---
title: "Henry Sutton (inventor)"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Sutton_(inventor)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:07:15.826057+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Facsimile ===
Sutton used his telephane system to demonstrate facsimile transmission with the help of Nicola Tesla in England. An account of his invention was later published in Washington in 1896, noting that the first patents for long-distance transmission of images dated back to 1867.

=== Lifts ===
For the benefit of his mother, who had been paralyzed by a stroke, a new hydraulic lift had been installed in the newly built Suttons Music Emporium. As Ballarat's low water pressure and lack of an efficient drainage system were incompatible, Sutton designed and built a new hydraulic mechanism to drive the lift. This design was subsequently used by the Austral Otis company and exported for use in America.

=== Automotive ===

"Henry Sutton can be classed as an automobile inventor and designer rather than a manufacturer whose achievements were considerable and internationally recognized. As an inventor he produced a number of automobiles of his own design in an evolutionary process (somewhere between six and eight)." In 1897, a tricycle fitted with a Sutton designed and built engine was driven from Melbourne to Ballarat. Despite atrocious road conditions the trip was completed in eleven and a half hours, and the vehicle arrived in Ballarat to a crowd of thousands.
From 1898 Sutton held patents for improvements in combustion engine carburettors; and, by 1899, he had built and driven the Sutton Autocar, one of the first motor cars in Australia.

== Automobile Club of Victoria ==
Sutton was a founding member of the Automobile Club of Victoria; and, at its inaugural meeting, on 10 December 1903, Sutton's proposed "objects of the club" were unanimously accepted by all present:

"that the objects of the club should be the promotion of a social organisation and club, composed mainly of persons owning self-propelled vehicles or motor cycles; to afford a means of recording the experiences of members and others using motor cars and motor cycles; to promote investigation in their development; to co-operate in securing rational legislation and the formation of proper rules and regulations governing the use of motor cars and motor cycles in cities, towns and country districts; to maintain the lawful rights and privileges and protect the interests of owners and users of all forms of self-propelled vehicles whenever and wherever such interests, rights and privileges are menaced; to promote and encourage the improvement, construction and maintenance of roads and highways and the development generally in this State of motoring, and to maintain a club to be devoted to the interests and advancement of automobilism."

== Legacy ==

=== Henry Sutton Circuit ===
On 20 January 2004, several streets in the new Canberra suburb of Dunlop were named after "inventors, inventions, and artists"; and one of these new streets was called "Henry Sutton Circuit".

=== The Henry Sutton Oration ===
In 2014, the Telecommunications Association (formerly known as the Telecommunications Society of Australia, which had its origins in the Telegraph Electrical Society, founded in Melbourne in 1874), inaugurated its annual Henry Sutton Oration.

=== Poetry ===
Les Murray referred to Sutton and television in his 1990 poem "The Tube".

=== The Science Show ===
Science journalist Robyn Williams has featured Sutton in episodes of his long-running radio program.

== Notes ==

== References ==

=== Footnotes ===

=== Family footnotes ===

=== Patents ===

== External links ==
Sutton, allcarindex.com.
Cansdale, Dominic, "Henry Sutton pioneered modern batteries and television so why have we forgotten 'Australia's Edison'?", ABC Ballarat, 4 December 2018.
The legacy of Henry Sutton Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine by Mike Smyth, Electronics Online
Patent records held in Canberra – Fact sheet 265, National Archives of Australia.
Henry Sutton at Find a Grave
Henry Sutton Familysearch