William Samuel Henson

Lore & Background

Henson was born in Nottingham, England on 3 May 1812. He was involved in lace-making in Chard and obtained a patent on improved lace-making machines in 1835. Starting around 1838, he became interested in aviation. In April 1841 he patented an improved lightweight steam engine, and with fellow lacemaking-engineer John Stringfellow around 1842 he designed a large passenger-carrying steam-powered monoplane with a wing span of 150 feet, named the 'Henson Aerial Steam Carriage'. He received a patent on it in 1843 in his name alone.

Henson, Stringfellow, Frederick Marriott, and D.E. Colombine incorporated as the Aerial Transit Company in 1843 in England, aiming to raise money to construct the flying machine. Henson built a scale model that made one tentative steam-powered 'hop' off its guide wire. Attempts to fly the small model and a larger model with a 20-foot wing span between 1844 and 1847 were unsuccessful. Henson grew discouraged, married, and emigrated in 1849 to the United States, settling in Newark, New Jersey. He never did further aviation research in the US, working instead as a machinist, civil engineer, and inventor. He had 7 children, only 4 of whom lived to adulthood. He remained in the US for the rest of his life, except for a short period between 1864 and 1866 when he lived in Peru. He died on 22 March 1888 in Newark, New Jersey, and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Orange, New Jersey.

Reader's Guide

William Samuel Henson's significance lies in his pioneering design of the Henson Aerial Steam Carriage, one of the first detailed plans for a powered, passenger-carrying aircraft. Though never built at full scale, the design and its promotional prints—commissioned by publicist Frederick Marriott depicting the carriage over the pyramids of Egypt, India, and London—captured public imagination and influenced later aviation efforts. Henson's collaboration with John Stringfellow and their Aerial Transit Company represented an early attempt to commercialize flight. Beyond aviation, Henson's invention of the T-shaped safety razor in 1847 was a major step toward the modern razor, later combined with disposable blades by Gillette in 1901. He also patented inventions in lace-making, steam engines, ice-making, fabric waterproofing, and a low-recoil breech-loading cannon design. His 1871 pamphlet on astronomy proposed that the Solar System formed from cold dust and gas. Henson and Stringfellow are frequently mentioned in aviation history books, and the Royal Aeronautical Society holds annual 'Henson-Stringfellow' lectures. A glacier in Antarctica, Henson Glacier, is named after him due to his work in aviation.

Did You Know?

• Henson patented a T-shaped straight razor in 1847, not a safety razor.
• Henson and Stringfellow were referred to in the 1965 film The Flight of the Phoenix.