Taylor, George Augustine (1872 - 1928)

Summary

George Taylor was a craftsman and journalist. During the course of his life he had a number of interests, including radio, telephony, martial technology, town planning and labour-saving devices in the home.

Details

After a stint working as a cartoonist in the 1890s, George Augustine Taylor trained as a builder and in 1900ca produced 'bagasse', a cement-plaster. He became interested in town planning and helped to found the Institute of Local Government Engineers of Australasia, the Aerial League of Australia (1909), and the Town Planning Association of New South Wales (1913). Taylor then shifted focus to martial technology and established a factory to make light craft, and worked on military uses of radio and telephony. He founded the Wireless Institute of New South Wales in 1910 and was partly responsible for the 1927 Federal royal commission into wireless. During World War I he joined the Intelligence Section General Staff and began publishing "Soldier" in 1916. Taylor also helped found the Institution of Engineers, Australia (1919), Australian Inventions Encouragement Board (1922) and the Association for Developing Wireless in Australia (1923). He later worked on proto-television, achieving colour transmission in the mid-1920s. Around that time he stopped publication of "Soldier" and began publication of "Australian Home" in 1925.

Published resources

Book Sections

• Roe, Michael, 'Taylor, George Augustine (1872-1928)' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 12 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 178-179. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120197b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Memoirs', Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 9 (1928), 262-282, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.265086577514298. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q730817. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/66079211. Details
• 'Taylor, George A (18720801-19280120)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-563496. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_t.html. Details
• McArthur, Ian, 'Chapter 16: Aeronautical engineering' in Sydney: from settlement to city: an engineering history of Sydney, Don Fraser, ed. (Crows Nest, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 1989), pp. 299-318. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details