Henry Chinn
CHINN, Henry, (1858–1940)
Arthur Corbett’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography for Henry Chinn is an excellent overview of a high profile, controversial and divisive engineer who used media, the courts and politics to advance his career but found that they could also ruin a career. The Sunday Times of March 9, 1913 (page 6) under the headline “Australia’s Champion Liar” is an example of how a reputation can be savaged.
Chinn was comfortable with appearing in court but had mixed success in his many lawsuits. An early successful appearance in 1879 was over the rights to “Hood’s Sheep Dip”, developed by his late father in law.
Chinn claimed to have developed a thermal welding process called “Kalipsite” but was successfully sued by the German inventor of the “Thermit” process, Dr Hans Goldschmidt, for breach of copyright. Chinn tried to get the Goldschmidt patent suspended in 1915 on the grounds that it was held by an enemy alien. The patent was suspended but not in Chinn’s favour. The Chief Engineer of the Commonwealth Railways was instead granted rights to the patent.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is reproduced in full below:
Henry Chinn (1858-1940), surveyor and engineer, was born on 15 January 1858 at Collingwood, Melbourne, son of Cornish parents John Mitchell Chinn, engineer, and his wife Jane, née Ivey. Educated probably at a state school, he learned some surveying and drawing while a clerk in the water supply branch of the Department of Public Works from July 1873 until 1877. On 5 February 1878 at St Paul's Church of England, Melbourne, he married Fanny Margaret Hood; they had two sons and two daughters.
In May he became a draughtsman in the New South Wales Department of Public Works and was licensed as a surveyor on 22 January 1882. He resigned in July, joined the railways in November but was dismissed in March 1883 at Armidale. Returning to Victoria, he worked as an engineer at Lakes Entrance, on Melbourne sewerage works and on railway jobs in New South Wales and Tasmania; he was frequently in trouble. In 1885 he set up as a consulting engineer in Melbourne and secured an extensive practice as an expert witness. When his wife died in 1887 their children were reared by her brother Sir Joseph Hood.
Chinn speculated in land and in 1890 was bankrupt. In 1894 he was accused of fraudulent dealings over money lending. He returned to engineering and in 1901 was briefly employed by the Metropolitan Water and Sewage Board, Brisbane, but was discharged for absence without leave.
He settled in Western Australia as a consulting engineer in 1903 and in 1907 made some political friends with articles in the West Australian criticizing the State railway administration.
On 14 December 1907 in Perth he married a divorcee Helen, née Crossley, with Congregational forms. While working on an Adelaide tramway job for Henry Teesdale Smith, in May 1908, he was accused of trying to profit from a welding invention of State analyst W A Hargreaves.
Against technical advice, King O’Malley was persuaded to appoint Chinn supervising engineer for the transcontinental railway in Western Australia on 8 February 1912. Directed to build the track eastwards from Kalgoorlie, Chinn complained of lack of authority to engage staff and was frequently in controversy with H Deane chief engineer of Commonwealth railways. When O'Malley visited the works Chinn made the elementary error of going direct to the minister to obtain his consent for a deviation in the approved route.
J M Fowler secured a royal commission into charges that Chinn had illicitly trafficked in gold and had committed frauds in 1894; the commissioner, Sir Henry Hodges dismissed six charges but was equivocal on charges that Chinn had forged references. O'Malley supported Chinn but when the government fell in June 1913 the new minister discharged him at once. The Labor dominated Senate appointed a select committee which recommended that Chinn should be paid compensation for dismissal without reasonable cause, but no action was taken.
Bitter and frustrated, Chinn returned to Victoria and struggled vainly for compensation. In January 1916 he met Fowler in Collins Street and, after insulting him, blows were exchanged; both were fined. He lived in Sydney in 1916-25 probably working as a consulting engineer, and retired in 1931. Survived by two daughters of his first marriage, Chinn died as an old age pensioner at The Basin in the Dandenongs, Victoria, on 29 October 1940; he was buried in St Kilda cemetery with Anglican rites.
Chinn's wife Ellen (Nellie or Helen) Crossley was a strong advocate for him receiving compensation for wrongful dismissal. She died after Chinn, in 1944 at St Kilda.
References:
Arthur Corbett, Chinn, Henry (1858–1940), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chinn-henry-5582/text9525, published first in hardcopy 1979;
Sunday Times, 9.3.1913, p6;
J. S. Battye (ed), 'Cyclopedia of Western Australia', vol 1 (Adel, 1912);
The Age, 12.3.1915, p10.
