Titus Salt

From Free net encyclopedia

Sir Titus Salt (20 September 1803 - 29 December 1876), born in Morley, was a manufacturer and benefactor in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. His father Daniel Salt was a fairly successful businessman and was able to send Titus to Heath Grammar School in nearby Halifax.

He started work as a Woolstapler in Wakefield and after two years joined his father's family business in Bradford in 1824. In 1833 he took over the running of the business and within twenty years had expanded it to be the largest employer in Bradford. In 1848 Titus Salt became mayor of Bradford. The smoke and pollution emanating from local mills in Bradford was acknowledged by to come from the many factory chimneys and Salt tried unsuccessfully to get this pollution cleaned up using a device called the Rodda Smoke Burner.

He was the first to manufacture alpaca fabrics in England. In 1853, he established a model village for factory workers at Saltaire, three miles from Bradford, in the Aire valley. He also built his largest mill there and had it fitted with the antipollution device.

He also was a Liberal Member of Parliament. His funeral was reputedly attended by 100,000 people.Template:UK-bio-stub