Born April 13, 1749. Died December 9, 1814.

This eminent practical engineer and machinist was born at Stainborough, in Yorkshire. His father rented a farm on the estate of Lord Strafford, and Joseph, being the eldest of five children was intended for the same employment; but fortunately for his subsequent career, an accidental lameness, which occurred when he was sixteen years old, prevented his following agricultural pursuits. When quite a boy, Bramah exhibited unusual mechanical talent; he succeeded in constructing two violoncellos, which were found to be very tolerable instruments, and also managed to cut a violin out of a single block of wood, by means of tools which were forged for him by a neighbouring smith, whom in after life he engaged in London as one of his principal workmen. After having served an apprenticeship to a carpenter and joiner, Bramah obtained employment in the workshop of a cabinetmaker in London, and soon afterwards established himself as a principal in the business. The history of his life after this is perhaps best given by a record of his numerous inventions, all of which are, more or less, of a highly useful character. For the manufacture of these, Bramah first took up his residence in Denmark Street, Soho, but subsequently removed to Piccadilly, and established the various branches of his manufactory in some extensive premises at Pimlico. In 1783 he took out a patent for an improved watercock, and in the year following, completed the invention of his famous lock, which for many years stood unrivalled in ingenuity of construction, workmanship, and powers of resistance against all attempts to pick.[4] Bramah's indefatigable spirit of invention was stimulated to fresh efforts by the success of his lock, and he now entered upon a more important and original line of action than he had yet ventured upon. In his patent of 1785 he indicated many inventions, although none of them came into practical use—such as a Hydrostatical Machine and Boiler, and the application of the power produced by them to the drawing of carriages and the propelling of ships, by a paddle-wheel fixed in the stern of the vessel. For different modifications of pumps and fire-engines, Mr. Bramah took out three successive patents, the two last being dated in 1790 and 1798. But in the year 1795 he produced and patented the most important of all his inventions, namely, 'The Hydraulic Press,' a machine which gives to a child the strength of a giant, enabling him to bend a bar of iron as if it were wax. The chief difficulty which Bramah experienced in constructing this press was that of devising an efficient packing for the ram or solid piston, which, while capable of keeping out the water under the tremendous internal pressure exercised by the pump, should, on the withdrawal of that pressure, allow the ram to sink into its original place. This was at length accomplished by the invention of the self-tightening leather-collar, which was firmly secured in a recess at the top of a cylinder, with the concave side downwards. Consequently, when the water was pumped into the cylinder, it immediately forced its way between the bent edges of the collar; and the greater the pressure of water, the tighter became the hold which the collar took of the solid piston. It appears from the testimony of Mr. James Nasmyth, that Bramah was indebted for this simple but beautiful contrivance, to Henry Maudslay, who was at that time a workman in his shop, and who had already greatly assisted him in the construction of his lock.

Bramah continued his useful labours as an inventor for many years, and his studies of the principles of Hydraulics, in the course of his invention of the press, enabled him to introduce many valuable improvements in pumping machinery. By varying the form of the piston and cylinder, he was enabled to obtain a rotary motion, which he adopted in the well-known fire-engine. In 1797 he took out a patent for the beer-machine, now in such general use in public houses, and in the description of this he includes a mode of converting every cask in a cellar into a force pump, so as to raise the liquor to any part of the house; a filtering machine; a method of making pipes; a vent peg, and a new form of stop-cock. Bramah also turned his attention to the improvement of the steam-engine, but in this, Watt's patent had left little room for other inventors: and hence Bramah seems to have entertained a grudge against Watt, which was shown strongly in the evidence given by him in the case of Boulton and Watt versus Hornblower and Maberly, tried in December 1796. On the expiry, however, of Boulton and Watt's patent, Bramah introduced several valuable improvements in the details of the condensing engine, the most important of which was his "four-way cock," which was so contrived as to revolve continuously instead of alternately, thus insuring greater precision with less wear of parts. In this patent, which he secured in 1801, he also proposed sundry improvements in the boilers, as well as modifications in various parts of the engine. In the year 1802, Bramah obtained a patent for a very elaborate and accurate machine for producing smooth and parallel surfaces on wood and other materials. This was erected on a large scale at Woolwich Arsenal, and proved perfectly successful. The specification of the patent includes the description of a mode of turning spherical surfaces either convex or concave, by a tool moveable on an axis perpendicular to that of the lathe, and of cutting out concentric shells, by fixing in a similar manner a curved tool, nearly of the same form as that employed by common turners for making bowls. Bramah also invented machinery for making paper in large sheets, and for printing by means of a roller, composed of a number of circular plates, each turning on the same axis, and bearing twenty-six letters capable of being shifted at pleasure, so as to express any single line by a proper combination of the plates. This was put in practice to number bank-notes, and enabled twenty clerks to perform the labour which previously had required one hundred and twenty. In 1812 he projected a scheme for main-pipes, which was, however, in many respects, more ingenious than practicable. In describing this, he mentions having employed a hydrostatic pressure equal to that of a column of water twenty thousand feet high (about three and a half tons per square inch). Mr. Bramah made several improvements in the bearings of wheels, and suggested the use of pneumatic springs formed by pistons sliding in cylinders, in place of the usual metal springs for carriages. He likewise improved the machines for sawing stones and timber, and suggested some alterations in the construction of bridges and canal locks. He died in his sixty-sixth year, his last illness having been occasioned by a severe cold caught during the month of November, while making some experiments with his hydraulic press on the tearing up of trees in Holt Forest. He was a cheerful, benevolent, and affectionate man, neat and methodical in his habits, and knew well how to temper liberality with economy; greatly to his honour he often kept his workmen employed solely for their sake, when the stagnation of trade prevented him from disposing of the products of their labour. As a manufacturer he was distinguished for his promptitude and probity, and was celebrated for the exquisite finish which he gave to his productions. At his death he left his family in affluent circumstances, and his manufacturing establishments have since his death been continued by his sons. Unfortunately, Mr. Bramah had an invincible dislike to sitting for his portrait, and there consequently exists no likeness of this distinguished man; for, although a cast of his face was taken after death by Sir Francis Chantry, this, together with many others was destroyed by Lady Chantry after the death of her husband.—Memoir by Dr. Brown.—Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam Engine. London, 1829.—Smiles's Industrial Biography. London, 1863.