Samuel Brown (engineer)

This article is about the English engineer and inventor. For other people with the same name, see Samuel Brown (disambiguation).
Samuel Brown

Samuel Brown (1799 – 16 September 1849) was an English engineer and inventor credited with developing one of the earliest examples of an internal combustion engine, during the early 19th century.

Brown, a cooper by training (he also patented improvements to machinery for manufacturing casks and other vessels),[1] has been described as the 'father of the gas engine'. While living at Eagle Lodge in the Brompton area of west London, from 1825 to 1835, he developed 'the first gas engine that unquestionably did actual work and was a mechanical success'. He set up two engines for demonstration purposes in the grounds of the Lodge.[2]

His obituary credited him with being the inventor of the gas vacuum engine and the screw propeller.[3]

  1. ^ The Repertory of Patent Inventions: And Other Discoveries and Improvements, 1825, p.439
  2. ^ From: 'Roland Gardens', Survey of London: volume 41: Brompton (1983), pp. 149-55. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=50019. Date accessed: 25 July 2007.
  3. ^ "Died". Shipping and Mercantile Gazette. No. 3597. 18 September 1849. p. 4. Retrieved 30 July 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.