Forty Years in the Service of the Ottoman Industry: The Life Story of English Engineer Frederick William Taylor (1807-1875)

Abstract

This study examines the life of Frederick William Taylor, an English engineer sent by the British Government to Istanbul to establish a modern industry in the Ottoman State. Taylor, who was a young engineer when he came to Istanbul, spent the rest of his life in Istanbul except for a few journeys to England, and personally witnessed the attempts to modernize the Ottoman industry. He was not only a civil engineer, but also a foundry master and mechanical engineer in casting and mechanics with significant amount of work experience; and he also had an expertise in iron casting, machine manufacturing and installation. Furthermore, Taylor was an expert architect in the newly developing field of modern industrial architecture in Europe. These qualities made him a preeminent figure in the modernization of the Ottoman industry in the eyes of statesmen and the military men of the Tanzimat Era. He put his seal in the modernization of numerous state factories, most particularly the Tersâne-i Âmire (Imperial Naval Arsenal/ Shipyard) and Tophâne-i Âmire (Imperial Arsenal). By illuminating Taylor’s life further, whose importance goes beyond being just an ordinary European expert in Ottoman industrilization efforts, this article also aims at shedding light on the nature of Ottoman industrial modernization.