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Fowler, Thomas, 1832-1904

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Disambiguation: Another Thomas Fowler was a Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1899–1901).

Thomas Fowler (born 1777 in Great Torrington, Devon, England – died March 31, 1843) was an English inventor whose most notable invention was the thermosiphon which forms the basis of most modern central heating systems. Much of the knowledge of Fowler comes from his son, the Reverend Hugh Fowler, who produced a biography of his father.

Inventions

Thermosiphon

Fowler patented the thermosiphon in 1828 (British patent number 5711). It was the first convective heating system. A based on his design was installed at Bicton, part of the Rolle Estate and received great acclaim in the Gardener's Magazine of 1829. Unfortunately due to innate flaws in the patent system of the time (under which a new version of a design with minimal changes was not covered by the original patent), the thermosiphon was pirated by numerous other manufacturers and Fowler did not have sufficient funds to conduct legal proceedings.

Calculating machine

In 1840 Fowler produced a mechanical calculating machine which operated using ternary arithmetic. Apprehensive in case his ideas should again be stolen, he designed and built the machine single-handed from wood in the workshop attached to his printing business. To compensate for the limited precision achievable using wooden components, he constructed the machine on a large scale; it was 6 feet long by 3 feet deep and 1 foot high (1800 x 900 x 300 mm).

Fowler had previously developed methods using balanced ternary arithmetic to simplify the complex monetary calculations he was obliged to perform on behalf of the Torrington Poor Law Union in his capacity as its treasurer, which he later published in his book Tables for Facilitating Arithmetical Calculations. His machine was designed to give mechanical form to these techniques, the choice of balanced ternary allowing the mechanisms to be simple, though the values had to be converted to balanced ternary before processing and the results converted back to decimal at the end of the calculation.

Though the machine did not survive to the present day, a replica has been constructed from a two-page description of it made in 1840 by the prominent mathematician Augustus DeMorgan.[1]

Medical

Fowler developed a solution of arsenic trioxide in potassium bicarbonate (1% w/v) that was used empirically for the treatment of a variety of diseases including asthma, chorea, eczema, pemphigus, and psoriasis, anemia, Hodgkin's disease, and leukemia.^[1]