William Ford Robinson Stanley (2 February 1829 – 14 August 1909) was an English inventor with 78 patents filed in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He was an engineer who designed and made precision drawing and mathematical instruments, as well as surveying instruments and telescopes, manufactured by his company "William Ford Stanley and Co. Ltd."
Stanley was a skilled architect who designed and founded the UK's first Trades school, Stanley Technical Trades School (now Harris Academy South Norwood), as well as designing the Stanley Halls in South Norwood. Stanley designed and built his two homes. He was a noted philanthropist, who gave over £80,000 to education projects during the last 15 years of his life. When he died, most of his estate, valued at £59,000, was bequeathed to trade schools and students in south London, and one of his homes was used as a children's home after his death, in accordance with his will.
Stanley was a member of several professional bodies and societies, including the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Meteorological Society (elected 17 May 1876), the Royal Astronomical Society (elected 9 February 1894) and the British Astronomical Association (elected 31 October 1900). Besides these activities, he was a painter, musician and photographer, as well as an author of a variety of publications, including plays, books for children, and political treatises.
William Stanley was born on Monday 2 February 1829 in Islington, north London, one of nine children of John Stanley (a mechanic and builder) and his wife, Selina Hickman, and a direct descendant of Thomas Stanley, the 17th-century author of History of Philosophy. He was baptised on Wednesday 4 March 1829 at St Mary's Church, Islington. At the age of 10 Stanley started going regularly to a day school run by a Mr Peil until he was 12. From the age of 12 until he was 14, his maternal uncle William Ford Hickman paid for his education at a different school. Despite having limited formal learning, Stanley taught himself mathematics, mechanics, astronomy, music, French, geology, chemistry, architecture and theology. He attended lessons in technical drawing at the London Mechanics’ Institution (now called Birkbeck College), where he enrolled in 1843, attending engineering and phrenology lessons.
While living in Buntingford between 1849 and 1854, Stanley founded a literary society with a local chemist. They charged a subscription of five shillings a year. This was spent on books to form a library which grew to 300 volumes. They had many guest speakers, and on one occasion Lord Lytton, the author of The Last Days of Pompeii, came to address the Society on Pompeii. Being "intensely interested" in architecture, he submitted a design for a competition in The Builder magazine, but did not win.
In 1843, Stanley's father insisted that he leave school, at the age of 14, and help him in his trade. Stanley worked in his father's unsuccessful building business, becoming adept at working with metal and wood, later to obtain employment as a plumber/drainage contractor and joiner in London. He joined his father in 1849 at an engineering works at Whitechapel, working as a Pattern Maker's Improver where he invented the steel wheel spider-spokes. His father discouraged him from seeking a patent for this invention. For the following five years, he was in partnership with his maternal uncle (a Mr Warren), a builder, at Buntingford.
In 1854, Stanley fell in love with a girl in Buntingford, Bessie Sutton, but her family refused to let them marry. On 2 February 1857 (Stanley's 28th birthday), he married Eliza Ann Savory. They lived "above the shop", as they could afford only to rent four rooms in the same street as his shop. Five years later, the couple moved to Kentish Town, later moving to South Norwood in the mid-1860s. The couple adopted Stanley's niece Eliza Ann and another child, Maud Martin, whose father and brother drowned at sea.
Stanley acted upon a remark made by his father in 1854 about the high cost and poor quality of English drawing instruments compared to those imported from France and Switzerland, and started a business making mathematical and drawing instruments. At first he rented a shop and parlour at 3 Great Turnstile, Holborn, and began the business with £100 capital. He invented a new T-square which improved the standard one and became universally used. A cousin, Henry Robinson, joined him with a capital of £150, but died in 1859. Stanley stopped using the name Robinson and changed his signature as a consequence of being robbed of his cheque book during the early days of his business.
Stanley produced a 'Panoptic Stereoscope' in 1855, which was financially successful. Stereoscopes had sold for five shillings each – Stanley discovered a simpler method to make them, which enable him to sell them for one shilling. He was able to take an additional shops at 3–4 Great Turnstile and 286 High Holborn, as well as a skilled assistant. He did not patent the Panoptic, so it was soon copied around the world, but he had sold enough to provide the capital required to manufacture scientific instruments. In 1861 he invented a straight line dividing machine for which he won first prize in the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Stanley brought out the first catalogue of his products in 1864. By the fifth edition, Stanley was able to list important customers such as several government departments, the Army, the Royal Navy, railways at home and abroad, and London University.
From 1865, he worked on improving the elegance and stability of surveying instruments, especially the theodolite, whose construction he simplified. It had a rotating telescope for measuring horizontal and vertical angles and able to take sights on prominent objects at a distance. The component parts were reduced to fewer than half of the 226 used in the previous version, making it lighter, cheaper and more accurate.
Designing/building homes and factory
Stanley designed and set up a factory in 1875 or 1876 (called The Stanley Works, it was listed in the 1876 Croydon Directories as Stanley Mathematical Instruments) in Belgrave Road near Norwood Junction railway station, which produced a variety of instruments for civil, military, and mining engineers, prospectors and explorers, architects, meteorologists and artists, including various Technical drawing tools. The firm moved out of the factory in the 1920s, with the factory being occupied by a joinery firm until, following a fire, it was converted into residential use in 2000.
In South Norwood, Stanley designed and built his two homes Stanleybury, at 74–76 Albert Road and Cumberlow Lodge in Chalfont Road. Cumberlow Lodge was originally Pascall's large brickfield dating from the early part of the 19th century, and subsequently a dairy farm. When it closed the 6 acres (0.024 km2) of land was purchased in 1878 by Stanley. It was written into his will that the building should be used only as a children's home, and it was used for this purpose for over a century. In 1963, ownership was transferred to the London Borough of Lambeth and child murderer Mary Bell was housed there for a short time, until the local residents protested and she was removed to Wales. It was knocked down in 2006 before it could become a listed building.
By 1881, Stanley was employing 80 people and producing 3,000 technical items, as detailed in his catalogue. A few years later, in 1885, Stanley was given a gold medal at the International Inventors Exhibition at Wembley. The rapid growth of his business led to the opening of branches at Lincoln's Inn, at London Bridge and at South Norwood. His 1890 catalogue shows that the company were selling Magic Lanterns, with a variety of slides including such subjects as the siege of Paris (1870–1871), the travels of Dr Livingstone and Dante's Inferno, as well as improving stories for children such as Mother's Last Words and The Drunkard's Children, while in the catalogue for 1891, Stanley refers to the company having 17 branches, with over 130 workmen.