Ardaseer Cursetjee

Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia
Portrait of Cursetjee Wadia
Born6 October 1808
Surat, Baroda State, Maratha Confederacy
(present-day Gujarat, India)
Died16 November 1877(1877-11-16) (aged 69)
Richmond, United Kingdom
OccupationEngineer
Known forIntroducing gas lighting, the sewing machine, steam pump-driven irrigation and electro-plating to Bombay
SpouseAvabai
ChildrenLowjee Annie
Gustasp Ardaseer
Parents
  • Cursetjee Rustomjee (father)
  • Kawasjee Dorabjee Wadia (mother)
FamilyWadia family

Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia FRS (6 October 1808 – 16 November 1877) was an Indian Parsi shipbuilder and engineer belonging to the Wadia ship building family.[1]

He is noted for having been the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is also recorded as having introduced several (at the time) novel technologies to the city of Bombay (now Mumbai), including gas lighting, the sewing machine, steam pump-driven irrigation and electro-plating.[2] He is presumed to be the first Parsi to have visited America (1851).[3]

  1. ^ "Ardaseer Cursetjee (Wadia), F.R.S". Nature. 153 (3893): 706. 10 June 1944. Bibcode:1944Natur.153T.706.. doi:10.1038/153706d0.
  2. ^ Wadia, D.F. (1912). History of the Lodge Rising Star of Western India. Bombay, British India Press.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).