Editing George Cayley (section)

==General engineering projects==
Cayley, from [[Brompton, Scarborough|Brompton-by-Sawdon]], near [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]] in [[Yorkshire]], inherited Brompton Hall and [[Wydale Hall]] and other estates on the death of his father, the 5th baronet.  Captured by the optimism of the times, he engaged in a wide variety of [[engineering]] projects.  Among the many things that he developed are self-righting [[Lifeboat (rescue)|lifeboat]]s, [[Wire wheels|tension-spoke wheel]]s,
<ref>In his notebook, dated 19 March 1808, Cayley proposed that in order to produce "the lightest possible wheel for aerial navigation cars," one should "do away with wooden spokes altogether and refer the whole firmness of the wheel to the strength of the rim only, by the intervention of tight strong cording … "  See:  J.A.D. Ackroyd (2011) [http://aerosociety.com/Assets/Docs/Publications/The%20Journal%20of%20Aeronautical%20History/2011-06Cayley-Ackroyd2.pdf "Sir George Cayley:  The invention of the aeroplane near Scarborough at the time of Trafalgar,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226050808/http://aerosociety.com/Assets/Docs/Publications/The%20Journal%20of%20Aeronautical%20History/2011-06Cayley-Ackroyd2.pdf |date=26 December 2013 }} ''Journal of Aeronautical History'' [Internet publication], paper no. 6, pages 130–181.  Cayley's tension-spoke wheel appears on page 152, "3.7  The Tension  Wheel, 1808".</ref> the "Universal Railway" (his term for [[caterpillar track|caterpillar tractors]]),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_roAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA225 "Sir George Cayley's patent universal railway,"] ''Mechanics' Magazine'', '''5''' (127) :  225–227 (28 January 1826).</ref> automatic signals for railway crossings,<ref>George Cayley (13 February 1841) [https://books.google.com/books?id=E9tQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129 "Essay on the means of promoting safety in railway carriages,"] ''Mechanics' Magazine'', '''34''' (914) :  129–133.  See also letters in reply on pages 180–181.</ref> [[seat belt]]s, small scale [[helicopter]]s, and a kind of prototypical [[internal combustion engine]] fuelled by [[gunpowder]] ([[Gunpowder engine]]).  He suggested that a more practical engine might be made using gaseous vapours rather than gunpowder, thus foreseeing the modern internal combustion engine.<ref>Raleigh, W; ''The War in the Air, Vol. 1'', Clarendon 1922.</ref> He also contributed in the fields of [[prosthetic]]s, [[hot air engine|air engines]], [[electricity]], [[theatre]] [[architecture]], [[ballistics]], [[optics]] and [[land reclamation]], and held the belief that these advancements should be freely available.<ref name="ackroyd">Ackroyd, J.A.D. [http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/56/2/167.full.pdf Sir George Cayley, the father of Aeronautics] ''Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond. 56 (2), 167–181'' (2002). Retrieved: 29 May 2010.</ref><!--page170-->

According to the [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]], George Cayley was the inventor of the [[hot air engine]] in 1807: "The first successfully working hot air engine was Cayley's, in which much ingenuity was displayed in overcoming practical difficulties arising from the high working temperature."<ref name="haecayley1807">{{cite web|url=http://hotairengines.org/furnace-air-engine/cayley-1807|title=Cayley's 1807 Hot Air Engine|work=hotairengines.org}}</ref> His second hot air engine of 1837 was a forerunner of the [[internal combustion engine]]: "In 1837, Sir George Cayley, Bart., Assoc. Inst. C.E., applied the products of combustion from closed furnaces, so that they should act directly upon a piston in a cylinder. Plate No. 9 represents a pair of engines upon this principle, together equal to 8 HP, when the piston travels at the rate of 220 feet per minute."<ref name="haecayley1837">{{cite web|url=http://hotairengines.org/furnace-air-engine/cayley-1837|title=Cayley's 1837 Hot Air Engine|work=hotairengines.org}}</ref>