Richard Prosser, of Birmingham, an engineer of
high original faculties and great attainments, has died suddenly..."
These are the opening words of an obituary,
first published under the above headline in The Spectator dated 27th May 1854,
of a man who the great Sir Henry Cole, Prince Albert's trusted adviser, later
described as "a patentee of
considerable eminence... he invented
more things, I believe, than almost any man of his day". Yet, Richard
Prosser had virtually disappeared from the historical record until 2013, when a
short résumé of his eventful life and career was published online in the Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography.
He was the father of Richard Bissell Prosser
(1838-1918), known to industrial historians as the author of "Birmingham
Inventors and Inventions": published first in 1881 and, as a reprint, in
1970 it remains a valued text.
Thanks to the digitisation of much of the global
historical archive it has now been possible to piece together the extraordinary
stories that make up the life of Richard Prosser and the background to his
inventions. This website is dedicated to reviving his name and gaining Richard
Prosser the recognition he deserves.
2026 UPDATE
Our website has just passed the 10th anniversary of its launch and the number of visitors to its Home and other pages has been considerable - for which we are very grateful. As the long term continuity of the website cannot be guaranteed (we are both now elderly), we decided that a print version of an abridgement of the whole online biography should be made available. Susan undertook the abridgement in 2024 followed by copyediting in 2025. We are delighted to announce that the still comprehensive, but much abridged, version of the biography has recently been published by Heritage Hunter and is available for purchase on its website (link below) - including an inexpensive eBook version. The website will continue for the time being but the downloads of the unabridged instalments of the biography have now been removed.
Susan and John Darby (May 2026)
https://heritagehunter.co.uk/product/prosser-the-engineer/
