He is considered by some to be on par with Alexander Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, but history has not been as kind to Australian inventor Henry Sutton.

Henry Sutton's inventions 1870: Builds an ornithopter and experiments with heavier-than-air flight 1876: Designs at least 20 different types of telephones 1880: Designs and builds a light globe just 16 days after Edison 1881: Builds a storage battery that can be recharged 1883: Experiments with mineral floatation processes eventually used in water treatment 1885: Invents the telephane 1886: Patents improved method of printing photographs in newspapers 1890: Travels to Europe to display the telephane and learn from other inventors 1899: Designs and builds one of Australia's first cars 1903: Co-founds the RACV 1906-12: Works on developing a wireless radio system for the Government

The Ballarat-born inventor developed a range of cutting-edge designs and innovations that led to some of the common technologies we take for granted today.

Sutton designed and built a torpedo, at least 20 different types of telephones and a helicopter-like ornithopter — making him the first Australian credited to have experimented with heavier-than-air flight.

Most notably, he designed rechargeable batteries, wireless radio, an 'autocar' and the precursor to television, known as the telephane.

More than a century after Sutton's death, his great-granddaughter and biographer, Lorayne Branch, has written a book in the hope of breathing new life into his legacy.

'Australia needs to know who he is'

While Sutton was known overseas in his time, Ms Branch said Australia was not as receptive to his work.

"He was ignored because he didn't have a degree," she said.

"He didn't need them, he didn't want to waste his time, he was too busy inventing."

Lorayne Branch spent a decade researching her great-grandfather for the book, Henry Sutton: The Innovative Man. ( ABC Ballarat: Dominic Cansdale )

Born in 1856, Sutton was home-schooled by his mother until he was 11 but received no formal education.

Instead he went out to teach himself scientific theories while helping his father craft musical instruments.

He wrote a paper on the theory of heavier-than-air flight at age 14, which was published in the Royal Aeronautical Journal of Britain several years later, before going on to teach at the Ballarat School of Mines until 1886-87.

"He was a great teacher," Ms Branch said.

"When you read his letters and papers … he would explain science [so] a nine to 90-year-old would understand so you were enthralled from the word go."

Military secrets and the beginning of television

Sutton's work began to take off in the 1870s and ran through until his death in 1912.

"He came up with the first battery in the world that not only stored electricity but could be recharged — and this was in his early 20s — and that made him famous around the world," Ms Branch said.

Radio innovations were among Henry Sutton's pioneering work in the 19th and early 20th century. ( Supplied: Engineering and Technology History Wiki )

Arguably his most famous invention, the telephane, was used to transmit an image from the Melbourne Cup along telegraph wires to Ballarat in 1885.

But after meeting Nikola Tesla during a trip to England in 1892, Sutton became convinced that moving images could be transmitted wirelessly like they are in modern televisions.

"It was Henry's early work that they went back to … it was [John Logie] Baird that came up with television using Henry's principles," Ms Branch said.

"Technology always had to catch up with Henry's ideas."

Some of his inventions faced intense government scrutiny, especially his innovations with wireless radio which resulted in a two-year dispute with bureaucrats.

"When you come up with something that would jam signals in wartime, you don't want the public to know how to do that," Ms Branch said.

But in the end "the pressure from other wireless experimenters and the public" forced the government to permit Sutton to continue his wireless experiments.

Debunking myth from reality

While receiving sporadic mentions in newspapers and historical records, much of the information Ms Branch found out about Sutton came from her research trips overseas, including to Oxford in England.

"I had to strip everything back to its source … piece by piece, word by word, line by line, from thousands of journals around the world and newspapers," she said.

Ms Branch said that over time, myths about the extent of Sutton's achievements had been confused with fact, including that he transmitted actual video of the Melbourne Cup via the telephane.

"All the journalists that researched him after that [said] 'oh yes he did transmit [the Melbourne Cup] because so-and-so said so'," she said.

"No, that's just what you wanted to say to make it sound good."

Instead, Ms Branch said he transmitted a "faint image" as the telegraph infrastructure at the time was unsuitable for anything more advanced.

Why isn't Sutton more well-known?

Ms Branch said that researching her great-grandfather's life had provided her with an immense level of pride but that he had not been as well remembered as he should have.

"Science belonged to everybody, that was Henry's motto," she said.

"When he came up with something that was important, that made the world better and was useful for everybody, he'd give it freely to the world."

Retired science and technology curator of the Victorian Science Museum, Geoffrey Holden, said Sutton's inventions were elegant but rarely heard of because he lived far from "the centre of the technical universe" — Europe and the United States.

"Henry didn't produce inventions that went directly into your home like a light globe or DC power," Mr Holden told the Science Show on ABC Radio National.

The Sutton family's music store was, and remains, a recognised landmark in the centre of Ballarat. ( Supplied: Victorian Collections )

"He was not aiming to patent everything he could think of — Edison did — [Sutton] put many of his inventions in the public domain because he didn't feel he should profit from them."

Curator of Federation University's Art and Historical Collections, Clare Gervasoni, said there was relatively little information remaining about Sutton because "he wasn't into the fame and the glory".

"A lot of it seemed to go under the carpet but generally the community did know they had a genius in their midst," Ms Gervasoni said.

"If you look at the list of things he was involved with, it was really quite long and it's quite broad in scope, so his mind was never still."

Call to preserve and honour legacy

Ms Branch said her biography would rejuvenate interest in Sutton and give him the recognition he deserved.

"This is Australia's Edison in a sense," she said.

More importantly, Ms Branch said Sutton's quiet achievements should inspire modern inventors and scientists.

"We in Australia can do and achieve great things," she said.

"Corporations own things these days, you don't know who invented things, that app, that thing in your phone."

"There are people like Henry still that are not honoured, it's not all about football and politicians … we have amazing stories, Henry is one of them."

Hear more about Henry Sutton on Radio National's the Science Show, Saturday December 8 at 12pm.