Online Encyclopedia

SIR JOHN BROWN (1816-1896)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 661 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:
SIR JOHN BROWN (1816-1896)  ,
See also:
English armour
See also:
plate manufacturer, was born at Sheffield on the 6th of December 1816, the son of a slater . He was apprenticed when fourteen years old to a Sheffield
See also:
firm who manufactured files and table cutlery . Impressed with Brown's ability, the senior partner offered him the control of the. business (
See also:
Earl Horton and Co.) and advanced some of the necessary capital . Brown invented in 1848 the conical steel spring buffer for railway wagons, and in 186o, after seeing the French
See also:
ship "La Gloire" armoured with hammered plate, he determined to attempt the production of armour for the
See also:
British
See also:
navy by a
See also:
rolling
See also:
process . The experiment was successful, and led to admiralty orders for armour plate sufficient to protect about three-quarters of the navy . In 1856 Brown had started the
See also:
Atlas
See also:
Works in Sheffield, which soon produced, beside armour plates and railway buffers, ordnance forgings, steel rails, railway
See also:
carriage axles and tires . The works covered
See also:
thirty acres and employed eventually more than four thousand workmen . Besides supplying iron to the Sheffield steel trade, Brown himself successfully
See also:
developed the Bessemer process . In 1864, after his business had been converted into a limited
See also:
company, he retired . He died at Bromley, Kent, on the 27th of December 1896 . Among the honours conferred upon him was a
See also:
knighthood in 1867, the office of mayor of Sheffield in 1862 and 1863, and that of Master Cutler in 1865 and 1866 .

End of Article: SIR JOHN BROWN (1816-1896)
[back]
SIR GEORGE BROWN (1790-1865)
[next]
BART SIR WILLIAM BROWN

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.