Philip Vaughan was a Welsh inventor and

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a large ...

who

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

ed the first design for a

ball bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

in 1794. Vaughan's patent described how iron balls could be placed between the wheel and the axle of a carriage. The balls let the carriage wheels rotate freely by reducing friction. Vaughan was granted a patent in 1794 for a ball bearing that sits between the axle and the wheel on a carriage. His design has the balls running inside deep grooves, and sealed in place with a stopper. Bearings are used in most rotating machines in the modern world - found throughout the rotating parts in cars, bikes, trains, planes etc. These modern ball bearings work in much the same way as Vaughan's initial invention. They make vehicles more efficient by reducing the friction between the moving parts. Without bearings, our mechanical world would simply not work. Vaughan was a proprietor and agent of the iron foundry at

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

and

Kidwelly Kidwelly ( cy, Cydweli) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, approximately northwest of the most populous town in the county, Llanelli. In the 2001 census the community of Kidwelly returned a population of 3,289, inc ...

. He owned one house called Green Hall in the Four roads village near Kidwelly, and also used a Villa on Llangunnor hill, built for him by John Morgan Sr. He married Elizabeth Griffiths in 1793 in St Peter's Church, Carmarthen. On January 1, 1800, Philip Vaughan signed a copartnership deed with John Morgan Junior, William and Thomas Morris, and William Morgan, the partners all agreeing to bring £12,000 in equal shares of £2,400 each. On the same day the co-partners started a 21-year lease for the Carmarthen rolling mills from John Morgan Sr. The lease included Kidwelly Forge, Blackpool Forge, the tin mills and various clauses for the

watercourse A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams a ...

leading to the Carmarthen works. Philip Vaughan was elected a burgess of Carmarthen on 2 October 1797.The Carmarthen Antiquarian Society, Vol ii, 1916-1917, pp. 60-61 He died in 1824. His son, of the same name, went on to become a solicitor and

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...

Notes

References

* Carlisle, R. P. ''Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity'', John Wiley & Sons, 2004. * Rowland, K. T. ''Eighteenth Century Inventions'',

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, 1974. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, Philip Welsh inventors 18th-century Welsh people