William Brunton Senior (26 May 1777 – 5 October 1851) was a Scottish engineer and inventor.
Early life
He was the eldest son of Robert Brunton, a watchmaker (14 Aug 1748–1834) of Dalkeith, where he was born.
He studied mechanics in his father's watch and clock making shop, and engineering under his grandfather William Brunton (16 July 1706 – 22 March 1787), who was a colliery viewer in the neighborhood. (His grandfathers death certificate states that William Brunton was actually a portioner in Dalkeith, not a colliery viewer)
Career
In 1790 he commenced work in the fitting shops of the
cotton mill
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Although some were driven b ...
s at
New Lanark
New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometres) from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1785 and opened in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and hou ...
built by
David Dale
David Dale (6 January 1739–7 March 1806) was a leading Scottish industrialist, merchant and philanthropist during the Scottish Enlightenment period at the end of the 18th century. He was a successful entrepreneur in a number of areas, m ...
and Sir
Richard Arkwright.
In 1796, he migrated south to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, being attracted by the fame of the
Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tr ...
, obtaining employment with
Boulton and Watt
Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...
. He remained at Soho until he was made foreman and superintendent of the engine manufactory. Still only twenty-one, he would be sent alone to rectify problems on customers premises.
Leaving Soho in 1808 he joined the
Butterley Works of
Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
Life
Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father J ...
and
William Jessop
William Jessop (23 January 1745 – 18 November 1814) was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Early life
Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon, the ...
, and being deputed to represent his master in many important missions he made the acquaintance of
John Rennie,
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...
, and other eminent engineers.
In 1815 he returned to Birmingham, having become a partner in and the mechanical manager of the Eagle Foundry, where he remained ten years, during which time he designed and executed a great variety of important works.
From 1825 to 1835 he appears to have been practising in London as a civil engineer. In 1832, with Henry Habberley Price, he proposed a 'Bristol and London Railway' at an estimated cost of £2.5m but sufficient financial support was not forthcoming. Quitting the metropolis in 1935 he took a share in the
Cwmafan
Cwmafan ( cy, Cwmafan; ), sometimes known as Cwmavon in English, is a large village and community in the Afan valley in Wales, lying within Neath Port Talbot County Borough. It had a population of 5,603 in 2001, increasing slightly to 5,615 at ...
Tin Works,
Glamorganshire
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
, where he erected copper smelting furnaces and rolling mills. He became connected with the
Maesteg
Maesteg is a town and community (Wales), community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2011, Maesteg had a population of 20,612. The English ...
Works in the same county, and with a brewery at
Neath in 1838; here a total failure ensued, and the savings of his life were lost.
Inventions
As a mechanical engineer his works were various and important; many of them were in the adaptation of original and ingenious modes of reducing and manufacturing metals, and the improvement of the machinery connected therewith. In the introduction of steam navigation he had a large share; he made some of the original engines used on the Humber and the Trent, and some of the earliest on the Mersey, including those for the vessel which first plied on the Liverpool ferries in 1814. He fitted out the ''Sir Francis Drake'' at Plymouth in 1824, the first steamer that ever took a man-of-war in tow.
Brunton took out nine patents in all, three of them while he was in Birmingham. His first was for a steam boiler furnace with a revolving bed and a vibrating hopper which distributed the fuel evenly. His
calciner was used on the works of most of the tin mines in Cornwall, as well as at the silver ore works in Mexico, and his fan regulator was also found to be a most useful invention.
At the Butterley works he applied the principle of a rapid rotation of the mould in casting iron pipes, and incurred great expense in securing a patent, only to find that a foreigner, who used the same process in casting terra cotta, had recited in his specifications that the same mode might be applied to metals.
The most novel and ingenious of his inventions was the walking machine called the
''Steam Horse'', which he made at Butterley in 1813 for use on the company's
tramway at
Crich
Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway V ...
. A second one was built for the
Newbottle colliery, which worked with a load up a gradient of 1 in 36 during all the winter of 1814. Early in 1815, through some carelessness, this machine exploded and killed thirteen persons.
[Nicholas Wood, ''Treatise on Rail Roads'', 1825, pp. 131–5, with a plate.]
In the course of his career he obtained many patents, but derived little remuneration from them, although several of them came into general use. Latterly he turned his attention to the subject of improved ventilation for collieries, and sent models of his inventions to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. He was intimate with all the engineers of the older school, and was almost the last of that celebrated set of men.
Later life
After his experience at Neath, he occasionally reappeared in his profession, but was never again fully embarked in business. He was a member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...
, but the date of his admission has not been found.
Brunton died at the residence of his son, William Brunton, at Camborne, Cornwall, 5 October 1851, having married, 30 October 1810, Anne Elizabeth Button, adopted daughter of John and Rebecca Dickinson of Summer Hill, Birmingham. She died at Eaglesbush, Neath, Glamorganshire, 1845, leaving sons who became well known engineers in their own right - John born 1812, William born 1817, J. Dickinson born 1821 and George born 1823.
References
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunton, William
1771 births
1851 deaths
English engineers
English inventors