Samuel Davidson: "The Inventor Who Brought Tea To Northern Ireland"

 
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Meet Samuel Davidson

Samuel Davidson (1846 – 1921) was an engineer from Belfast who invented the air conditioning fan, brought tea to Northern Ireland and founded The Sirocco Works — a manufacturer of heavy machinery that employed thousands of people.

He was also a self-taught musician, photographer and world-traveller in a time when ‘a quick business trip to India’ was a 66-day journey!

Yet, few people in Northern Ireland have ever heard about Samuel Davidson — or the legacy he's left in our city today.

So, in this special season finale, we catch up with his great-grandchildren, former employees and local historians to try to figure out how a young lad who never finished school was able to become one of the great industrial titans of his time.

Check it out.

Introducing The Streets Where They Lived…

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This episode is part of The Streets Where They Lived: a new documentary collaboration between Successful Belfast, the Belfast Buildings Trust, and Best of Belfast. 

The six-part series will feature the stories of six incredible but sometimes overlooked men and women from Belfast and some of the buildings and places in the City with which they’re connected. We’ll hear from family members and people who know their story to help us better understand some of the lesser-told stories of the City. 

The people and buildings have been chosen to reflect a diverse set of Belfast’s people: working-class to Knights, industrial power to sporting prowess, immigrants and survivors, and covers buildings from Arts centres to the old Town Hall, red-brick terraced houses to historic Victorian churches and industrial complexes.

The project is a collaboration with Successful Belfast, a project of Belfast Buildings Trust. It is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Belfast Buildings Trust is a charity founded in 1996 to regenerate Belfast’s landmark buildings. The Trust works to ensure that the City’s authentic heritage is made relevant for people today. One of its projects is Successful Belfast, which champions new and creative ways of involving people in Belfast’s future development.  

Support for the series came from a wide range of local historians, heritage, and civic organisations. All of them helped make today’s podcast possible.

The Streets Where They Lived is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Samuel Davidson’s episode was written by Matthew Thompson and produced/edited by Owen McFadden.

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Facts About Samuel Davidson

  • Buried in Belfast cemetery

  • Knighted two months before he died

  • Went to school at RBAI (Inst)

  • Funded trips abroad by selling inventions to locals

  • Created over 120 engineering patents

  • Danske Bank has £50 notes featuring Samuel Davidson

  • 3/5 of his kids died young due to war and disease

  • Davidson had tea emporiums all over the city

  • He invented a marketed sparkling tea/coffee

  • His company is called Sirocco Works because after seeing one of his dryers, a friend said "it's just like the sirocco wind that blows off the desert!"

Thanks for listening, wanna hear more local stories?

Thanks again for taking the time to listen to this special episode all about Samuel Davidson.

To stay in the loop about more great local stories, subscribe to our email newsletter or see who else we’ve interviewed here.

See you next time.

Cheers!

— Matt

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Matthew Thompson