Jabez Carter Hornblower (21 May 1744 – 14 July 1814) was an English pioneer of steam power, and the son of

Jonathan Hornblower Jonathan Hornblower (5 July 1753 – 23 February 1815) was an English pioneer of steam power. Personal life The son of Jonathan Hornblower the Elder and the brother of Jabez Carter Hornblower, two fellow pioneers, the young Hornblower wa ...

Early life

Hornblower was born in

Broseley Broseley is a market town in Shropshire, England, with a population of 4,929 at the 2011 Census and an estimate of 5,022 in 2019. The River Severn flows to its north and east. The first The Iron Bridge, iron bridge in the world was built in 17 ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was the eldest child of steam engineer

and Ann Carter Hornblower. He gained his engineering skills working for his father building

Newcomen steam engine The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine (see below) or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creat ...

s in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Career

Hornblower later worked for

Boulton and Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...

building the new

Watt steam engine The Watt steam engine design became synonymous with steam engines, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design. The first steam engines, introduced by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, were of the "a ...

s designed and patented by James Watt. By 1790, he had set up a business in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with financial backing from well-to-do currier John Maberly, where he designed a new steam engine based on the patented designs of Isaac Mainwaring. However, in 1796, Hornblower and Maberly were sued by Boulton and Watt, who claimed one of Watt's patents – concerning the condenser – had been infringed. After a long trial, judgement in 1799 was in favour of Boulton and Watt and brought about the collapse of Hornblower and Maberly's business. In 1803, Hornblower was imprisoned in the King's Bench debtors prison but on his release in 1805 he managed to secure some work in mainland

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

building engines until his return to

in 1813.

Personal life

Hornblower had married twice, once in

to Mary John, with whom he had four children and, on her death, to Ann Hanbury of Bridgnorth, Shropshire with whom he had another four children.

Death

Hornblower died on 11 July 1814 and was buried in the Bunhill Fields burial ground in London.

External links

Jabez Carter Hornblower
1744 births 1814 deaths English engineers British steam engine engineers Burials at Bunhill Fields People from Broseley {{England-engineer-stub