12 Facts About Charles Sylvester

Charles Sylvester was a chemist and inventor born in Sheffield, in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Charles Sylvester worked on galvanization, public building heating and sanitation, and railroad friction amongst other things.

In 1807, Charles Sylvester moved to Derby where he worked with William Strutt who was building Derby's Royal Infirmary.

Charles Sylvester was instrumental in documenting a novel heating system for the new hospital.

The book is dedicated to Strutt, and Charles Sylvester is careful to assign many of the inventions to Strutt, and to note that the heating designs installed in the new infirmary had already been tried on Strutt and his friends' houses.

Charles Sylvester documented the new ways of heating hospitals that were included in the design, and the healthier features such as self-cleaning and air-refreshing toilets.

Charles Sylvester described the infirmary's features including its fireproof construction, laundry and novel heating that allowed the patients to breathe fresh heated air whilst old air was channeled up to a glass and iron dome at the centre.

Charles Sylvester described the advances that Strutt had made and this was successful in three ways.

Charles Sylvester was able to take the new ideas for heating and apply them in numerous other building projects.

Charles Sylvester with Strutt was a member of Erasmus Darwin's Derby Philosophical Society.

Charles Sylvester was commissioned by the Chairman of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to advise them on the subject of the railroad and he wrote a Report on rail-roads and locomotive engines.

Charles Sylvester observed that greater power will deliver more speed on a railroad, but on the canal the power required to increase speed varies by the square of the velocity.