flaws in the patent system of the time, the thermosiphon was pirated by other manufacturers and Fowler did not have sufficient funds to conduct legal proceedings. In 1840 he produced a mechanical calculating machine that operated using balanced ternary arithmetic. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. This rare book was produced from a copy held by the New York Public Library, and is available from the Internet Archive.