Model of hoisting machine (power lift) with glass case and two packages used as demonstration weights. The hoisting machine would have been used for raising or lowering goods and could be worked by hand or steam requiring only one person to operate it. This model hoisting machine was exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Rev. Daniel 'Dan' Greatorex (1829-1901) was vicar of St Pauls in Whitechapel, London. Before his career in the church Greatorex designed a hoisting machine which was shown in the Great Exhibition in 1851. Despite never pursuing a career in engineering Greatorex kept the model hoisting machine which he had designed and built in his early 20s as well as the origianl exhibition number card from the Great Exhibtion for over 40 years and later donated it to the Science Museum in 1895.

Greatorex was well known for his chariatble work and fundraising for the church. He was also a keen traveller and collector of bibles, weapons and natural history specimens from around the world. Towards the end of his life Greatorex donated most of his collections to museums and libraries including most of his ethnogaphic and natural history collections to the White Chapel Free Library, which later became The Whitechapel Museum. These collections were split up after the closure of the Whitechapel Museum in 1953 and much of the documentation regarding his donations to museums has been lost. Greatorex's diaries are kept in Tower Hamlets Library.