text: Thomas Whitwell (24 October 1837 – 5 August 1878) was a British engineer, inventor and metallurgist.
  Known as Tom, he was the third son of William and Sarah Whitwell of Kendal.  Tom was initially educated at home via private tutors he was sent to the Quaker run York School at 10 years old.  In 1858,  at 16, he travelled with his elder brother William to Darlington.  As apprentice to Alfred Kitching in his locomotive building shop he learned engineering and metallurgy.  From there he continued to build his skills, working with Robert Stephenson & Co in Newcastle.
  In 1859 he and William started iron-smelting at Thornaby. Iron ore had been discovered in the area four years previously.  The brothers designed and built large scale hot blast fire brick stoves that were much larger and more efficient that anything built in the area until that point.  By 1873 the three re-built blast furnaces were 80 feet high and 22 feet in diameter and the works had over 750 employees.
  In 1878 Tom died due to an accident at his works.  A steam explosion caught him and his foreman John Thompson whilst they were investigating a problem with the rolling mill furnace.
  The works continued to run under family ownership, under the chairmanship of Tom's nephew William Fry Whitwell until 1922 when they were eventually closed due to a global glut of pig iron.