Henrietta Vansittart

Henrietta Vansittart, née Lowe (1833 – 8 February 1883) was an English engineer and inventor, awarded a patent for a screw propeller called the Lowe-Vansittart propeller. She was self-trained and she is considered to be one of the first female engineers, with her concentration being on ship propulsion.

Early life Henrietta Vansittart, born Henrietta Lowe, was born in Ewell, Surrey in 1833. She was one of eight children born to James and Marie Lowe, née Barnes. Her father James Lowe was a blacksmith-inventory working on ship propulsion and applying for related patents using his wife's money and connections. On 23 March 1838, Vansittart's father James Lowe took out a patent for a new screw propeller but made no significant financial gain from his contributions due to competition in infringement battles. By the 1850, James Lowe nearly ran his family into bankruptcy, despite the adoption of his general scheme for submerged propellers. and set up the marital home in Clarges Street, Mayfair.

Engineering work and career There is no documentation on her education: Vansittart was proclaimed a self-trained engineer. As was common for many of the women in engineering in the 19th and early 20th century, Vansittart was introduced to engineering through a family connection, which in her case was her father, James Lowe. The Lowe propeller had been fixed to many British warships by this time, but James Lowe never saw any financial reward due to infringement battles. When Vansittart's father died in 1866, after being run over by a carriage, she began working and experimenting in earnest, perhaps looking for the recognition her father never had in his lifetime.

In 1868, Vansittart was awarded a patent (British Patent no 2877), for an improvement on her father's work – what she called the Lowe-Vansittart propeller. Her argument for the propeller was that it allowed ships to move faster and smoother, while using less fuel.

The Lowe-Vansittart Propeller was awarded a first-class diploma at the International Exhibition in Kensington in 1871, a first class diploma and medal at the 1872 Dublin, 1875 Paris, 1876 Belgian, 1879 Sydney Exhibition, 1880 Melbourne and 1881 Adelaide Exhibitions, as well as other awards at the Royal Cornwall and Naples Maritime Exhibitions. A scale model of the Lowe-Vansittart propeller is held in the Science Museum Group's collections, which she donated to the museum in 1874.

Vansittart never had children, and her husband died in 1902.