Fairbairn, William (1789-1874)

Scottish engineer. He designed a riveting machine that revolutionized the making of boilers for steam engines. He also worked on many bridges, including the wrought iron box-girder construction used first on the railway bridge across the Menai Straits in North Wales.

In Manchester, Fairbairn set up as a manufacturer of cotton-mill machinery. In 1824 he erected two watermills in Zürich. From 1830, he concentrated on shipbuilding, first in Manchester (where he built ships in sections) and then, from 1835, on the River Thames, where his Millwall Iron Works employed some 2,000 people.

Fairbairn was born in Kelso, Roxburghshire, and was self-educated. While apprenticed to a millwright near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he became a friend of the engineers George and Robert Stephenson. Fairbairn used his inventive skills and engineering ability to earn a fortune by the time he was 40 years old.

The success of Fairbairn's riveting machine led Robert Stephenson to consult him over the building of the Menai railway bridge.