Person

Harrison, James (1816? - 1893)

Born
April 1816?
Renton, Scotland
Died
3 September 1893
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Inventor and journalist

Summary

James Harrison worked as a journalist on various newspapers in Victoria from his arrival there in 1839 until his return to England about 1873. He was also a keen inventor, being a pioneer in all kinds of refrigeration and in 1873 he won a gold medal at the Melbourne Exhibition by proving that meat kept frozen for months remained perfectly edible.

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Details

Born Renton, near Ben Lomond, Scotland, April 1816?. Died Geelong, Victoria, 3 September 1893. Educated Evening College and Mechanics' Institute, Glasgow. Apprentice printer, Glasgow; compositor, London 1832-37; to Sydney with printing equipment for the Literary News 1837; foreman, Sydney Monitor and work for the Sydney Herald 1837-39; worked for the Port Phillip Patriot 1839-40; founder, Geelong Advertiser 1840, editor 1840-67, owner 1842-62; also founded Geelong Almanac and Intelligencer 1950; founder Geelong Register 1865-67; editor, Melbourne Age from 1867. Designed and built the plant for the first Australian manufacture of ice 1854; formed the Sydney Ice Company with P.N. Russell 1860; designed a revolutionary refrigerator 1860; work on the refrigeration of ships for the export of meat from 1870; in England ca 1873-92, working as a journalist on the Age under the name "Oedipus"; returned to Geelong 1892, continuing to write and making plans to produce soda from his block. His portrait is in the Geelong Art Gallery.

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Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

  • Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details

Books

  • Lang, William Rawson, James Harrison, Pioneering Genius (Newtown: Neptune Press, 1982). Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Arthur, Ian, 'Patenting Australian colonial technology', ASHET news, 4 (2) (2011), 4-6. Details
  • Harrison, James, 'Ice Making Machinery (Patent, 27 July, 1860)', Specifications of Letters of Registration of Patents for Inventions - South Australia, 1 (8) (1848-68). Details
  • Jones, L., 'James Harrison - Pioneering Genius', Australian Physicist, 10 (1983), 179. Details
  • Morrison, Elizabeth, 'James Harrison: Inventor and Science Journalist', Australasian Science, 19 (10) (1998), 48. Details
  • Selfe, Norman, 'The machinery employed for artificial refrigeration and ice-making', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), xxxii-lxxiii, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41891412#page/501/mode/1up. Details
  • Young, Neville, 'Back to the Future: the James Harrison Memorial Oration', AIRAH Journal, 45 (3) (1991), 9-12. Details

Resources

See also

  • Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_h.html. Details
  • Arthur, Ian, 'Technology and agriculture in Australia', ASHET News, 11 (1) (2018), 3-8. Details
  • Engineers Australia ed., Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 236 pp. p.98. Details
  • Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details

McCarthy, G.J.

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 4 July 2012

EOAS ID: biogs/P000479b.htm

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