‘Inventive genius’ unfettered by money sense
Edward Allen Talbot showed “unmistakable signs of inventive genius” in his youth and found everything interesting. But it didn’t get him as far as it might have.
He submitted the first patent for an invention in Upper Canada. It was for a jet-like engine that he proposed would “obtain a power, acting within the vessel itself, without aid of paddle wheels or any substitute therefore, which shall propel a boat with great velocity,” according to the Franklin Journal and American Mechanics’ Magazine, Volume 6.
The invention didn’t work. As one biographer said, it proved impractical because of its inventor’s lack of both a basic knowledge of physics and sufficient funds.
That’s not to say every idea or thing he did was a flop. His plans for a rail line between London, Ont., and the head of Lake Ontario, and a suspension bridge spanning the Niagara River, were realized, but not in his lifetime.
He built a “strong wooden lathe” to turn wood, and with it created the stairs and railings for the construction of the courthouse and jail in London, Ont., otherwise known as the Middlesex County Court House, built between 1827 and 1829 under the watchful eye of John Ewart, the architect.
Talbot also tried, much to the detriment of his family’s wealth, to invent a perpetual motion machine.
But he wasn’t known for inventions. He was probably better known as a militia officer, author and journalist.
Born in Ireland, Talbot emigrated to Canada in 1818. Considering most settlers in Upper Canada were homesteaders, it may be surprising that the Talbots (Edward, his brother and father) had no farm experience. None of them was really equipped to deal with life on a farm.
In 1824 Talbot’s book describing his travels and life in Upper and Lower Canada was published. Five Years’ Residence In The Canadas presented his thesis: Hard-working poor people stood much more to gain in coming to Canada than a person of higher ranking.
It’s considered a “perceptive” view of life here as a pioneer.
Talbot managed to lose money on the publication, partly because it was quickly pirated and sold in Europe, especially in France and Germany, and he received no royalties.
He also worked as a journalist with a reform sympathy, especially in the London, Ont., and Niagara Peninsula areas early on. Both Canadas at the time were brewing rebellion and it bubbled over in 1837.
His political leanings were to have dire consequences. When the dust settled, Talbot was on the wrong side of history and he thought it best to leave the country.
He had been promised work at a paper in Ypsilanti, Mich., but before he could leave, he was arrested and held as a witness against a local reformer.
He finally left London in May of 1838 for the United States, eventually landing in Ohio. But he didn’t like the people or the weather, and moved east to Lewiston, N.J., and a job at The Telegraph.
Talbot at this point was a serious alcoholic and his body was weakened by the disease. But he did send any money he had back to his parents, who had remained in London, Ont., before submitting himself to the Lockport poor house/hospital. He died there shortly later and was buried in the Cold Springs Cemetery in a pauper’s grave.
He was described as “an original thinker and a great projector of new schemes.”
— Tom Villemaire is a writer based in Toronto and the Bruce Peninsula. Tom@Historylab.ca