page_title: Henrietta Vansittart
section_title: Engineering work and career
hierarchical_section_title: Henrietta Vansittart / Engineering work and career
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of naval engineer Henrietta Vansittart
context_page_description: Henrietta Vansittart, née Lowe was an English engineer and inventor, awarded a patent for a screw propellor called the Lowe-Vansittart propellor. She was self-trained and she is considered to be one of the first female engineers, with her concentration being on ship propulsion.
context_section_description: There is no documentation on her education: Vansittart was proclaimed a self-trained engineer. As was common for many of the women in engineering in the 19th and early 20th century, Vansittart was introduced to engineering through a family connection, which in her case was her father, James Lowe. 
  Shortly after her marriage, Vansittart began to study her father's work on ship propulsion. She had accompanied her father on HMS Bullfinch to test out a new version of his screw propeller, which began her interest, in 1857. The Lowe propeller had been fixed to many British warships by this time, but James Lowe never saw any financial reward due to infringement battles. When Vansittart's father died in 1866, after being run over by a carriage, she began working and experimenting in earnest, perhaps looking for the recognition her father never had in his lifetime.
  In 1868, Vansittart was awarded a patent (British Patent no 2877), for an improvement on her father's work - what she called the Lowe-Vansittart propeller. Her argument for the propeller was that it allowed ships to move faster and smoother, while using less fuel. Her work went on to be fitted on many ships, including HMS Druid, the Scandinavian, and the SS Lusitania.  In addition, she also took out an American patent (US Patent 89712 granted in 1869), which was on the construction of screw propellers. The Lowe-Vansittart Propeller was awarded a first-class diploma at the International Exhibition in Kensington in 1871, a first class diploma and medal at the 1872 Dublin, 1875 Paris, 1876 Belgian, 1879 Sydney Exhibition, 1880 Melbourne and 1881 Adelaide Exhibitions, as well as other awards at the Royal Cornwall and Naples Maritime Exhibitions.
  For her work on ship propulsion, Vansittart won many awards, was mentioned by name in various newspapers, such as The Times and her invention took her to several exhibitions all over the world.
  In 1876, Vansittart was the first female to write, read, and illustrate her own diagrams and drawings for a scientific article presented at Association of Foreman Engineers and Draughtsmen. A pamphlet written by Vansittart, based on this paper, was published in 1882, entitled The History of the Lowe Vansittart Propeller and a short extract of the life of the late Mr James Lowe, the successful inventor of screw ships from their first introduction. This pamphlet indicates her dedication to the work and legacy of her father, as well as illustrating her technical knowledge of the Lowe Vansittart propeller.
caption: Article by Henrietta Vansittart, published in 1882
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