Joseph Glynn, FRS

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(6 February 1799 – 6 February 1863) was a British steam engine designer. He was born the son of James Glynn of the Ouseburn Iron Foundry in Newcastle upon Tyne and taught by John Bruce at the Percy Street Academy. He started work as an assistant to his father at the Ouseburn foundry until 1820 when he designed and built a steam engine to drain the Talkin Colliery in Cumberland. In 1821 he designed the system for street lighting by coal gas in Berwick-on-Tweed and subsequently in Aberdeen. He moved to become Chief Engineer at the Butterley Iron Company in Derbyshire, where he improved the design of the emergent steam engines up to 200 horse power. He was then commissioned to design a series of marine steam engines for the

General Steam Navigation Company The General Steam Navigation Company (GSN), incorporated in 1824, was London's foremost short sea shipping line for almost 150 years. It was the oldest shipping company in the world to begin business with seagoing steam vessels. Foundation ...

including the William Jolliffe, built in 1826, with a beam engine of 100 h.p. and the Harlequin built in the same year again with a Butterley Co.built beam engine and for the Royal Navy ( HMS ''Firefly'' and HMS ''Firebrand''). His most remembered achievement was the design and construction of steam engines to drain the Fens of eastern England, making it possible to farm many thousands of acres for the first time. He wrote a book "''Cranes, the Construction of, and other Machinery for Raising Heavy Bodies''" He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1838.https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/about-us/fellowship/Fellows1660-2007.pdf#page=139 He died in London in 1863 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

References

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glynn, Joseph 1799 births 1863 deaths People from Newcastle upon Tyne Fellows of the Royal Society Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery