The humble Essex scientist praised by president Richard Nixon for getting man to the moon

Apollo 11 launched on July 16 1969
-Credit:Getty Images


A feat of chemical engineering which was worked on for 37 years by an Essex born engineer helped to send man to the moon. A descendant of Sir Francis Bacon’s family, Francis Thomas Bacon, was working on creating power in 1932, which was intended to be used for powering cars.

The project that spanned nearly four decades became the basis for helping NASA send Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon.

Known as Tom, the engineer based at Trinity College, the same Cambridge college as his ancestor, was developing an alternative way of making power. The scientist had difficulties having his project funded at first, as his idea was based on work which had been researched a hundred years before, but had not been continued.

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Inventing a battery, which was powered using hydrogen and oxygen, Tom’s fuel cell was developed by Pratt and Whitney to be used in the Apollo 11 mission. The cell used elements that were already used on the rocket, hydrogen and oxygen, to power the cabin.

President Richard Nixon, who had battled with Russia, to have America as the first nation to put man on the moon believed that Tom’s work changed the course of history. After being invited to the White House, Tom was told by the president “Without you, Tom, man wouldn’t have got to the moon.” In 1967, two years before the moon landing, Queen Elizabeth II had awarded the Billericay born scientist with an OBE.

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