Thomas East Lones (1860–1944) was a British folklorist, noted for his research into British calendar customs.

Early life and education

Lones was born in

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

, Staffordshire, on 25 September 1860. He was privately educated before attending

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where he graduated with a Diploma in the Faculty of Engineering.

Career

In 1884 he began work as a member of the technical staff at the newly established Patent Office, at which he remained for his entire working life, retiring in 1924. Lones published a number of works on the history of industry and technology, particularly on mining and metallurgy. These included a number of articles on these topics, such as the history of mining in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...

and the development of the

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 creati ...

. He also published a book on

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

's researches in natural science and one on zinc and its alloys.

Folklore

Lones joined the

Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore. It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...

in 1909 and became a regular contributor to its journal. Lones is most notable for his editing for publication, a collection of material made over many years by fellow folklorist (and Patent Office employee) A. R. Wright, on the calendar customs of Britain. On Wright's death, Lones edited and saw into print three volumes on the topic, published between 1936 and 1940. The three volumes were published as: * Wright, A. R. (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S. H.). (1936) ''British Calendar Customs: England. v. 1. Movable Festivals'' (London: published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher) * Wright, A. R. (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S. H.). (1938) ''British Calendar Customs: England. v. 2.'' ''Fixed Festivals, January–May, inclusive.'' (London: published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher) * Wright, A. R. (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S. H.). (1940) ''British Calendar Customs: England. v. 3.'' ''Fixed Festivals, June–December, inclusive.'' (London: published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher) The first volume was described as an "interesting and entertaining volume" when reviewed in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. All three volumes became standard texts for research into British folklore and are still frequently cited in works on British folk traditions. They have been described as "about the only one" of the large-scale collecting projects envisioned at the Folklore Society's creation in the late nineteenth century, to have "actually got completed". Lones's obituary in the Folklore Society's journal notes that he also collected material for a volume on Worcestershire for the Society's County Folklore series. Thought Lones contributed to the Folklore Society's Journal on Worcestershire Folklore, a volume in this series on the topic was never published.

Recognition

In 1941, in recognition of his work in the field of calendar customs, Lones was awarded the Folklore Society's Coote Lake Medal for Research, becoming one of the first recipients of the medal.

Selected works

* Lones, Thomas East (1898). ''A History of Mining in the Black Country''. Dudley.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

56379803. * Lones, T. E. (1914). "Worcestershire Folklore". ''Folklore''. 25 (3): 370–370. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1914.9718834.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...

0015-587X. * Lones, T. E. (1914). "An Omen from Dress". ''Folklore''. 25 (3): 372–373. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1914.9718840.

0015-587X. * Lones, T. E. (1925). "Scraps of English Folklore, X." ''Folklore''. 36 (1): 82–93. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1925.9718312.

0015-587X. * Lones, T. E. (1930). "The South Staffordshire and North Worcester-shire Mining District and its Relics of Mining Appliances". ''Transactions of the Newcomen Society''. 11 (1): 42–54. doi:10.1179/tns.1930.004.

0372–0187. * Lones, T. E. (1932). "The Site of Newcomen's Engine of 1712". ''Transactions of the Newcomen Society''. 13 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1179/tns.1932.001.

0372–0187. * Wright, A. R (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S.H.). (1936) ''British calendar customs: England. v. 1. Movable festivals'' (London : Published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher) * Wright, A. R (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S.H.). (1938) ''British calendar customs: England.v. 2.'' ''Fixed festivals, January–May, inclusive.'' (London : Published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher) * Lones, T. E. (1939). "A Précis of Mettallum Martis and an Analysis of Dud Dudley's Alleged Invention". ''Transactions of the Newcomen Society''. 20 (1): 17–28. doi:10.1179/tns.1939.002.

0372–0187. * Wright, A. R (ed. Lones, T. E. with a preface by Hooke, S.H.). (1940) ''British calendar customs: England.v. 3.'' ''Fixed festivals, June–December, inclusive.'' (London : Published for the Folk-Lore Society, W. Glaisher)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lones, T. E. 1860 births 1944 deaths British folklorists