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Brown, Joseph Rogers
| (1810-1876), U.S. and mechanical engineer known for his precision tools and instrumentation, established his own shop in 1831 and began to make small tools, especially for lathes. He soon rejoined his father?s shop as partner in Providence to manufacture watches, clocks, and surveying and mechanical instruments. After his father retired in 1841, he carried on business alone and created many notable machines. In 1850 he built a linear dividing machine, the first automatic machine for graduating rules in the United States. A year later, he produced the varnier caliper, reading to thousandths of an inch, and in 1852 applied it to protractors. In 1853 he became partners with Lucian Sharpe (J. R. Brown & Sharpe). In 1855, Brown invented a precision gear cutter that would produce accurate gears, frill index plates and do circular graduating. By 1861 he began devoting his time to developing machine tools. Among many inventions, he designed and built a turret screw machine for muskets (1861), a successful universal milling machine (patented 1865), and a micrometer caliper (1867). His greatest achievement was the universal grinding machines, which allowed manufacturers to first harden articles and then to grind them with accuracy (patented posthumously, 1877). He was born Jan. 26, 1810, Warren, Rhode Island, and died July 23, 1876, Shoals, New Hampshire. |
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