INVENTOR

Rowland Hill

1795 - 1879

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Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solution of pre-payment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp. Hill made the case that if letters were cheaper to send, people, including the poorer classes, would send more of them, thus eventually profits would go up. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Rowland Hill is the 80th most popular inventor (up from 296th in 2019), the 756th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 3,004th in 2019) and the 12th most popular British Inventor.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Rowland Hill ranks 80 out of 426Before him are George Eastman, Léon Theremin, Jacques Piccard, James Naismith, John Browning, and Alois Senefelder. After him are Charles K. Kao, Jacques de Vaucanson, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Oleg Antonov, Ray Tomlinson, and Bi Sheng.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1795, Rowland Hill ranks 10Before him are John Keats, Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Thomas Carlyle, Pavel Jozef Šafárik, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, and Ernst Heinrich Weber. After him are Gabriel Lamé, Antonio José de Sucre, Dingane kaSenzangakhona, Dred Scott, Saverio Mercadante, and Ary Scheffer. Among people deceased in 1879, Rowland Hill ranks 8Before him are Bernadette Soubirous, Honoré Daumier, Napoléon, Prince Imperial, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Adolf Anderssen, and Albrecht von Roon. After him are Thomas Couture, Maria Teresa of Savoy, Gottfried Semper, Charles De Coster, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Ludwig Reichenbach.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Rowland Hill ranks 756 out of 8,785Before him are Ray Stevenson (1964), Richard Griffiths (1947), John Smith (1580), Steve Howe (1947), Michael Howard (1941), and Annie S. D. Maunder (1868). After him are Bryan Ferry (1945), William Jones (1746), Gregory Bateson (1904), Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (1631), Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1310), and Willibrord (658).

Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, Rowland Hill ranks 12Before him are Thomas Newcomen (1663), John Herschel (1792), Frank Whittle (1907), Richard Trevithick (1771), John Boyd Dunlop (1840), and Henry Fox Talbot (1800). After him are Thomas Savery (1650), John Harrison (1693), Richard Arkwright (1732), Henry Bessemer (1813), William Webb Ellis (1806), and James Hargreaves (1720).