DRAWING: FREDERIC MONSONNEC		 THOMAS WILLIAM MOY (1822-1905)  AERONAUTICAL PIONEER

(from original research by Frederic Monsonnec)

 

INTRODUCTION

I have recently received information on a most fascinating man who features in Tottenham’s Hidden History. Surprisingly, I was contacted by man who lives in the west of France, in the city of Lorient. I suspect that, just like myself, most people will never have heard of Thomas William Moy and yet he features as one of Britain’s early pioneers in the field of both aeronautics and maritime engineering.

I am indebted to the help provided by Frederic Monsonnec and for his wonderful drawings.  The drawings were produced by Frederic and are based on his research about Thomas Moy’s life and inventions.   

 



  I was informed that in 1861 Thomas W Moy was living in Balthazar Road, Tottenham, that I was to discover was once the road on which the Beehive Pub had stood before the Stoneleigh South bombings in 1940. The road was totally destroyed and of course we now know the area as Holcombe Road.

 Thomas W Moy was listed as a Boarder, and his occupation shown as being an Engineer and Naval Architect. It is suspected that his wife and children were perhaps abroad in Europe at the time of the Census.  

At the later 1871 Census he was living at 3 Church Road Terrace in the All Hallows parish. He is now joined by his wife Henrietta, who is Prussian by birth, along with 8 of their children. For the purists amongst you, due to a transcription error, his name was digitised ’May’ instead of Moy. At this time, he gave his occupations as ‘Law Stationer’, although he still pursued his interest in aeronautics and maritime engineering.

Thomas Moy's introduction to aeronautics had been through ballooning but he soon became interested in heavier-than-air flight and performed some experiments with lifting and towing surfaces by towing a model craft on the Surrey canal in 1861.

Moy was one of the earliest members of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (later the Royal Aeronautical Society) and presented several papers at its meetings, including one in 1869 describing the soaring flight of albatrosses in a wind.


CHURCH ROAD -TOTTENHAM
(PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY - PETER THOMAS)



1871 CENSUS - THOMAS WILLIAM MOY & FAMILY -3 CHURCH ROAD TERRACE TOTTENHAM

 

 

In the context of his research into aeronautics, Thomas Moy had the idea of using water to study the aerodynamics of wings by observing the underwater eddies they created. This took place in 1861, at the time he was living in Tottenham. He used a two-foot-long model equipped with three broad wings to conduct his tests. The models were towed by a steam-launch on the Surrey canal and also the River Lea in Tottenham. During the tests he discovered there was less strain on the tow line as the speed increased and the model appeared to skim the water and raised the boat out of the water. It could be said that he had unintentionally invented the Hydrofoil. 
 



LOST OPPORTUNITIES

Although the perceived invention of the hydrofoil by Thomas Moy was involuntary, there were later developments by the Reverend Ramus, John Thornicroft or William Froude who developed "Polysphenics" boats (stepped hulls). The term means ‘The Possibility of a Greatly Increased Speed at Sea’.

 Furthermore, Thomas Moy understood the full potential of his discovery he first identified in 1861 and he continued to work in secret on the use of lift’. He worked for a further 4 years conducting tests with new models on the River Lea close to where he lived in Tottenham. Ironically this must have been a place that seems favourable to the pioneers of avionics since it was under the arches of the viaduct that spanned the River Lea, close to Tottenham Marshes, that Alliot Verdon Roe, who created the AVRO name, was to develop the first powered fight by an English aeroplane in 1909.

Despite his progress, Thomas Moy was determined to keep his works secret. He rarely mentioned his work with others and even destroyed some of his models. In addition, some of his tests were poorly documented. Consequently, many of his ideas remained in draft form. He did however file 14 patents and later in life he was to become a Patent Agent.

 It was in 1885, that a Frenchman of Russian origin and only 20 years old, Charles de Lambert, who launched a "real boat". Finally, if we can say so, his hydrofoil is an assembly of four barrels equipped with four concave wooden shovels, one under each barrel. The design closely resembled the work Moy had commenced some 24 years earlier.

 

His best-known work, the Aerial Steamer was constructed in 1874 and tested at the Crystal Palace in South London in July 1875, with limited success: aviation historians credit the machine with a brief flight, lifting off the ground by 6 inches. The aircraft never came close to fully flying because it was unable to reach the speed necessary for takeoff. The society described it as "one of the most determined attempts at solving the problem [of powered flight] which has yet taken place."

It had been announced in Spring 1875 as being the first unmanned airplane to fly from level ground, by Thomas Moy of England. The craft, a tandem wing with two 12ft six-blade pusher paddles was powered by a 3hp steam engine.

In 1879 Thomas Moy demonstrated the Military Kite to a meeting of the Aeronautical Society. This was a rubber-powered model, capable of taking off under its own power.


 

Around 1901 Moy was experimenting with an Ornithopter mounted on an elevated track at Farnborough. Kent. In March 1904 he gave a lecture to the Aeronautical Society on mechanical flight. After his lecture the president announced:

“We are now to have some photographs thrown on the screen descriptive of the gliding experiments of the brothers Wright ... Most of you know about the brothers Wright ... how they have been making some very good glides and how just lately they have applied a motor to their machine and made some very successful experiments in rising off the ground into the air”.

 


TH0MAS WILLIAM MOY - ORNITHOPTER - CRYSTAL PALACE 1901

WRIGHT BROTHERS - FIRST MANNED FLIGHT - KITTY HAWK -  DEC 1903

 

SCREW PROPULSION

Thomas Moy had also taken an interest in Screw Propulsion which was later to replace paddle wheels as used on paddle-steamers. It is also possible that he may have recognized the concept of flight skirting above the water. The Hovercraft as we know it was not fully developed until the late 1950’s


SCREW PROPULSION TEST - PADDLES vs. PROPELLORS

 

OTHER RESEARCH INTERESTS
Thomas Moy had been involved with many other experiments and, although not always at the forefront, he contributed towards research on other important topics that have stood the test of time and still feature heavily in aeronautical design and marine engineering today.
BULKHEADS WIND TUNNELS - FRANCIS HERBERT WENHAM




Thomas Moy was registered as a Naval Architect with the Institute of Naval Architects (Now RINA) and he regularly presented the results of his experiments and research. It was in 1873 that Thomas Moy presented the importance of equipping boats with numerous watertight bulkheads so, that in the event of fire or leaks, the volume or space between the bulkheads can be contained to fight fire or leaks and help prevent a more serious disaster. He emphasised that these bulkheads should extend right up to the upper decks. These proposals were presented almost 40 years before the tragic sinking of the ‘Titanic’ in 1912. It transpires that the ’Titanic’ was equipped with fifteen watertight bulkheads, some of which stopped before the Upper Deck, thus allowing these compartments to be flooded by water ingress at levels beneath the upper deck.     It was in 1874 that Thomas Moy carried out tests in the very first ‘Wind Tunnel’ that had been invented by F.H Wenham. The results exceeded Moy’s expectations and helped demonstrate that the Lift/Drag ratio is more advantageous at small angles of incidence as opposed to ratios of a steeper inclination.
 Several years later in 1878, the Aeronautical Society acknowledged the contribution made by Thomas W Moy and his assistant R.C Jay, and verified the accuracy of data they had obtained alongside Francis Wenham some six years earlier.

 

LONDON FOOTPRINTS OF THOMAS WILLIAM MOY
TOTTENHAM - RIVER LEA - CAMBERWELL - SURREY CANAL - CRYSTAL PALACE
MAP BY FREDERIC MONSONNEC
 
 

 

 OBITUARY: THE AERONAUTICAL JOURNAL - JANUARY 1905 

We regret to announce the death of Mr. Thomas Moy, one of the early adherents of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, who breathed his last on December 2nd, at the advanced age of 85. Mr. Thomas Moy was throughout his life, a keen student of aeronautics, especially of what related to the attempts to navigate the air by a body heavier than air. In the early reports of the Society his name appears frequently in the discussions. Only three years ago he experimented on a wing machine which ran on a wooden railway.

 

CONCLUSION
 It is amazing how this little-known man, who lived for a while in Tottenham, was peripherally involved with many aspects of flight and maritime engineering, yet his achievements were overshadowed as he was often pipped-at-the-post by others who were to receive worldwide recognition. His work on the Aerial Steamer was performed 25 years before the Wright Brothers made the first manned flight.
LATER RECOGNITION OF THOMAS WILLIAM MOY'S CONTRIBUTION TO AERONAUTICAL SCIENCE

A WHIRLWIND TRIP THROUGH PRE-PLANE FLIGHT - 06 January 2019

The 19th Century saw an explosion of experimentation. In 1875, English engineer Thomas Moy created his "aerial steamer", which some believed was the first steam-powered flying machine to successfully leave the ground. The early plane model used methylated spirits to fuel its steam engine and reportedly managed to lift six inches off the ground

 THE FIRST PRACTICAL FLYING MACHINE - 1968 AMERICAN AIRCRAFT MODELER - MAY 1968

The idea of mechanical power flight certainly was not new with the Wright Brothers. There had been many attempts made by others before the Wrights even thought of building their first gliders. 

Another Englishman, Thomas Moy and his assistant, R. E. Shill built their full-scale "aerial steamer" in 1875, a contraption powered by a three-horsepower steam engine and twin, six-bladed, windmill-like fans, and resting on what was probably the first tricycle landing gear. Tested at Crystal Palace, London, Moy's crude craft lifted its 120 pounds a few inches off a board platform, but that was the end of it.

 

NOTE: This is just an Overview of Thomas Moy's achievements - We are indebted to Frederic Monsonnec who has shared with us his extensive research notes that have been gained over several years. In addition he has given his permission for us to use his splendid drawings to help illustrate many of Thomas Moy's inventions and discoveries.  

Article prepared by Alan Swain Feb 2023 - All research notes and illustrations by Frederic Monsonnec