Walter Taylor

Walter Taylor (1734–1803) of Southampton, supplied wooden rigging blocks and ship's pumps to the Royal Navy, greatly improving their quality and reliability via technological innovations which were a significant step forward in the Industrial Revolution. Walter Taylor was born in 1734 the son of Walter Taylor of Southampton, an ingenious ship's carpenter, and Elizabeth Silver of Whippingham, Isle of Wight. From the age of 14 Taylor served as an apprentice to a Mr Messer, a ship's block maker in Westgate Street, Southampton. Whilst serving at sea his father had observed the problems caused by these blocks, which were traditionally handmade. On his return from sea he visited every blockmaker's shop he could find, and closely observed how blocks were formerly made. On acquiring the blockmaking business, at Messer's death in 1754, Taylor and his father developed hand-powered sawing, boring and turning machinery to mass-produce the rigging blocks, repeatedly and to an exact specification. As the original premises proved inadequate they acquired adjacent premises in Bugle Street where they installed a horse gin with power transferred from the main wheel through friction wheels on roller-bearing mounted steel countershafts with leather belt drives to the machinery. Encouraged by Hans Stanley, MP for Southampton and one of the Lords of the Admiralty, they submitted a specimen set of their blocks to the Board of Ordnance. A trial of the blocks in 1761 was so successful that the Navy agreed to take all of his stock of blocks. The navy also decided to order their blocks from Taylor's manufactory rather than setting up their own.