Hut - Kenya Kongoni Cricket Club; purchased 1922 Hupmobile; Radio Amateur Licence; 1954 Methane experiments started in 44 gallon drums - now claiming world record - cooked off Biogas for 28 years, last 27 years with no backup system; Solar Hot Water Units & Kuni Booster, Dairy Steriliser, Milk Pasteuriser and Water Trough Valve developed; 2003 moved to No. 20 Ridgemount, Gilgil

Hut - Kenya Up-Country Directory

Gazette 3 May 1955 he wants probate for Madge Priscilla Hutchinson of Fort Ternan who d. Yorkshire 7 Aug 1954 [his mother]

Ancestors and Descendants of Old Probity  I arrived in Kenya in May 1948. My father died in Kenya in 1950 so I had to take over at the age of twenty. After my 21st birthday in 1951 I became managing director of Tunnel Co. Ltd. My only training was a one-month refresher course at Egerton Agricultural College, Njoro, I was managing director of Tunnel Co. until it was sold in 1983, then became managing director of Tunnel Technology Ltd which was formed that year. I started experiments with biogas in 1954 using 40-gallon drums and decided to develop the ideas commercially. The first working models were taken to the Royal Show in Nairobi in 1958. Two significant developments were a single guide gas holder now seen on virtually all small biogas plants and a digester designed to absorb the heat of the sun to keep the fermentation going. Both were granted UK patents. I claim to be the first person to notice the extraordinary effect of the residues from fermentation on crops that were treated with it. This has become the biggest benefit from the whole process and the biogas is now looked on as a by-product. Mobile gas plants were installed on Tunnel Estate in order to treat all of the 54 acres of coffee with the residues. A spin-off was that we never had to spray against coffee berry diseases.

The decision to phase out the white farmers killed the market for biogas plants in Kenya. Solar water heaters were looked at next and another patent was granted in 1961. A kuni [wood] booster was developed to put extra heat in when required and this is now the most popular line. By putting kuni boosters on immersion heaters electricity can be turned off, thereby cutting costs. Other developments include a dairy sterilizer unit, a milk can heater for pasteurizing milk and a water trough valve.