Later years: career, publications and scientific works Matthew Piers Watt Boulton

boulton s on aërial locomotion, published in 1864, describing several designs including aileron.

boulton became justice of peace, deputy lieutenant, , high sheriff of oxfordshire before age of 30. part of landed gentry due family s holdings @ tew park, , great haseley court estate , manor m.p.w. later purchased in tetworth, gloucestershire in 1880. boulton improved tew estate enlarging grand three-story manor house, adding garden , refining grove.

with death of father in 1848, inherited large fortune created both father s , grandfather s enterprises, permitting him, large household , relatives comfortable life. 11 servants employed administer manor , estate. boulton s inheritance made him wealthy, had little desire continue family s businesses subsequently closed, disposing of assets sale. financial independence allowed him pursue studies , writings philosopher-scientist on wide variety of subjects. among them @ least 2 pamphlets in 1860s refuting authenticity of purported 18th-century photographs; verse translations of classics including homer s iliad, virgil s Æneid , other classical works during mid-1870s; papers on metaphysics late-1870s, , 2 pamphlets on solar energy written in 1890s. earned on dozen patents multiple inventions, many of them aircraft propulsion systems. @ least 1 patent assigned george westinghouse, jr, american industrial tycoon.

his financial independence allowed him not pursue particular career aggressively. described reclusive point wide knowledge , sterling qualities known few . while others of wealth , ability sought greater wealth, notability , positions of power, boulton become notable being unnotable. in lifetime had ...no wish attract attention of contemporaries .

kenyon college professor of history bruce kinzer s 2009 biographic sketch of boulton, possibly 1 ever published, posited boulton has not posthumously gained recognition never sought during lifetime. philosopher-scientist-inventor s non-notability extended missing entries in boase s modern english biography, dictionary of national biography (where 1 of 5 members of metaphysical society did not appear in it) , later oxford dictionary of national biography.

however other researchers have on occasion drawn attention boulton s achievements, pointed in 1911 in britain s leading aviation magazine, flight ( 2 interesting patents ), , later aviation historian c.h. gibbs-smith ( first aileron ). boulton s flight control device, first described in short 1864 pamphlet on aerial locomotion , publicly praised pioneering u.s. aeronautical engineer charles manly. while addressing society of automotive engineers in 1916, manly referred directly boulton s invention, telling audience:

...the system of lateral balancing or control universally used; [is] of supplementary planes, called ailerons. description gave of these in british patent thorough , clear. first record have of appreciation of necessity active lateral control distinguished passive lateral equilibrium secured having wings set @ dihedral angle. invention of boulton s have birth of present-day 3 torque method of airborne control. thing lacking [in 1868] enable man learn operate flying machines 1 great organ – suitable engine.

in lifetime boulton better noted membership in eclectic metaphysical society, short-lived association (1869–1880) of of britain s gifted philosophers, theologians, academics , political leaders, although [n]o member of metaphysical society knew less renown m.p.w. boulton . elected society in 1874. nevertheless, former , future british prime minister , society member william gladstone, chaired 9 april 1878 meeting @ grosvenor hotel, read boulton s philosophical treatise has metaphysical society raison d être? (does metaphysical society have reason exist?) assembled membership evening. included, in part:

[b]efore . . . breaking our society, let consider matter little further... there no question, apparently non-metaphysical, may not pursued till come metaphysical. question of whether tarquin lived, , whether lucretia committed suicide, non-metaphysical question can be: yet disputants engaged in discussion may persist till open general question of credibility of testimony; , may open of credibility of memory, nature of belief, grounds have believing existence of other persons, , external world . . . whenever try bottom question or subject, use locke s word (the french word approfondir ) metaphysics come in sight . . . every sentence involves, in shape or other, verb , , this, if pursued long enough, leads heart of metaphysics . . . scientific persons speak of metaphysics scorn, calling them asylum ignorantiae, useful enough vulgar, in no way needed themselves. imagine science luminous, far above lower regions metaphysical mists prevail. in reality share common lot: ideas of force, law, cause, substance, causal or active matter, dwell in region of metaphysical twilight, not in luminous ether.

the work described alan brown brilliant paper , leading beginning of end of society, kiss of death . according catherine hajdenko-marshall, boulton s paper argued in free , open societies, plurality of ideas meant debate [essentially] impossible . but, apparently, despite importance society, boulton may not have attended reading of own work.

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