Brown, John (1816-1896)

English steel and armour-plate manufacturer. Brown maintained and improved the Bessemer process of steel production and invented a method of rolling armour-plate. Hammered armour-plate had been used hitherto, but Brown's method was so successful that he received orders from the Admiralty for armour-plate for about three-quarters of the ships in the British navy. In 1856 he started the huge Atlas works for the manufacture of armour-plate, railway buffers, ordnance forgings, railway carriage axles, tyres and steel rails.

Brown was born in Sheffield, England. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice in a file and table cutlery factory, of which he ultimately became the manager. He invented the conical steel buffer for railway wagons and was the first to make steel rails. He was twice mayor and master-culter of Sheffield. Brown was knighted in 1867.