Peter Brotherhood (1838–1902) was a British engineer. He invented the Brotherhood engine used for

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es as well as many other engineering products. With his son he built a large engineering business in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

bearing his name, Peter Brotherhood. His son Stanley moved the works to

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

in 1903 where their engineering business continued to grow. On 30 October 2015 Hayward Tyler Group PLC completed the acquisition of the trade and assets of the Peter Brotherhood business from Dresser-Rand Company Ltd, a

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

-owned company.

Family of engineers

Peter was the second son of the fourteen children of

Rowland Brotherhood Rowland Brotherhood (or sometimes Roland Brotherhood) was a British engineer. He was born in Middlesex in 1812 and died in Bristol in 1883. He married Priscilla Penton in 1835 and they had 14 children, one also called Rowland who played cricke ...

(1812-1883), a British engineer, and his wife Priscilla Penton. He was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire 22 April 1838 and raised in comfortable circumstances in Chippenham, Wiltshire near his father's engineering works. He spent the years when he was aged 13 to 18 studying applied science at

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London and ...

. After practical experience including a period at the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

works at

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

he joined the leading marine engineering works, Maudslay, Son & Field in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

in their drawing-office. He is said to have had a "mechanical instinct" which allowed him to design machinery without resorting to calculations or formulae. He also had a passion for experiment. Peter married Eliza Pinniger Hunt, daughter of James Edward Hunt a contractor to the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

, on 19 April 1866 and they had five children but only Stanley (1880-1938) and two daughters outlived them. Peter died at his home 15 Hyde Park Gardens on 13 October 1902.

Engineering firms

Coldharbour Mill - beam engine - geograph

Kittoe & Brotherhood

In 1867 before he had reached the age of 30 Peter became a partner in the engineers and

millwrights A millwright is a craftsperson or skilled tradesperson who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mecha ...

business of Kittoe and Brotherhood in

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

when their main product was brewing machinery. A restored Kittoe and Brotherhood beam engine of 1867 can be seen at the

Coldharbour Mill Coldharbour Mill, near the village of Uffculme in Devon, England, is one of the oldest woollen textile mills in the world, having been in continuous production since 1797. The mill was one of a number owned by Fox Brothers, and is designated by ...

museum in Devon - it was originally supplied to the

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

Albion brewery. Kittoe retired in 1871 and the firm became Peter Brotherhood.

Peter Brotherhood

;Brotherhood radial engine After Kittoe's retirement this firm mainly produced machines of Peter Brotherhood's own invention, in particular from 1872 the Brotherhood 3-cylinder 120 degrees radial engine which could be powered by steam, water or compressed air at high speed and in perfect balance. Put to many uses it drove the Navy's

Whitehead torpedo The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a th ...

es and was used in the torpedoes of other navies as well. Fans, dynamos and other high speed machines were directly driven by this engine.Peter Brotherhood Limited. ''The Times'', Monday, Jul 05, 1937; pg. 22; Issue 47728 In 1881 the business was moved to Belvedere Road, Lambeth. Batory zespol pradotworczy

;Products 1 The radial engine led not only to fans dynamos etc. but eventually to the manufacture of steam turbines, internal combustion engines and heavy oil and Diesel engines specially the Brotherhood-Ricardo high-speed heavy oil engine.

Stanley Brotherhood

In 1903 Peter's only surviving son, Stanley (1880–1938), previously general manager for his father, moved the works from the Lambeth premises taken in 1881 to

where it continues as Peter Brotherhood Limited.

Motor industry

Peter Brotherhood Limited made cars in

then, unable to get consent for a car factory in Peterborough, moved their manufacture to Tinsley in Yorkshire before they withdrew from that venture in 1906. They continued to make heavy agricultural tractors. From late 1906 the cars were named

Sheffield-Simplex Sheffield-Simplex was a British car and motorcycle manufacturer operating from 1907 to 1920 based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. The company received financial backing from aristocrat and coal magnate Earl Fitzwilliam. ...

. Brotherhood's backer Fitzwilliam of

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

near Peterborough and

Wentworth Woodhouse Wentworth Woodhouse is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Wentworth, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It is currently owned by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust. The building has m ...

near Tinsley took over the car business naming it for

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

the nearby town and the operational simplicity of his very expensive cars. Stanley Brotherhood was a director then chairman of

Humber Limited Humber Limited was a British manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles, and cars incorporated and listed on the stock exchange in 1887. It took the name "Humber & Co Limited" because of the high reputation of the products of one of the constituent ...

until it merged with Hillman Motor Company and came under the control of Rootes Group in 1929.

Peter Brotherhood Limited

A private limited liability company was incorporated to own the Peter Brotherhood business on 16 December 1907. In 1920 it joined the engineering combine

Agricultural & General Engineers Agricultural & General Engineers Limited (AGE) was a holding company formed on 4 June 1919 during a postwar economic "boom" to combine five British engineering companies: Aveling & Porter, E H Bentall, Blackstone, Richard Garrett and J & F Howard. ...

or AGE however AGE sold its 70 per cent share of Peter Brotherhood in late 1930 before AGE collapsed in 1932. On 29 June 1937 Peter Brotherhood became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

and was listed on the London Stock Exchange a few days later.Peter Brotherhood Issue Result. ''The Times'', Friday, Jul 09, 1937; pg. 24; Issue 47732 ;Products 2 In June 1937 Peter Brotherhood's products included: high and low pressure compressors, compressors for torpedo service, torpedo tubes, Brotherhood high speed forced lubrication steam engines, steam turbines, turbo-generators, high speed diesel engines, oil and gas engines, refrigerating compressors, pumps, water cooling towers, filtering plants, fans, dynamometers, pressure gauge testing and other precision instruments. Before the company went public in 1937 contracts had been undertaken for more than 60 years for H M Government and numerous Dominion and foreign governments and many of the principal industrial, shipping, and utility enterprises in and beyond the United Kingdom including:

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functi ...

, Gas Light and Coke Co,

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

, Union Cold Storage,

Burmah Oil The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil company which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1966, Castrol was acquired by Burmah, which was renamed "Burmah-Castrol". BP Amoco (now BP) purchased the company in 2000. Histor ...

Anglo-Iranian Oil The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number o ...

, LNER railway,

LMS railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

, P & O.

Dresser Rand Company Ltd

In 2008, the business was sold to

Dresser-Rand Dresser-Rand is an American engineering and manufacturing company owned by Siemens Energy. The company designs, manufactures, and services equipment used in the extraction of petroleum and natural gas. The company was formed in 1986 as a joint v ...

Company Ltd.

Hayward Tyler Group

On 30 October 2015 the Hayward Tyler Group PLC completed the acquisition of the trade and assets of the Peter Brotherhood business from Dresser-Rand Company Ltd, a Siemens-owned company. The Peter Brotherhood business continues manufacturing steam turbines, gas compressors, and combined heat and power solutions.

References

External links

Peter Brotherhood Limited

* ttps://vimeo.com/145533497 Video - Peter Brotherhood gets the name back on the door as it is bought by the Hayward Tyler Group in 2015
A Peter Brotherhood engine video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brotherhood, Peter 1838 births 1902 deaths 19th-century British engineers English engineers