View source for Bill Hamilton (engineer)

{{Short description|New Zealand engineer (1899–1978)}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sir William Hamilton
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE|size=100%}}
| birth_name         = Charles William Feilden Hamilton
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1899|07|26|df=y}}
| birth_place        = Ashwick Station, [[Fairlie, New Zealand|Fairlie]], New Zealand
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1978|03|30|1899|07|26|df=y}}
| death_place        = Fairlie, New Zealand
| education          = Waihi Preparatory School<br/>[[Christ's College, Christchurch|Christ's College]]
| occupation         = 
| spouse             = 
| other_names        = Bill Hamilton
| parents            = William Feilden Hamilton <br />Cora Blakeney (née Cannon)
}}

'''Sir Charles William Feilden Hamilton''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE}} (26 July 1899 – 30 March 1978) was a New Zealand engineer who developed the modern [[jetboat]], and founded the water jet manufacturing company, CWF Hamilton Ltd.

Hamilton never claimed to have invented the jet boat. He once said "I do not claim to have invented marine jet propulsion. The honour belongs to a gentleman named [[Archimedes]], who lived some years ago."  What he did was refine the design enough to produce the first useful modern jet boat.

==Early life==
Hamilton was born at Ashwick Station near [[Fairlie, New Zealand]].<ref name="DNZB">{{DNZB|title=Hamilton, Charles William Feilden|first= Les|last= Bloxham|id=4h10|accessdate=4 June 2013}}</ref>

Hamilton survived an airplane accident returning to [[Rongotai Airport]] (Wellington) in poor conditions on 19 February 1936. The collision with the [[anemometer]] mast took the starboard wing off the fastest 'plane in the country, the [[Miles Falcon Six]] he was travelling in, and pilot [[Malcolm C. McGregor|Malcolm "Mac" McGregor]] died in hospital.<ref>[https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19360220.2.117.1 ''The Evening Post''] 20 February 1936. Pilot and Union Airways director, [[Malcolm C. McGregor|Squadron-Leader McGregor]], dies later; only passenger, C W F Hamilton, escapes serious injury</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=King|first=John|title=Aviation Accidents and Disasters|publisher=Grantham House|location=Wellington|year=1995|series=New Zealand Tragedies|pages=145–147|isbn=1-86934-042-6}}</ref>

At the age of 21 he bought the 'Irishman Creek' sheep station in [[South Canterbury]]. After a trip to England became fascinated with motor cars and raced a [[Bentley]]. He decided to develop his own heavy machinery. He built a workshop, developed an excavator with an earth scoop and built a dam to supply water for a hydroelectric plant to supply power for domestic use and for his engineering projects, and started a manufacturing business.<ref>[http://www.intrepidmagazine.co.nz/articles/4/billhamilton/ "The Shed at Irishman's Creek"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914151056/http://www.intrepidmagazine.co.nz/articles/4/billhamilton/ |date=September 14, 2010 }}, Brad Mills</ref>

==Ski tows==
In 1947 tourism pioneer [[Henry Rodolph Wigley|Harry Wigley]] of Mount Cook airline fame commissioned him to design and build the first tow for the [[Coronet Peak Ski Field]] near [[Queenstown, New Zealand|Queenstown]] New Zealand's first [[List of ski areas and resorts in New Zealand|commercial skifield]].<ref>[http://www.historic.org.nz/en/Publications/HeritageNZMagazine/HeritageNz2004/HNZ04-SkiIndustry.aspx "Ski Industry Based on Pioneer Spirit"], [[NZ Historic Places Trust]]</ref> In 1949 he completed a similar tow at [[Mount Ruapehu]].<ref>[http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/ski-runners/ "Ski runners on Mt Ruapehu"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128013616/http://mtruapehu.com/winter/ski-runners/ |date=2010-11-28 }}, www.mtruapehu.com</ref> Within a few years he had perfected the ''Hamilton Model B'' design that is still in use for [[Surface lift#Rope tow|nutcracker ski tows]] in New Zealand and Australia.<ref>[https://www.australianmountains.com/australianskilifts/#2 "Australian ski lift directory: 2.3 Surface lifts"]</ref>

==Christchurch==
The main manufacturing business, which had started in the workshop at Irishman Creek in 1939, moved to [[Christchurch]] in 1948. From there the company supplied heavy machinery, in particular to the [[Waitaki River]] [[hydroelectric]] projects.<ref>[http://www.nzine.co.nz/features/hamilton.html "Business Of The Month"], nzine.com</ref>

==Jet boats==
{{main|jetboat}}
In the 1950s Hamilton set out to try to build a boat that could navigate the shallow fast flowing rivers where he lived.  The rivers were too shallow for propeller driven boats to navigate as the propeller would hit the river bottom.

He investigated the American Hanley Hydro-Jet, a model which drew in water and fired it out through a steerable nozzle underneath the boat. Even when further adapted it did not work well. An employee suggested moving the nozzle to just above the waterline.

When he took one of his early demonstration jet boats to the United States, the media scoffed when he said he planned to take it up the [[Colorado River (U.S.)|Colorado River]], but in 1960 three Hamilton jet boats, the Kiwi, Wee Red and Dock, became the first and only boats to travel up through the [[Grand Canyon]].<ref>{{YouTube|A7OMXsq25AU|Film of the Colorado River trip}}</ref>  The boats also went down river through the Grand Canyon to cache petrol just prior to the uprun. The Grand Canyon trip planning, logistics for 2,500 gallons of fuel, and fuel placement was coordinated by famous Grand Canyon river runner [[Otis R. Marston|Otis "Dock" Marston]].<ref>Martin, Thomas C., (2012). "Big Water Little Boats: Moulty Fulmer and the First Grand Canyon Dory on the Last of the Wild Colorado River". Flagstaff, Arizona: Vishnu Temple Press, pg. 189, {{ISBN|978-0-9795055-6-0}}</ref>

==CWF Hamilton & Co Ltd==
The engineering company Hamilton founded, CWF Hamilton & Co Ltd, is now the holding company for two companies, Hamilton Jet and Hamilton Marine, that are focused on the production of waterjet propulsion systems. The company has divested itself of its other engineering activities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hamiltonjet.com/global/75-years-cwf-hamilton |title=75 years of innovation |publisher=Hamilton Jet |accessdate=16 July 2018}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
In the [[1961 New Year Honours (New Zealand)|1961 New Year Honours]], Hamilton was appointed an [[Order of the British Empire|Officer of the Order of the British Empire]], for services to engineering.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=42233 |date=31 December 1960 |page=8928 |supp=3 <!--nz (New Zealand) suppliment--> |title=Honours granted on the advice of New Zealand ministers}}</ref> In the [[1974 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)|1974 Queen's Birthday Honours]], he was appointed a [[Knight Bachelor]], for services to manufacturing.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46312 |date=15 June 1974 |page=6829 |supp=3}}</ref>

In 2004, Hamilton was posthumously inducted into the [[New Zealand Business Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/past-laureates/ |title=Past laureates |website=Business Hall of Fame |access-date=19 February 2023}}</ref>

==Books==
* "Wild Irishman", 1969, Lady Peggy Hamilton, (Publisher A.H. & A.W. Reed)
* "Hamilton Jet: The biography of an icon", 2014, John Walsh, {{ISBN|9780473289904}} (Publisher: CWF Hamilton and Co)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513083526/http://www.hamiltonjet.co.nz/about_hamiltonjet/sir_william_hamilton |date=dmy |title=William Hamilton biography at Hamilton Jet's website}}
* {{New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame|name=William Hamilton}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Bill}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:New Zealand marine engineers]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand inventors]]
[[Category:People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch]]
[[Category:People from Fairlie, New Zealand]]
[[Category:New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:New Zealand Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand engineers]]