Evan Leigh (1810-1876) was born into a cotton-mill owning family and he spent 25 years in the cotton trade before founding his own machinery manufacturing business, Evan Leigh and Son, at the Junction Iron Works, Oldham Rd, Miles Platting, Manchester (53.49698, -2.20867). He is widely recognised for his improvements to cotton spinning machines and the invention of the twin-screw propeller for steamships.

His inventions in cotton manufacture revolutionised the industry and these include the self-stripping carding engine, the loose-boss top roller (still in use) and the coupling of spinning mules. This enabled spinning mules to be installed in pairs and run in unison by a single operator with assistants.

In Jul 1849 he patented the twin screw for steamships but this was not immediately adopted. Subsequently, long after his patent expired, the principle came into general use in both the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy.

He was a member of several professional bodies, including the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers, and he was a respected consulting engineer. He was an author and in 1871 he published his authoritative two-volume work, ‘The Science of Modern Cotton Spinning’, which was circulated internationally. Together with Sir William Fairbairn, Evan Leigh was a founder of the Manchester Scientific and Mechanical Society in c.1870. The society was an institution whose primary purpose was to bridge the gap between academia and industry by developing practical applications of scientific principles.

In 1870, he published a pamphlet detailing, ‘A plan for conveying railway trains across the Straights of Dover', proposing a pontoon ferry system for transporting trains across the English Channel.

He married Anne Allen at Prestbury, Cheshire, on the 26 Sep 1831. Between 1846 and 1850 he was resident, with his wife, Anne, and family at Red Hall, Audenshaw. His final residence was in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.