Walter Taylor

Walter Taylor (1734–1803) of Southampton, supplied wooden rigging blocks and ship's pumps to the Royal Navy, via technological innovations which were a significant step forward in the Industrial Revolution. Whilst serving at sea his father had observed the problems caused by these blocks, which were traditionally handmade.

On acquiring the blockmaking business, at Messer's death in 1754, Taylor and his father developed hand-powered sawing, boring and turning machinery to mass-produce the rigging blocks, repeatedly and to an exact specification. The navy also decided to order their blocks from Taylor's manufactory rather than setting up their own. In a field trial in 1762 Captain Bentinck had his ship, HMS Centaur, equipped with Taylor's blocks of half the usual size. These proved fully effective, cheaper and reduced the weight on the masts alone by 26cwt. With the support of the Navy Board Taylor managed to overcome bankruptcy brought on by his father's expenses in developing the machinery.

Following a fire, at Portsmouth Dockyard in July 1770, which destroyed most of the navy's stock of blocks, Taylor received an order to replace them as quickly as possible and it was agreed to replace them with the smaller blocks tested by Bentinck.

Taylor subsequently established a sawmill on a stream that runs through what is now Mayfield Park in Southampton. and several non-nautical applications.

Taylor was sole supplier of blocks to the Royal Navy from 1759,