Inventions
In his last years, Hartley studied chemistry and mechanics. In 1785 he published Account of a Method of Securing Buildings and Ships against Fire, by placing thin iron planks under floors and attaching them to the ceilings, partly to prevent immediate access of the fire, and partly to stop the free supply of air. He built a house on Putney Heath to verify the efficacy of his invention. An obelisk was built on the heath, adjacent to Tibbet's corner 1776 marking the Lord Mayor of London's decision to give Hartley £2,500 for work on his fire plates. It makes mention of its being erected on the 110th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. On the occasion of a fire at Richmond House, on 21 December 1791, he wrote a pamphlet urging the value of his fire plates.
The brick obelisk with heavily inscribed foundation stone still stands on Putney Heath, near where the A219 veers from the A3 at Tibbet's Corner, towards Putney. There is no parking at the site; however there is parking and footpath access from near the adjacent Telegraph Pub, off Wildcroft Road. Since 1955 the obelisk has been a Grade II listed building.
One side of the upper and lower case inscription reads: By VIRTUE of an ORDER of the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR ALDERMEN and COMMONS of the CITY of LONDON in Common Council Assembled Dated the 22nd. November 1776 DAVID HARTLEY Esq. was admitted into the FREEDOM of the said CITY in the COMPANY of GOLDSMITHS in the time of the Rt. Hon Sr. THOMAS HALLIFAX KNt. LORD MAYOR and BENJAMIN HOPKINS ESQ CHAMBERLAIN in CONSIDERATION of the ADVANTAGES likely to accrue to the PUBLIC by his INVENTION of FIRE PLATES for securing buildings from FIRE and for his respectful attention to this CITY in his repeated EXPERIMENTS performed before many of the members of the COURT. The RECORD of which EXPERIMENTS and also of his admission into the FREEDOM of the said CITY of LONDON is entered in the BOOK signed with the letter Rc IN WITNESS whereof the SEAL of the Office of CHAMBERLAIN thereunto affixed DATED in the GUILD-HALL of the same CITY the 26th. day of March in the 17th. Year of the Reign of Our SOVEREIGN LORD GEORGE the THIRD &c And in the Year of Our LORD MDCCLXXVII
Read more about this topic: David Hartley (the Younger)
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