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Was born near Glasgow,
Scotland, in 1816. He came to Australia in 1837 in charge of materials
sent out by Tegg, a Cheapside bookseller, to his son at Sydney. This was
used to produce the Literary News to which Harrison became a
contributor. He went to Melbourne and worked for Fawkner (q.v.) on the
Port Phillip Patriot, and started the Geelong Advertiser in
1840. He managed and edited this paper until the early sixties when he
sold it. He had already developed an interest in refrigeration and in 1850
acquired land on the Barwon and erected an ice factory. In 1851 Glasgow
and Company, brewers of Bendigo, installed a refrigerator of the Harrison
type, which was the world's pioneer of such machines. In March 1856
Harrison secured a patent in England for the "production of cold by
evaporation of volatile liquids in vacuo" and in September 1857 patented
an apparatus for the same purpose. He was in England in this year, in
touch with distinguished scientists like Faraday and Tyndall, and
arranging for the manufacture of refrigerating machines. Returning to
Victoria he was elected to the legislative assembly for Geelong in 1859
and sat in two parliaments. He started another paper, the Geelong
Register, but sold it a year or two later, and subsequently was on the
staff of the Australasian and editor of the Age at
Melbourne. In 1873 he exhibited his refrigerating machine at Melbourne,
and proved that mutton, beef, poultry and fish, could be preserved for
long periods. In July of that year he sent a large shipment of frozen meat
to England, but technical defects in the freezing chamber led to the meat
going bad, and Harrison, who must have put much money into his inventions,
was practically ruined. He went to England and lived there for about 19
years, spending his time in scientific study and journalism; he never
entirely severed his connexion with the Age. He returned to Geelong
early in 1893 bringing his family with him and hoping that one of his
sons, who was suffering from consumption, might benefit from the change of
climate. The young man, however, died and was followed by his father
shortly afterwards on 3 September 1893. Harrison was married three times
and left a widow and children.
Like other inventors who
have done good work Harrison died a poor man. A stone was placed over his
grave in the Geelong cemetery with the quotation "one soweth--another
reapeth" engraved on it. He was an able journalist and his inventions had
great value. The authors of A History of the Frozen Meat Trade are
satisfied that except for one invention, which apparently was never
practically tried out, Harrison was years ahead of all his rivals. |
