23 Facts About Lawrence Hargrave

Lawrence Hargrave, MRAeS, was an Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer.

Lawrence Hargrave was perhaps best known for inventing the box kite, which was quickly adopted by other aircraft designers and subsequently formed the aerodynamic basis of early biplanes.

Lawrence Hargrave immigrated to Australia at fifteen years of age with his family, arriving in Sydney on 5 November 1865 on the La Hogue.

Lawrence Hargrave accepted a place on the Ellesmere and circumnavigated Australia.

Lawrence Hargrave later found the experience of great use in constructing his models and his theories.

In 1872, as an engineer, Hargrave sailed on the Maria on a voyage to New Guinea but the ship was wrecked.

Lawrence Hargrave returned to Sydney, joined the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1877, and in 1878 became an assistant astronomical observer at Sydney Observatory.

Lawrence Hargrave held this position for about five years, retired in 1883 with a moderate competency, and gave the rest of his life to research work.

Lawrence Hargrave had been interested in experiments of all kinds from an early age, particularly those with aircraft.

When his father died in 1885, and Lawrence Hargrave came into his inheritance, he resigned from the observatory to concentrate on full-time research and for a time gave particular attention to the flight of birds.

Lawrence Hargrave chose to live and experiment with his flying machines in Stanwell Park, a place which offers excellent wind and hang conditions and nowadays is the most famous hang gliding and paragliding venue in Australia.

Lawrence Hargrave needed the money but he was a passionate believer in scientific communication as a key to furthering progress.

Lawrence Hargrave made endless experiments and numerous models, and communicated his conclusions in a series of papers to the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Lawrence Hargrave carried an anemometer and clinometer aloft to measure wind speed and the angle of the kite line.

Lawrence Hargrave had not confined himself to the problem of constructing a heavier-than-air machine that would fly, for he had given much time to the means of propulsion.

Lawrence Hargrave's work inspired Alexander Graham Bell to begin his own experiments with a series of tetrahedral kite designs.

Lawrence Hargrave's models were offered to the premier of New South Wales as a gift to the state, and it is generally incorrectly stated that the offer was not accepted.

Lawrence Hargrave conducted experiments with a hydroplane, the application of the gyroscopic principle to a "one-wheeled car", and with 'wave propelled vessels'.

Hargrave's only son Geoffrey was killed at the Battle of Gallipoli in May 1915 during World War I Hargrave was operated on for appendicitis but suffered peritonitis afterwards and died in July 1915.

Lawrence Hargrave was interred in Waverley Cemetery on the cliffs overlooking the open ocean.

Lawrence Hargrave was an excellent experimenter and his models were well crafted.

Lawrence Hargrave had the optimism that is essential for an inventor, and the perseverance that will not allow itself to be damped by failures.

An honourable exception was Professor Richard Threlfall who, in his presidential address to the Royal Society of New South Wales in May 1895, spoke of his "strong conviction of the importance of the work which Mr Lawrence Hargrave has done towards solving the problem of artificial flight".