Joseph Bramah (1748 - December 9, 1814), born Stainborough, Yorkshire, England. He was an inventor and locksmith. Events April 24 - A congress assembles at Aix-la-Chapelle with the intent to conclude the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession - at October 18 - The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh Building of... December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1814 (MDCCCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total... For other uses, see Inventor (disambiguation). ... Locksmithing is the science and art of making and defeating locks. ...

Bramah started life as a farm worker in Yorkshire before an injury caused him to divert his attention to woodworking. He migrated to London, where his efforts led to the invention of a type of flush toilet, the hydraulic press, a machine for automatically printing bank notes with sequential serial numbers, the beer pump and most famously a type of lock. Close coupled cistern type flushing toilet. ... Hydraulic force increase. ... A £20 Bank of England banknote. ... Leffe, a Belgian beer, served in branded glasses Schlenkerla Rauchbier straight from the cask Beer is the worlds oldest[1] and most popular[2] alcoholic beverage. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Bramah started the Bramah Locks company in London which survives today.

The locks produced by his company were famed for their resistance to lock picking and tampering, the company famously had a "Challenge Lock" which was displayed in the window of their London shop from 1790 mounted on a board containing the inscription: Lock picking is the art of unlocking a lock without its intended key. ...

The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 guineas the moment it is produced.

The challenge stood for over 60 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851 an American by the name of Alfred Charles Hobbs was able to open the lock and, following some argument about the circumstances under which he had opened it, was awarded the prize. Hobbs attempt still took him some 45 hours, spread over 16 days. The Great Exhibition: Paxtons Crystal Palace enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park. ... Alfred Charles Hobbs (1812 - 1891) was a famous American lockpicker. ...

The Challenge Lock (or at least a version of it, as it was probably updated over time) still resides in the Bramah shop in London.

Partly due to the precision requirements of his locks, Bramah spent a lot of his time developing tools to assist him in various manufacturing processes. He relied heavily on the expertise of Henry Maudslay whom he employed in his workshop from the age of 18. Just before Bramah died, his workshops also employed Joseph Clement who among other things made several contributions in the field of lathe design. Henry Maudslay. ... Joseph Clement was a British engineer and industrialist. ... Conventional metalworking lathe In woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, and glassworking, a lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material so that when abrasive, cutting, or deformation tools are applied to the block, it can be shaped to produce an object which has rotational symmetry about an axis...

He died on December 9th, 1814− in Holt forest, Dorset. Dorset (pronounced DOR-sit or [dÉ”.sÉ™t], and sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the south-west of England, on the English Channel coast. ...

In 2006 a pub in Barnsley town centre was opened named the Joesph Bramah in his memory. Barnsley is a large town in South Yorkshire, England, lying on the River Dearne, approximately twenty kilometres north of Sheffield. ...

Patents

(incomplete)

1778 

Flushing toilet

21 August 1784 

Bramah Lock

9 May 1785 

Beer pump

1795 

Hydraulic press

1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... is the 129th day of the year (130th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1795 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Bibliography

• http://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/bramah/
• http://www.pioneers.historians.co.uk/bramah.html
• http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/locks/gazetteer/gazbra-bzz.htm