Balsillie biography

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Balsillie, John Graeme (1885-1924)

by Lindsay Cleland

John Graeme Balsillie (1885-1924), engineer and inventor, was born in Brisbane on 11
September 1885, second son of James Pearson Balsillie, wholesale warehouseman, and his
wife Eliza, nee Johnston, both of whom were Scottish-born. Brought up by an uncle after his
father's death in 1889, he was educated at the Brisbane Boys' Central School and Brisbane
Grammar School. In December 1901 he became a clerk in a warehouse, attending the
Technical College part time until, in 1903, he went to England to study electrical engineering.
He worked in the Armstrong-Whitworth workshops and was coached by a cousin who was a
school principal. In May 1904 he invented a magnetic detector and in August joined a
company erecting wireless telegraph stations in England and then in Russia. After working in
Germany, Siberia and China for about five years, he formed in England the British
Radiotelegraph Co. which marketed the 'Balsillie System' of wireless telegraphy, judged in
1911 to be an infringement of the Marconi patent.

Balsillie had been elected associate member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1910.
Next year he met Prime Minister Andrew Fisher in London and on 31 July was appointed
engineer for radiotelegraphy, within the Australian Postmaster-General's Department, to
establish a coastal maritime communication service. By late 1915 there were twenty stations
around Australia, using a new system which survived an action for infringement of patent
brought by the Marconi Co. in 1912 and settled to the government's advantage in 1915. That
year an inquiry into another patent dispute lapsed before evidence was taken. In September
wireless telegraphy was transferred to the Department of the Navy and Balsillie resigned in
December, though with a retaining fee as consulting engineer for six months.

He had become interested in rainfall stimulation and by April 1915 had designed an
apparatus, the .Balsillie Rain Stimulation and Procuration Plant', which was purchased by the
Department of Home Affairs; he operated it in arid country at Bookooloo, on the
transcontinental railway, from May 1916 and later at Wynbring and Tarcoola. Patents were
subsequently granted. Plants also established at Hopetoun and Boonoke survived temporary
closure in 1919. The Commonwealth meteorologist disputed the experimental stations'
claimed increase in rainfall; a report by Balsillie was tabled in parliament, but operations
ceased in January 1921 after press and parliamentary criticism. In September his work, which
had cost over £6000, was referred to the Institute of Science and Industry. In 1919 and 1920
he had obtained patents for improvements in light projection and reflectors with application to
vehicle headlights. Commercial manufacture of his 'Flatlight. reflectors took him to the United
States of America.

Fair, with a high forehead, Balsillie smoked a pipe, wore pince-nez, and though usually
immaculately dressed could 'jump into overalls and do the dirtiest work'. He was described as
a 'scholarly man and a brilliant conversationalist of courtly manners'. He married Carmen
Poleyh in 1909. Survived by their daughter, he died of nephritis in Cincinnati on 10 July 1924
and was cremated.
Select Bibliography

   R. Curnow, `The origins of Australian broadcasting,1900-1923',I. Bed ford and R. Curnow,
Initiative and Organization (Melb,1963)
   Sydney Morning Herald, 29 Dec 1915
   Punch (Melbourne),13 July 1916
   Bulletin, 9 Dec 1959
   J. G. Balsillie papers (National Library of Australia)
  Attorney-General's Department, correspondence files CRS A432 (National Archives of
Australia)
  PMG, correspondence files, MP 341/1 (National Archives of Australia).