A local engineer is seeking help to recreate a working replica of a machine invented by Manxman William Kennish.

Bob Stimpson, an author and chairman of the Isle of Man Victorian Society, wishes to create the replica of the model last seen in the 1860s.

William Kennish was a Victoria explorer, inventor, ships’ carpenter and poet.

Mr Kennish developed a marine theodolite which allows guns on a warship to point to a single position and ’concentrate fire’ which allowed broadsides, a firing of all the guns from one side of a warship, to be replaced by guns fired from a distance.

Mr Stimpson recently completed a six-year project to build a full-size working replica of the inventor’s marine theodolite.

He did this while working in evening leisure classes held at the William Kennish Engineering Centre in Greenfield Road, Douglas, which is part of the University College Isle of Man campus.

Mr Stimpson said: ’The college evening leisure class enabled me to build this instrument which was last seen in the 1830s.

’I am now keen to build a working replica of another of William’s inventions - a hydraulic motor which turned water pressure into a rotary drive.’

The replica requires bevel gears, which Mr Stimpson can’t create at the college as they don’t have that type of gear-cutting equipment.

He continued: ’I wondered if there might be a piece of broken or disused old machinery in a barn or farm yard and the owner would allow me to remove bevel gears from it to be built into a Kennish motor replica.

’Alternatively, I could use a horizontal milling machine if available to build them from scratch.’

Mr Stimpson previously arranged to fund and install a quarter-ton piece of Dhoon Granite at William Kennish’s previously unmarked final resting place in New York, USA.

Then President of Tynwald Steve Rodan read the eulogy and four generations of the Kennish family attended, including our TT commentator Roy Moore, who is a fourth great-grand nephew.

The Royal Navy was represented by the deputy Naval attaché from the British Embassy in Washington DC.

If you have some old machinery which might be able to help create this replica, you can contact Mr Stimpson at [email protected].