John Rennie. During 1842, Hick was awarded a second silver medal by the Society of Arts for his invention of an Elliptograph; conceived in 1840, the device provided a simple and accurate solution for the drawing ellipsoid forms of various proportions. Hick received further praise from James Nasmyth, William Fairbairn, Joseph Whitworth, and amongst others, Charles Holtzapffel, Chairman of the Committee of Mechanics. Models of both devices were placed in the Society's repository. Hick contributed a paper to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1849 on a friction clutch for connecting and disconnecting the driving power with shafts and machinery. A B. Hick and Son, 1:12 scale patent model of disconnecting apparatus, for screw propellers, c. 1855 is held in the Science Museum marine engines collection. Marriage John Hick married Margaret Bashall (1824–1872), eldest daughter of industrialist William Bashall, partner in Bashall & Boardman of Farington Lodge, near Preston on 24 June 1846, they raised four daughters. Following Margaret Hick's death in 1872, Hick married the sister of his son-in-law, Rebecca Maria Ashworth (1838–1908), eldest daughter of Edmund Ashworth JP (1800–1881) of Egerton Hall on 16 December 1874 at Holy Trinity Church, Clapham; the couple were married by Margaret Hick's cousin and brother-in-law Reverend William Bashall (1830–1902), Vicar of Deane, Lancashire, by special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Tait. Edmund Ashworth was a cotton manufacturer, proprietor of E. Ashworth & Sons and Egerton Mill, founder member of the Anti-Corn Law League with his brother Henry Ashworth (1794–1880) JP, in association with John Bright and Richard Cobden (Henry Ashworth's brother-in-law), and supporter of reforming, anti-slavery and peace organisations. The Ashworths are both thought to have been Oswald Millbank in Benjamin Disraeli's novel Coningsby. The two families (Hick and Ashworth) were linked by marriage in 1868 when Hick's first child and eldest daughter Margaret (1847–1929) married Edmund Ashworth Jr (1833–1901). The "highly respected" Reverend Bashall retired to the position of curate at St Barnabas church, Addison Road, Kensington from about 1876 remaining in the area until his death, 1902. The Great Exhibition 1851 saw the Crystal Palace Exhibition in Hyde Park; early in 1850 Mayor of Bolton, Thomas Lever Rushton (1810–1883) was appointed chairman of a committee to organise the town's efforts toward the Exhibition and presented as a Local Commissioner to Prince Albert at St James's Palace 18 March 1850. While the family business of Benjamin Hick and Son