John Braithwaite (engineer)
John Braithwaite the Younger ( born March 19, 1797 in London, † September 25, 1870 ) was an English engineer and inventor of the first steam-powered fire engine.
Braithwaite was the third son of John Braithwaite the elder. Born on 1 Bath Place, New Road, London on 19 March 1797, he worked for his school education in the factory of his father, where he further formed as a technical engineer and a gifted draftsman was. In June 1818 his father died, leaving the manufactory the brothers Francis and John. Francis died in 1823, after which John Braithwaite continued the business alone. In 1817 he told the House of Commons on the steamboat explosion in Norwich, and in 1820 he attended the House of Lords for an air pump close support ventilation. In 1822 he built the " donkey engine" ( a steam-powered winch), and in 1823 he poured the statue of the Duke of Kent by Sebastian Gahagan, which was erected in Portland Place, London.
It was made in 1827 with George and Robert Stephenson known and learned about the same time Captain John Ericsson know. In 1829, Braithwaite and Ericsson constructed for the race of Rainhill locomotive The Novelty. This steam locomotive was the first (more specifically, 56 seconds) a mile in under a minute managed.
Fire engines
At this time, Braithwaite developed the first usable steam-powered fire engine, which was eventually destroyed by a London mob. It had, however, previously good services provided during the fire of the English Opera House in 1830, the fire in the Argyle Rooms (also in 1830) and the major fire at the Palace of Westminster in 1834. Had The pump has a capacity of two tons of water per minute was fired with coke and was within 20 minutes working temperature; However, the machine called in the fire of time out so much envy that the inventor had to retire. However, he soon built on four additional pumps with larger dimensions, two of which (in Berlin and Liverpool) very satisfactorily worked. In 1833 John Braithwaite built along with Captain Ericsson a caloric engine (a type of Stirling engine ).
Civil
The following year, he finished his active participation in the management of motor development in the New Road. Instead, he worked as a civil engineer for Public Contracts, and was just involved in the area of skills and possible improvements of locomotive engines. In 1834 he designed and planned together with Charles Blacker Vignoles the Eastern Counties Railway. The railway company was founded in 1836, and John Braithwaite was shortly after the foundation for senior civil engineer for the construction of this railway line. He opted for a track width of 5 feet, and in this latitude the line to Colchester was built; the thresholds, however, were designed for a gauge up to 7 feet. Following the advice of Robert Stephenson, the track width was reduced subsequently to the national length of 4 feet 8 ½ inches. In later years, Braithwaite advocated an even narrower track width.
Consultants
Braithwaite had in 1844 shares in a patent for the extraction of oil from oil shale, and corresponding stations were built near Weymouth which - he would not get into trouble - were quite promising. A few years earlier, 1836 - 1838, had Captain Ericsson and he fitted a normal canal boat with a screw drive, which ran from London via the channels to Manchester and then via Oxford and the Thames back to London. It was the first and only steam boat that had traveled all the way to these waters. The experiment was canceled because there was lack of water in the channels, and because the completion of the railway lines had paying customers deduct.
1844 and 1846 remained John Braithwaite much on the continent, surveying railway lines in France. After his return he was commissioned in 1850 to examine the port of Langston un the Brentford brewery to build ( 1851). From then on, he was mainly occupied with office work and worked as a consultant for current mechanical issues, including the case of patents.
Honors
Braithwaite was in 1819 a member of the Society of Antiquaries, the Institution of Civil Engineers on February 13, 1838 joined. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest members of the Royal Society of Arts, in which he had been taken in 1918. In addition, he was president of 17 charities.
Very suddenly, he died on 25 September 1870 in 8 Clifton Gardens, Paddington, and was buried in the " Kensal Green" cemetery.