George Bower (1827-1911), was the owner of the Vulcan Iron Works, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire and was a leading manufacturer of equipment for gasworks. He is also described as a waterworks engineer, and manufacturer of gas stoves and stationary steam engines. In 1855 he patented the National Gas Apparatus. This was intended for sale to Country Houses and factories. By 1856 Bower started to concentrate on larger schemes for providing gasworks and established the Provincial Gaslight and Coke Company. In 1862 he patented George Bower's Bye-Pass Valves and Governor for Gas Works He also worked on the development with Frederick Barth on the Bower–Barff process for the oxidisaton of cast iron to form a rustless surface. This process is still widely used to-day.