Thomas Tannett Heaton
Thomas Tannett Heaton (1857-1923)
1923 Obituary [1]
THOMAS TANNETT HEATON was born at Southampton on 19th September 1857, and died at Iver Heath, Bucks, on 14th July 1923, in his sixty-sixth year.
After being educated at a private school he was apprenticed to Messrs. Smith, Beacock and Tannett, of Leeds, in 1873, with whom he remained until 1884, when he entered the drawing office of Messrs. Beyer, Peacock and Co., of Gorton, Manchester.
Five years later he was appointed works manager to Messrs. F. and J. Butterfield and Co., with which firm he remained until 1891, when he became Manager of the firm of Mr. Thomas Barraclough, London, consulting engineer and machinery exporter.
During this period he invented the bilged steel barrel, and became Manager and Secretary of the Steel Barrel Co., Ltd. of Uxbridge, in 1897. The invention of the bilged steel barrel consisted of a method of rolling flat steel sheets into the required shape of a bilged barrel, the ends of the sheet being then electrically welded together, the circular steel ends being also welded into position. On this subject Mr. Heaton contributed to this Institution two Papers on Welding; for that on "Electric Welding" in 1919, he was awarded the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal.
The works at Uxbridge were started in a very small way in 1897, but the business had increased to such a large extent that in 1905 a large works was built covering two acres, and these were further enlarged in 1921. He was appointed Managing Director in 1919, and retired in 1921, becoming a director and consulting engineer to the Company.
He was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex.
The loss of two sons on active service in 1915 affected his health severely, which was also undermined by the heavy work he undertook during the War, both in connexion with his business and the various Committees of which he was Chairman.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1913.