Shankar Abaji Bhisey
birth-April 29, 1867
Death- 7 April 1935, in New York
Inventor of automatic toilet flushers
Our country, India, is not rich today, but it is not poor either. The country awaits the day when every Indian will be prosperous, educated, empowered, and well-behaved. Our portal www.shashvatsatya.com also remembering and paying tribute to those personalities who have given India a new lease of life with their knowledge, science and inventions but his or her names are in darkness and only countable persons knows about them.
Born only a decade after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Shankar Abaji Bhisey was a child prodigy who designed an indoor coal-gas generator, when he was only 14.
Hailing from Bombay, the brilliant researcher seemingly got his early exposure to global science through science magazines.
By his early 20s, he had already invented electrical bicycle contraptions, a station indicator for Bombay’s suburban railway system, tamper-proof bottles and a cutting-edge grocery weighing machine that earned him the first prize at a British inventor’s contest.
However, Bhisey is most recognised for his iconic Bhisotype, a type-casting machine that revolutionised the printing industry. In one minute, the machine could cast and assemble 1200 different types automatically.
When top researchers from Britain contested his claim, he went ahead to set up his own foundry and showcase his machine to the critics who were left spellbound by his technical prowess.
Throughout his career, Bhisey had 200 inventions and 40 patents to his name, which include a unique telephone model, kitchen appliances, automatic toilet flushers and even an early prototype of a push-up bra.
Bhisey later upgraded the Bhisotype to comprise finer features and faster performance, however, the funding for his continued research was compromised with the advent of World War I, after which he gradually faded into oblivion. He passed away on 7 April 1935, in New York at the age of 68. (Courtesy Internate website- in favour of country and for motivation to citizens) (UPDATED ON 3RD FEB 2026)
