William George Armstrong (26 November, 1810–27 December, 1900) was basically a solicitor who was genuinely interested in engineering. Generally in his spare time, he was indulged in the activities of inventing little things which made the daily work easy. During one of his fishing visits he was thrilled by the idea that the energy and the power that was being wasted could be used for lifting heavy things. So he designed a rotator engine based on the similar concept. He later developed a piston engine instead of the rotator which helped in a hydraulic crane.
In 1845, his work was set in motion. Newcastle Corporation installed the hydraulic cranes in Quayside. These proved to be much better than the conventional ones as they lifted much heavier weight and cost less. He was also the developer of the hydraulic accumulator in 1850. In 1854 during the Crimean War, he built a breech loading gun which fired a shell rather than a ball. A more complex version of this was developed later in 1859 by him, which was presented to Queen Victoria.
