John Appold

Who was John Appold?

John George Appold, FRS was a British fur dyer and engineer. Appold was the son of a fur-skin dyer, established in Finsbury. Succeeding to his father's business at the age of twenty-two, he introduced into it so many scientific improvements that he soon amassed a considerable fortune and was able to devote his time and attention to his favourite mechanical pursuits. His inventions, though numerous and evincing very great ingenuity, were not of the very highest class.

Perhaps the most important of them was his centrifugal pump. This procured him a 'council medal' at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851, and it is highly commended in the report of the juries on that exhibition. Appold's pump with curved blades showed an efficiency of 68%, more than three times better than any of the other pumps present. It should be mentioned that the medal was for the special form of pump, the principle having been known and acted upon many years before.

Another invention of considerable value was a break, employed in laying deep-sea telegraph cables. This apparatus was used in laying the first Transatlantic cable in 1857. Appold was very liberal in communicating his ideas to others.