William "Bill" Thundercliff (18th June 1881-May 11th 1932) was an English inventor, explorer and bon vivant. He is best known for his travel journals, his film cameos and as the inventor of the self-heating can.

Early Life

Birth

Born in Hull to Edward Thundercliff, a sailor<ref>http://www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/Hull81-5.html</ref>, and his wife Alexa Tikhanovich, a recently arrived Russian émigré. She had arrived in Hull the before, fleeing from the Tsarist secret police after she was found to have been a member of the “People’s Will” revolutionary organisation. She was arrested the year after and deported to Russia, where she stood trail as part of the infamous Trial of the Fourteen in September 1884, and was sent to Siberia where she remained until the abdication of Tsar Nicholas in 1917. His father, Edward Thundercliff, was captain the “Englishman”, A trawler based in Hull. He missed his son’s birth whilst at sea assisting crew of the USS Jeannette, an American vessel lost in the Arctic Ocean. The boat sank on the 13th of June, and Edward arrived on the 18th, after the crew of the stricken craft had begun their now infamous march inland to Siberia.

Childhood

Bill never went to school, his father preferred to take him along on his sea voyages. This meant Bill never really had a home, and thus travelled constantly, something he would continue to do for his whole life. He was taught to read and write by his father during the long journeys they would undertake, and encouraged to chronicle his experiences in his journal, which would later become one of his most popular works, Diaries of a Child at Sea.

University

Despite his lack of academic qualifications, Bill was accepted into university in Oslo at the age of 20, after his professor was impressed by his diaries. He studied Classics but left before his course was finished. He had become bored of living in one place, and felt it was the right time to move on.

Wandering Years

Bill travelled extensively across Europe in the years 1904 - 1909, documenting his experiences in the book "Thunder over Europe". He preferred to travel by foot, even as far as walking across the Alps from France to Italy. During his ascent of Mont Blanc, he and his travelling companion, a Lancastrian called David Britton (affectionately known to all as "Moley"), became stranded on a plateau, and were forced to eat raw meat to survive. This prompted Thundercliff to invest a year of his life in scientific research, journeying around Europe in search of a way of heating food without fire. Eventually, in 1909, he came up with a combination of chemicals which could produce an exothermic reaction that lasted long enough for food to be cooked. He sold his idea to Macy’s department store in New York, who stocked them under name “self-heating cans”. This invention left him with an annual income which could support him for life.

The Delicate Sound of Thunder

The Balkan Chapters

The Delicate Sound of Thunder is widely regarded as Thundercliff’s best work. It was written in the years 1912 – 1924, and records his adventures in Eastern Europe during one of history’s most turbulent times. After returning from New York, wealthy but not well-known, Bill made his way to Belgrade, where he was incarcerated in a mental institution in August 1913, after he had told the authorities of a plot to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand that he had overheard in a bar. He was in the asylum for almost 11 months, being released on June 29th 1914, the day after the Archduke had been shot. His travels were restricted by the First World War. He joined a group of Roma gypsies to avoid conscription to the Russian Army (his maternal connections made him eligible) and roamed through Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia in an attempt to evade the pursuing Tsarist forces.

The Russian Revolution

book takes a defining turn in February 1917. After hearing of the abdication of Tsar Nicholas, and the release of political prisoners that followed, Bill decided to travel to Russia in search of his long-lost mother. He took a route through the Germany to Finland to St Petersburg (then Petrograd) and arrived in May, on the same train as Lenin, he can be seen in the crowd that gathered to greet the famous revolutionary as he gave a speech outside the Finlandsky station. His quest to find his mother lead him eastwards to Moscow, where he pretended to be a member of the circus to gain passage to Siberia. He was re-united with Alexa in 1922, after 4 years of searching. She wished to remain in Russia, and Bill knew that he could not stay for too long. He left her in Petrograd, and caught a trawler back to Hull.

The Good Life

1925, Bill was wealthy, famous and bored. He decided it was time for a change, and moved to America. His book "Thundering Across America" was written between 1925 and 1930. It is a more personal, diaristic work, a moving account of the life of an Englishman in the USA. From his arrival on Ellis Island in 1925 he began his movement across America, heading down the East Coast, across the Deep South and the Mexican Border and up the West Coast, finally arriving in Hollywood in 1927. Shortly after his arrival, he met a long time correspondent of his friend Adolf Lang, brother of German filmaker Fritz Lang . This rather tenuous connection to the fledging movie industry that had sprung up in the Californian town allowed Bill to secure several cameo roles in the major pictures of the day, including the first ever talkie, The Jazz Singer.

The Wall Street Crash

Bill became a well-known face in both the film industry and the jazz scene of the time. He invested most of his fortune in stocks at Henley's Catering, who catered for brokers on Wall Street. He lost his wealth on the 30th October 1929, after all of his clients went out of business in the wake of the Wall Street Crash. Having lost the backing for his luxurious lifestyle, Bill threw himself out of the window of his L.A. apartment. Bill's life was saved by a passing priest, who he landed on. Greatly affected by his saviour, who perished as a result of the incident, Bill devoted the next two years of his life to God, performing missionary work in Central America, whilst taking the opportunity to travel further.

Death

Bill's final work was "God of Thunder", which covered his final 2 years, and was published posthumously in 1933. It documents the time Bill spent in Mexico, right up to the day of his death. His death was as dramatic as the rest of his life, he was struck by lightning whilst sailing off Cancun. He never married, left no children, and had no siblings.

Trivia

The Pink Floyd album, The Delicate Sound of Thunder is named after Bill's book.

The central theme behind Sting's song "Englishman in New York" was inspired by the first chapter of Thundering Across America, and especially by Bill's difficulties adapting to the American lifestyle.

Quotes

On Lenin (from Delicate Sound of Thunder)

<blockquote>An interesting man, but one too firebrand to achieve much.</blockquote>

On the differences between British and American life (from Thundering Across America)

<blockquote>Their customs are almost, but not completely like ours. They take coffee rather than tea, and have their toast buttered on both sides. Excess, it has struck me, is part of the American lifestyle.</blockquote>

Books

Diaries of a Child at Sea
ISBN 0 571 08989 5

The Delicate Sound of Thunder
ISBN 0 571 19142 3

Thundering Across America
ISBN 0 571 38854 6

God Of Thunder
ISBN 0 571 58639 7

References

Edward Thundercliff's shipping record at the time of Bill's birth. http://www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/Hull81-5.html

An article about the self-heating can. Holt, Jane (1941) "News of Food: War Emphasizes Benefit of Prune Vitamins--Hammering Opens Oysters," The New York Times, March 26, 1941, p. 19