Background
Brandreth was the son of a Cheshire physician, Joseph Brandreth.
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Thomas Brandreth
Edit ProfileEducation
Eton College; Trinity College.
Career
He received his Master of Arts in 1813, and was subsequently elected to a fellowship at Trinity and called to the Barometer He entered legal practice at Liverpool, but was much diverted from advancement by his interest in inventions. However, he resigned as a director of the line shortly before its completion.
In the early days of railroading, it was by no means clear that the steam locomotive would come to be the principal form of propulsion for trains.
Brandreth invented a machine which used a horse galloping on a treadmill as its source of motive power. A prototype, the Cycloped, participated in the Rainhill Trials in 1829, but it had to be withdrawn when the horse broke through the floor of the machine.
In any case, the trials proved the superiority of steam motive power in all but exceptional circumstances. In retirement, he again took up the study of classical literature, and made a lengthy inquiry into the use of the digamma in the works of Homer.
His studies were published in 1844 as A Dissertation on the Metre of Homer.
And reflected in an edition of the Iliad with digammas. This was followed by a well-received translation of the Iliad into blank verse in 1846. Brandreth died in Worthing in 1873.
He took an interest of local affairs, becoming a justice of the peace for West Sussex and taking a hand in the improvement of the town"s infrastructure.
Achievements
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He studied at Eton and received a Bachelor from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1810 as Second Wrangler, second Smith"s Prizeman, and chancellor"s medalist, attesting to his keen intelligence. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821 for mathematical achievements, he had by that time invented a logometer (an early slide rule), and went on to design and patent a friction wheel and a clock escapement. These achievements led him into friendship with George Stephenson, and he played a role in the survey and engineering of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, particularly the crossing of Chat Moss.
Membership
Royal Society.
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Born
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Died
March 27, 1873 (aged 84) -
Nationality
United Kingdom