Hold the phone: What drew Alexander Graham Bell to Ballarat?

A Ballarat scientist was so renowned he was compared to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and earned the admiration of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

You won’t find Henry Sutton’s image on any bank note, even though his astounding inventions of the 1800s have echoed through to modern times.

A humble Ballarat scientist fascinated with electricity, Sutton’s peers put him on par with heavyweights Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

He would later be compared to da Vinci for his fertile mind and its capacity to throw up the most wonderful designs.

His inventions were incredible and numerous, including technology that allowed photographs to be printed in newspapers and an electric battery so amazing for its time that it was declared by top scientists to be impossible.

Henry Sutton was likened to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Picture: State Library of Victoria

As far back as the 1890s he was transmitting photographic images by facsimile.

Sutton’s work was so influential, it even lured the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, to Ballarat in 1910.

In the words of a historian at the time, “In the realm of science, Ballarat has become of worldwide fame through the inventions of Mr Henry Sutton”.

The story of Victoria’s own genius inventor is as often astonishing as it is often forgotten.

THE TALENTED ONE

From his youth, Henry Sutton was a prodigy.

Born in a tent on the Ballarat goldfields with 10 brothers and sisters, it was believed he had read every book in the library at the local Mechanics’ lnstitute by the age of just 14.

In his teenage years, Sutton was rumoured to have made a small mechanical flying machine resembling clockwork and inspired by the wing movements of insects.

He studied at the Ballarat School of Mines where he became a lecturer in his 20s and where he undertook pioneering work on energy-storing batteries in the 1880s.

The School of Mines in Ballarat where Henry Sutton studied and lectured in the 1880s. Picture: State Library of Victoria

His success led to invitations to be a member of various international electrical societies.

At 36 he travelled to London to pursue the patenting of a new printing technology he called Suttontype, which allowed photographs to be replicated and printed in publications, such as newspapers.

This was perhaps his first major failure. The technology was not well received and, despite being introduced to famous Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla in London, Sutton returned to Australia soon afterwards.

Henry Sutton with one of his inventions, and Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla whom Sutton met in London.

MAGNIFICENT MACHINES

Undeterred, Sutton embarked on a life’s work that brought forth numerous inventions and scientific discoveries.

His design of a vacuum pump was so effective it was adopted by Thomas Edison’s company to aid in the manufacture of light bulbs.

Inspired by Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone, Sutton came up with dozens of his own telephone designs and improvements.

He rigged up stores and warehouses owned by his family with an internal telephone line, years before telephones were available to the public in Australia.

Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who visited Sutton in Ballarat, and an early telephone design.

Some of his inventions, having failed to commercialise, never saw the light of day.

In the 1880s Sutton had developed a process for colour photography.

In the 1890s he could transmit photographs via facsimile, a process he had discussed and demonstrated with Tesla during his time in the UK, and building on technology developed as early as 1843.

He invented what might have been the first front-wheel drive automobile in the world, and was a founding member of the Automobile Club of Victoria in 1903.

Countless other inventions were designed but never built.

In the 1880s, desiring to see the Melbourne Cup from Ballarat, Sutton draw up designs for a working television. It is unknown if the invention would ever have functioned.

Early 1800s facsimile technology built upon by Henry Sutton, and the automobile he designed on display in Ballarat. Automobile image: Peterdownunder

When Sutton’s mother, who had schooled him until the age of 10, was incapacitated by a stroke, Sutton invented a new hydraulic lift mechanism to help her up stairs.

The technology was so appealing it was exported for use in elevators in the US.

According to a 2018 biography of Sutton, his work was so renowned it attracted the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, to Ballarat in 1910.

The pair are said to have spent time discussing their various discoveries and experiments.

But Sutton’s streak of brilliance was cut short by his sudden death in July 1912 at his Malvern home at the age of 56.

He was interred in a modest grave at Brighton Cemetery where his monument still stands.

Among things named after Sutton is a road in Canberra and an annual oration at the Telecommunications Association.

But the great achievements of Sutton’s life and the legacy of his incredible inventions often fall through the cracks of Australian history.

Despite his extraordinary work, and the way his discoveries have influenced modern life, Sutton’s name is seldom uttered in schools and has slipped from public consciousness.

Originally published as Hold the phone: What drew Alexander Graham Bell to Ballarat?