Bramah, Joseph. Adopted name of Joe Brammer (1748-1814)

British inventor of a flushing water closet 1778, an 'unpickable' lock 1784, and the hydraulic press 1795. The press made use of Pascal's principle (that pressure in fluid contained in a vessel is evenly distributed) and employed water as the hydraulic fluid; it enabled the 19th-century bridge builders to lift massive girders. Bramah took out patents for 18 inventions, but his training of a whole generation of engineers in the craft of precision engineering at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution was probably an even greater legacy. Bramah was born near Barnsley, Yorkshire. On completing his apprenticeship with a cabinetmaker, he set up his own business in London. One of his assistants was Henry Maudslay. In 1785 he suggested the locomotion of ships by means of screws; in 1790 and 1793 he constructed the hydraulic transmission of power. Among Bramah's other inventions were a beer pump and machines for numbering banknotes, for making paper, and for the manufacture of aerated water and pen nibs.