Old Photograph Henry Bell Monument Helensburgh Scotland

Old photograph of the Henry Bell obelisk monument on the esplanade by the seafront in Helensburgh, Scotland. Henry Bell, born 7 April 1767, died 14 March 1830, was a Scottish engineer known for introducing the first successful passenger steamboat service in Europe. He was the fifth son of Patrick Bell and Margaret Easton. He was educated at the local parish school and was apprenticed to a stonemason in 1780. Three years later, he was apprenticed to his uncle, a millwright. He later learned ship modelling in Borrowstounness and in 1787, pursued his interest in ship mechanics in Bell's Hill with the engineer Mr James Inglis. This was followed by several years in London, England. He returned to Scotland around 1790, and moved to Glasgow, where he worked as a house-carpenter. His ambition was to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and become a civil engineer, and to this end he joined the Glasgow corporation of wrights on 20 October 1797. In 1808, Bell moved to the modern town of Helensburgh, on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, where his wife undertook the superintendence of the public baths, and at the same time kept the principal inn. In 1812 he built his steam boat the Comet, with an engine of three horsepower. The Comet, named after a great comet which had been visible for several months in 1811, was built by John Wood and Company, at Port Glasgow which lies three miles to the east of Greenock, as adjacent towns on the south bank of the River Clyde as it widens into the Firth of Clyde. The Comet made a delivery voyage from Port Glasgow 21 miles upriver to the Broomielaw, Glasgow, then sailed from Glasgow the 24 miles down to Greenock. Bell died at Helensburgh in 1830, aged 62.



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