Andrew Betts Brown

Andrew Betts Brown (1841 to 1906) was an Edinburgh born engineer whose steam and hydraulic machinery became standard equipment on ships. He served his apprenticeship in the locomotive works of the North British Railway, studied in Manchester, and in 1863 bought an old brewery in London and converted it into the Vauxhall Iron Works. An early invention, an overhead travelling crane, was used in building Blackfriars Bridge. His better known inventions included a combined hydraulic and steam starting engine, the steam tiller, and the telemotor, a hydraulic apparatus that let a ship's steering gear be controlled from the bridge without chains and shafting. He also devised a hydraulic system for loading and discharging cargo with a steam accumulator, and his Edinburgh firm supplied steering gear for Japanese battleships and for the Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania. He died in Edinburgh in 1906.