Aiiunal Report of the Council. xlv 



Hknrv Simon, who died from an affection of the heart on luly 

 22nd, 1899, was elected a member of the Society in April, 1S86. 

 He was horn at Brieg, in Silesia, in June, 1S35, and inherited 

 from his father an active business-like disposition, and from his 

 mother, who attained some distinction as an authoress, consider- 

 able power of literary discrimination. His youthful mind was, 

 moreover, greatly influenced by his uncle Heinrich Simon, a 

 leading democratic member of the Prussian Parliament, who, in 

 consequence of the revolution of 1848, removed to Switzerland, 

 whither he was shortly followed by his nephew. 



Henry Simon was educated first at the cantonal public 

 school at Zurich, then at the University of Breslau, and subse- 

 quently at the Federal Technical College, Zurich. After com- 

 pleting his College studies and his term of military service he 

 worked for some time as draughtsman for a large engineering 

 firm at Magdeburg. 



In i860 he came to England, and in due course was 

 naturalised as a British subject. At first his business was chiefly 

 connected with railways, but it is with the great improvement 

 effected in the process of corn-milling, by crushing the grain 

 between rollers instead of grinding it, that his name is chiefly 

 associated. The advantages of his system w-ere speedily recog- 

 nised, and it is stated that there are now enough such mills at 

 work to grind four times the average quantity of wheat annually 

 grown in these islands. 



Other departments of industry in which Mr. Simon took an 

 active part had for their object not merely, perhaps not mainly, 

 the improvement of manufacturing processes, but also the amelio 

 ration of the conditions of life. Such were the " Simon-Carves 

 bye-i)roduct coke ovens," which avoided the loss of tar and 

 ammonia, consequent upon the older and cruder methods, and 

 also had a beneficial effect upon the surrounding vegetation by 

 eliminating the discharge of sulphurous fumes. 



The Manchester Labourers' Dwellings Co., the Manchester 

 Crematorium, and the Manchester Pure Milk Supply Co. — 

 in all of which he was a moving spirit — , though commercial in 

 form, were purely philanthropic in aim. 



