Ferguson, Thomas Tapley Helenus
Thomas Tapley Helenus Ferguson (January 18, 1871 - June 20, 1946) was a Dutch surveyor and inventor. Born in Aruba, Ferguson arrived in China in the late 1800s and lived in Shanghai. He created two known maps, one entitled Map of the Waterways Near Shanghai and the other Map of the Country Round Soochow, for which he used a device of his own invention, which he called a Hodograph. Ferguson published a book in 1904 entitled Automatic Surveying Instruments and their Practical Uses on Land and Water in which he introduced his Hodograph (a device used for 'self-registering of courses and distances on water'), Cyclograph ('an automatic route-tracer for vehicles'), and Pedograph (an automatic route-tracer for pedestrians'). Ferguson applied for a patent in the United States in 1902, but it is unclear if he ever tried to patent his other two inventions. Records show that Ferguson was married four times and fathered four children. Ferguson died on June 20, 1946 at Exmouth in the United Kingdom.
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