In March 1898, after discovering that her partner and prominent British atheist, Edward Aveling, had secretly married a young actress in June the previous year, she committed suicide by poison.

In 1898, Eleanor discovered that the ailing Edward Aveling had secretly married a young actress, to whom he remained committed.

The traction engine, in the form recognisable today, developed partly from an experiment in 1859 when Thomas Aveling modified a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine, which had to be hauled from job to job by horses, into a self-propelled one.

" Aveling and Büchner questioned what would have happened if Darwin had been given that advice before publication of the Origin, and had confined " the revolutionary truths of Natural and Sexual Selection to the judicious few ", where would the world be?

" When on 13 October he got the request he had feared from Aveling, for permission to dedicate the Darwin and his Works articles to Darwin in book format, he declined in a four page letter marked PRIVATE emphasising that he confined his writing to science and avoided aiding attacks on religion.

In 1934 the company had formed Aveling-Barford from two companies Aveling and Porter of Kent and Barford & Perkins of Peterborough, using a former site of R & H.

Aveling had a reputation as something of a martinet in business, only keeping on the best men.

Aveling enjoyed yachting and had his own 28 ton yacht Sally.

Aveling had been concerned by the slow pace of agricultural labour arising from the " ancient and defective construction " of the machines.

In 1858 Aveling had three premises: 24, High Street, Rochester ; 27, Edwards Yard, Rochester ; and a small foundry on the site of the future Invicta Works in Strood.

To a man such as Aveling the spectacle of portable engines being dragged around by teams of horses when the engines had more than sufficient power to move themselves seemed nonsensical.

The combine had been formed at the joint instigation of T. L. Aveling and Archibald Maconochie.

According to Aveling, the cause of the split was his wife's inability to abide by his atheist views, although wags whispered that Aveling had married her for her money.

Although he had numerous relationships with women, Edward Aveling is not known to have fathered any children, although in one episode of the quiz series Eggheads, one of the contestants claimed to have either been a descendant of him, or at least related to him in some way.

With services on the Brill – Quainton Road route now drawn by the more advanced Bagnall locomotive ( the Kingswood branch generally remained worked by horses, and occasionally by the Aveling and Porter engines ), traffic levels soon rose.

An Aveling and Porter traction engine-based railway locomotive, as used on the Brill Tramway.

Several traction engine builders ( such as Aveling and Porter and Fowler ) built light railway locomotives based on their traction engines.

In October of that year Aveling wanted to dedicate his book on Darwin and his Works to Darwin and asked him for permission.

A requested visit from the eminent but atheist German Doctor Ludwig Büchner in company with the notorious Edward Aveling went amiably on Thursday 28 September with Darwin introducing his old friend the Revd.

Lectures were delivered on educational, social and political topics with Aveling himself in the chair and participation from the floor encouraged.

Following the success of the Aveling and Porter business, Thomas rose to local prominence, first on the council and then between 1869 and 1870 as Mayor of Rochester.

As a prominent local businessman Aveling served on a number of public bodies.

Aveling retired from Aveling and Porter in 1928 and died of a heart attack on 5 June 1931 at home in Pettings Court, Ash near Wrotham, Kent.

Major Aveling became a director of A and GE, taking control of Aveling & Porter on his father's retirement in 1928.

Edward Aveling was born on 29 November 1849 in Stoke Newington, the fifth of eight children of Rev.

Aveling married the heiress Isabel Campbell Frank on 30 July 1872, but the marriage only lasted two years.

In the autumn of 1886, Aveling and Marx toured and lectured the United States on behalf of the Socialist Labor Party.

In 1897 Aveling left Eleanor and on 8 June that year secretly married an actress, Eva Frye, but returned to Eleanor when he was struck down with kidney disease.

Aveling died four months later, on 2 August 1898, in Battersea of kidney disease.

While later working at Aveling & Porter in Rochester, Kent, Perkins started working on a high-speed, light-weight, diesel engine with Charles Chapman.

Gray denied that investigation of physical causes stood opposed to the theological view and the study of the harmonies between mind and Nature, and thought it " most presumable that an intellectual conception realized in Nature would be realized through natural agencies ".. Thomas Huxley, who strongly promoted Darwin's ideas while campaigning to end the dominance of science by the clergy, coined the term agnostic to describe his position that God's existence is unknowable, and Darwin also took this position, but evolution was also taken up by prominent atheists including Edward Aveling and Ludwig Büchner and it was criticised, in the words of one reviewer, as " tantamount to atheism ".

Before the Universal design was introduced, production was by Aveling and Porter, Bedford Vehicles, the British branch of the Ford Motor Company, Morris Motors LImited, the Sentinel Waggon Works, and the Thornycroft company.

Initial deliveries were from Vivian Loyd's own company but production moved to the larger firms including the Ford Motor Company and Wolseley Motors ( 13, 000 between them ) and Dennis Brothers Ltd, Aveling & Barford and Sentinel Waggon Works.

* George William Foote, 1881 – 1915 ( Edward Aveling edited the paper during Foote's imprisonment, 1883 )

On 31 March 1898, Eleanor sent the maid to the local chemist with a note to which she signed the initials of the man the chemist knew as " Dr Aveling ," asking for padiorium and a small quantity of prussic acid ( hydrogen cyanide ) for her dog.

" Morris played peacemaker but sided with the anti-Parliamentarians, who won control of the League, which consequently lost the support of Engels and saw the departure of Eleanor Marx and her partner Edward Aveling to form the separate Bloomsbury Socialist Society.

" Morris played peacemaker but sided with the anti-Parliamentarians, who won control of the League, which consequently lost the support of Engels and saw the departure of Eleanor Marx and her partner Edward Aveling to form the separate Bloomsbury Socialist Society.

In 1861 this became the firm of Aveling & Porter, which was to become the largest manufacturer of agricultural machines and steam rollers in the country.

At the 4th Annual Conference of the Socialist League the Bloomsbury branch, to which Marx and Aveling belonged, moved that a meeting of all socialist bodies should be called to discuss the formation of a united organisation.

But, in my judgment, it is precisely differences of this kind which distinguish him so completely from the class of thinkers to which Dr. Aveling belongs.

Preston reports the business as being established by 1861 at which time Aveling was able to build 71 / 2 ton engines.

In the aftermath Aveling and Porter combined with Barford & Perkins in 1933 to form Aveling-Barford which continued to make steam and motor rollers.

In 1884, Aveling became the partner of Eleanor " Tussy " Marx, the daughter of Karl Marx, despite being the estranged husband of Isabel Frank, a status which remained until her death in 1892.

In August 1888, the branch to which Aveling and Marx belonged separated from the anarchist-dominated Socialist League in favor of an independent existence as the Bloomsbury Socialist Society.

Aveling was a founding member and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Independent Labour Party by the 1893 Conference which established the organisation.