View source for Samuel Brown (Royal Navy officer)

{{Short description|English pioneer suspension bridge engineer and inventor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
[[File:Captain Sir Samuel Brown (1776–1852).jpg|thumb|Samuel Brown {{circa}} 1823]]
Captain '''Sir Samuel Brown of Netherbyres''' [[Hanoverian Guelphic Order|KH]] [[FRSE]] (1776 – 13 March 1852) was an early pioneer of [[chain]] design and manufacture and of [[suspension bridge]] design and construction. He is best known for the [[Union Bridge (Tweed)|Union Bridge]] of 1820, the first vehicular suspension bridge in Britain.

==Naval career==
Brown was born in London, the son of William Brown of Borland, [[Galloway]], Scotland<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf|title=Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002|publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh|accessdate=19 September 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004113545/http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf|archivedate=4 October 2006}}</ref> and Charlotte Hogg. He joined the [[Royal Navy]] in 1795, serving initially on the [[Colony of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]] and [[North Sea]] stations. He served as lieutenant on {{HMS|Royal Sovereign|1786|6}} (1803) and in 1805 joined {{HMS|Phoenix|1783|6}} as first lieutenant. During his service on ''Phoenix'' he took part in the capture of the French frigate {{HMS|Didon|1805|2}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=John |title=Royal Naval Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4yE2ElZxDcC&q=Samuel+Brown+royal+navy&pg=PA20|volume=4|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108022712|page=20}}</ref> The following year he was appointed to {{HMS|Imperieuse|1793|6}}, followed by periods of service aboard {{HMS|Flore}} and {{HMS|Ulysses|1779|6}}.<ref name=obit>Obituary, ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' 1852, pp. 519–520.</ref>

During his service, he carried out tests on [[wrought iron]] chain cables, using them as rigging for {{HMS|Penelope|1798|6}} in 1806 on a voyage to the [[West Indies]]. This so impressed the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] that on his return in 1808 it immediately ordered four vessels of war to be fitted with chain cables.<ref name=ponty/>

In 1808 Brown took out [[patent]]s for twisted open chain links, joining shackles and swivels. His shackle and swivel designs were scarcely improved on for the next 100 years.<ref>[http://www.nvo.com/baldtus/historyoftheanchor/ History And Development Of Anchor Chain<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205012722/http://www.nvo.com/baldtus/historyoftheanchor/ |date=5 February 2007 }}</ref><ref name=Baldt>[http://66.241.199.22/baldt_anchor_history.htm Old Chester, PA: Baldt Anchor History<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120730043742/http://66.241.199.22/baldt_anchor_history.htm |date=30 July 2012 }}</ref>

By 1811, he was promoted to [[commander]] (in 1842 he accepted the rank of retired captain),<ref name=obit/> and his chains were introduced to hold ships' [[anchor]]s. He retired from the Navy in May 1812. Just four years later, the Royal Navy standardized on iron chain instead of hemp for all new vessels of war.<ref name=Baldt/>

==Chain manufacture==
[[File:IKBrunelChains.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Isambard Kingdom Brunel|Brunel]] in front of the chains made at Brown's [[Pontypridd]] ironworks for [[SS Great Eastern|SS ''Great Eastern'']].]]
He established a company (known as Samuel Brown & Co and also [[Brown Lenox & Co Ltd|Brown Lenox & Co]]) with his cousin Samuel Lenox,<ref name=ponty>[http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/heritagetrail/taff/pontypridd/Pontypridd.htm Rhondda Cynon Taf<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518025342/http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/heritagetrail/taff/pontypridd/Pontypridd.htm |date=18 May 2007 }}</ref> based initially at [[Millwall]] in east [[London]] from 1812 and then, from 1816 at a larger works (a nail works previously operated by William Crawshay Brown), establishing the Newbridge Chain & Anchor Works (Pontypridd) at Ynysangharad, beside the [[Glamorganshire Canal]], in [[Pontypridd]], south [[Wales]], close to large reserves of [[iron]] and [[coal]].<ref name=ponty/><ref>[http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/cgi-bin/anw/fulldesc_nofr?inst_id=33&coll_id=77735 Archive Network Wales]</ref><ref>[https://www.angelfire.com/ga/BobSanders/GLAM2.html A Chronology of Glamorgan]</ref>

His firm went on to supply all the chain to the [[Royal Navy]] until 1916, and made the chains for [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel|Brunel]]'s {{SS|Great Eastern}}, famously photographed by [[Robert Howlett]].

==Bridge building==
He took out a patent for chain-making in 1816, and patented wrought iron chain links suitable for a suspension bridge in 1817. In the same year, others built [[Dryburgh Abbey Bridge|Dryburgh Bridge]], the first chain-supported bridge in Britain. Brown had been experimenting with a chain-supported suspension bridge already, building a 32m span test structure in 1813.

"When he was thinking about how to build a bridge across the River Tweed, Sir Samuel Brown stopped while observing a spider's web. Right at this time he discovered the suspension bridge." —Charles Bender, 1868.

Brown was also invited to participate in abortive proposals for a suspension bridge at [[Runcorn]]. In September 1818, he submitted drawings for [[Union Bridge (Tweed)|Union Bridge]] over the [[River Tweed]], which was completed in 1820 and survives.

Brown went on to build several further chain bridges, as well as the [[Trinity Chain Pier]] in [[Newhaven, Edinburgh]] (opened in 1821 and destroyed in a storm in 1898) and the [[The Royal Suspension Chain Pier|Chain Pier]] at [[Brighton]] (1823–1896).<ref>[http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__7917_path__0p115p207p478p.aspx Chain Pier] Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990, Brighton & Hove</ref> Most of his designs used an unstiffened bridge deck, before it became clear that this form was vulnerable to wind forces and unstable under concentrated [[structural load|load]]s. His designs were reviewed by eminent engineers including [[John Rennie the Elder|John Rennie]] and [[Thomas Telford]], and generally approved. Brown's designs were significantly less conservative than his contemporaries, adopting a higher [[tensile strength]] for his iron chains.

===Major bridges===
* [[Union Bridge (Tweed)|Union Bridge]], [[River Tweed]], 1820
* [[Trinity Chain Pier]], Scotland, 1821 (destroyed 1898)<ref>[http://www.grantonhistory.org/buildings/chain_pier.htm Trinity Chain Pier]</ref>
* [[The Royal Suspension Chain Pier]], [[Brighton]], 1823 (destroyed 1896)
* Welney Bridge, [[Norfolk]], 1826 (replaced 1926)<ref>[http://www.welney.org.uk/Suspension_bridge.htm Welney suspension bridge] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013171512/http://www.welney.org.uk/Suspension_bridge.htm |date=13 October 2006 }}</ref>
* Hexham Bridge, [[River Tyne]], 1826 (replaced 1903)
* South Esk Bridge, [[Montrose, Angus|Montrose]], 1829 (collapsed in 1830 under crowd loading, killing three, and collapsed again in 1838, oscillating in a hurricane)
* [[Tees Bridge|Stockton and Darlington Railway Suspension Bridge]], [[River Tees]], 1830 (first railway suspension bridge in the world)
* [[Wellington Suspension Bridge]], [[Aberdeen]], 1830–1831
* Norfolk Suspension Bridge, [[Shoreham-by-Sea]] was opened in 1834, designed by Brown and [[William Tierney Clark]]. Replaced in 1922.<ref>[http://www.glaucus.org.uk/History.htm History of Shoreham]</ref>
* Kalemouth Bridge, [[River Teviot]], 1835<ref name=ok>{{Cite web|url=http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB3849|title=KALEMOUTH SUSPENSION BRIDGE, OVER RIVER TEVIOT (LB3849)|website=portal.historicenvironment.scot|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref>
* Kenmare Bridge, Ireland, 1840 (demolished 1932)<ref>[http://www.kenmare.com/history/SUSBR.html Kenmare Suspension Bridge] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031100212/http://www.kenmare.com/history/SUSBR.html |date=31 October 2006 }}</ref>

==Domestic life==
One of his homes was close to the Brighton project, at 48 Marine Parade, now known as Chain Pier House. In 1827, Brown purchased Netherbyres, a country house near [[Eyemouth]] in [[Berwickshire]], south-east Scotland.<ref>[http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/gardens_search_more_info.htm?s=&r=Scottish+Borders&bool=0&PageID=2087&more_info=Site Historic Scotland]</ref> He had the existing house demolished and a new house built (c.1836), which he later sold on 5 March 1852, days before his death.<ref>[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sirhc/1121.htm Netherbyres ownership]</ref>

On 14 August 1822 Brown married Mary Horne from Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=John |title=Royal Naval Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4yE2ElZxDcC&q=Samuel+Brown+royal+navy&pg=PA20|volume=4|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108022712|page=27}}</ref>

Brown was elected a member of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] on 7 February 1831.<ref>[http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/fellowship/all_fellows.pdf Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows]</ref> In 1838, Brown was knighted by [[Queen Victoria]].

He died, aged 75, at Vanbrugh Lodge, [[Blackheath, London]] on 13 March 1852 and was buried at [[West Norwood Cemetery]].<ref name=obit/>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* 'Samuel Brown in North-East Scotland', Thomas Day, Industrial Archaeology Review, 1985
* 'The 19th-Century Iron Bridges of Northeast Scotland', Thomas Day, Industrial Archaeology, 1998
* 'Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England', R.W. Rennison, Thomas Telford Publishing, 1996
* 'Union Chain Bridge – Linking Engineering', Gordon Miller, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 159, May 2006, pp 88–95

==See also==
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3648 Samuel Brown], B. P. Cronin [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], Oxford University Press, 2004
* {{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Brown, Samuel |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]]}}
* {{NIE|title=Sir Samuel Brown|url=https://archive.org/details/newinternational03gilm/page/562/mode/1up|page=562|noprescript=1}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Captain Samuel}}
[[Category:Bridge engineers]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:British ironmasters]]
[[Category:English civil engineers]]
[[Category:1776 births]]
[[Category:1852 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers]]
[[Category:Burials at West Norwood Cemetery]]
[[Category:Sailors from London]]
[[Category:19th-century British inventors]]
[[Category:Engineers from London]]
[[Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel]]
[[Category:Royal Navy captains]]