July 28th
Henry Sutton of Victoria, Australia, died.
Henry Sutton built a De-Dion style tricycle and rode it from Melbourne to Ballarat in 1897, the first long-distance ride in Australia. People lined the road all the way to Ballarat, cheering, and hundreds of bicycles escorted him on various stages of the journey.
A child prodigy who by the age of 14 had read every textbook on science in the Ballarat Mechanics' lnstitute, his associates included Nikola Tesla and Alexander Grahame Bell. Among his works are a television with which he planned to watch the Melbourne Cup from Ballarat. That was 1885, forty years before television was officially invented. He devised a colour photography process, invented a telephone, demonstrated a light globe 2 weeks after Edison (who used Sutton's ideas), and demonstrated a helicopter in 1870 based on ideas he had been working on since he was just 10 years old. He invented the rechargeable battery. And more. Much more. His genius knew no bounds.
Henry Sutton