Brown, Joseph Rogers

Born: Jan 10, 1810 AD
Died: 1876 AD, at 66 years of age.

Nationality: American
Categories: Inventor

1810 - Born on January 10th in Warren, Rhode Island. American inventor, manufacturer and mechanical engineer known for his precision tools and instrumentation.

1827-1831 - He became a machinist and set up a shop to manufacture tools.

- Established his own shop and began to make small tools, especially for lathes.

1841 - He carried on business alone after the retirement of his father and created many notable machines.

1850 - He built a linear dividing machine, the first automatic machine for graduating rules in the United States.

1851-1852 - He produced the varnier caliper, reading to thousandths of an inch, and applied it to protractors.

1852 - He invented milling and grinding machines, and cutters, and he simplified the Vernier caliper.

1853 - He became partners with Lucian Sharpe (J. R. Brown & Sharpe).

1855 - Brown invented a precision gear cutter that would produce accurate gears, frill index plates and do circular graduating.

1858 - He began the manufacture of sewing machines.

1861-1867 - He began devoting his time to developing machine tools.

- Among many inventions, he designed and built a turret screw machine for muskets, a successful universal milling machine (patented), and a micrometer caliper.

1876 - Died on July 23rd in Shoals, New Hampshire.

1877 - His greatest achievement was the universal grinding machines, which allowed manufacturers to first harden articles and then to grind them with accuracy (patented posthumously).

Page last updated: 2:10am, 31st Aug '07