INVENTED TINSEL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 233, 13 September 1939, Page 4

INVENTED TINSEL

DUN DON’S OLDEST .MAN DEATH AT 102 YEARS London’s oldest man, Mr. William Henry Harris, of Algernon road, Lewisham, the inventor of tinsel, has died af the age of 102, states tile NewsChronicle. He was horn when William In', was on the Throne—his father was the strong rrrau of Woolwich—and went to work when only six years old. For woiking 12 hours a day as. a child, from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., he received half-a-crown a week. J3ut he rose to be chief engineer of a Lewisham silk mill—now demolished. It was while working there that he “invented!” tinsel, which revolutionised decoration at parties.

His boss wanted toi produce a thread that sparkled, but it was not until Mr. Harris picked up a thread' with metal shavings adhering to it that the idea became a practical possibility. Tinsel was born. The industry gave employment to between 200 and 300 operators in the one mill a j lone. Another of Mr. Harris’ inventions was a. tube for tracheotomy—the operation on the widepipe necessary sometimes in treatment for diphtheria . He always claimed that one of his tubes was used to treat the German Emperor—father of ex-Kaiser Wilhelm ll.—who died of an affection of the throat.

When lie was in his sixties he made his own bicycle, which sold for £‘2B. At the age of 81 he went up in an aeroplane, which he called a “balloon.”

He was married on Christmas Day. 1859', and both his sons (including “jny boy. young Willie”—aged 38) also married on. December 25.