Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lynn, Walter
LYNN, WALTER (1677–1763), medical writer and inventor, born at Southwick House, near Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 1677, was younger brother of George Lynn the elder [q. v.] He graduated B.A. from Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1698, and took the degree of M.B. in 1704. In 1712 he was elected a member of the Gentleman's Society at Spalding, and his name appears among the ‘extra regular members’ in the account of the society in ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,’ vol. iii. He is there described as ‘performer in music and author.’ In 1714 he published an ‘Essay towards a more easie and safe Method of Cure in the Small Pox.’ In 1715 he printed ‘Some Reflections upon the Modern Practisers of Physick in relation to the Small Pox.’ A satire entitled ‘Nyktopsia, or the Use and Abuse of Snuffers,’ 1726, is also attributed to him (Watt). The preface is signed ‘W. L.,’ and the name in full is written in a contemporary hand in the British Museum copy. But Lynn's chief claim to remembrance is his relation with the steam-engine. In 1726 he printed ‘The Case of Walter Lynn, M.B., in relation to divers Undertakings of his, particularly for the Improvement of an Engine to raise Water by Fire, &c.’ He states that he intended to present a petition to parliament for a reward, but the journals do not contain any record of it. The ‘Case,’ which gives some personal details, does not disclose the nature of his improvements in the steam-engine. He states that his invention had been submitted to ‘Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, Mr. Wren, Brook Taylor, and since then to a noble peer, who has seen and observed things well both at home and abroad.’ At the end of the ‘Case’ there is a certificate signed by Sir Christopher Wren and his son, and by Brook Taylor, stating that they had examined Lynn's proposals, and believed them worthy of encouragement. Lynn died in March 1763, aged 85, and was buried at Grantham on 19 March.
[The Case is printed in full in Notes and Queries, 7th ser. vii. 241, from an apparently unique copy in the possession of Mr. W. E. A. Axon. See also the Genealogist, vol. i.; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, vi. 72.]