16 BE AM AH. 



against all attempts to pick.* Bramah's indefatigable spirit of in- 

 vention was stimulated to fresh efforts by the success of his lock, 

 and he now entered upon a more important and original line of 

 action than he had yet ventured upon. In his patent of 1785 he 

 indicated many inventions, although none of them came into prac- 

 tical use such as a Hydrostatical Machine and Boiler, and the ap- 

 plication of the power produced by them to the drawing of carriages 

 and the propelling of ships, by a paddle-wheel fixed in the stern of 

 the vessel. For different modifications of pumps and fire-engines, 

 Mr. Bramah took out three successive patents, the two last being 

 dated in 1790 and 1798. But in the year 1795 he produced and 

 patented the most important of all his inventions, namely, ' The 

 Hydraulic Press,' a machine which gives to a child the strength of a 

 giant, enabling him to bend a bar of iron as if it were wax. The 

 chief difficulty which Bramah experienced in constructing this press 

 was that of devising an efficient packing for the ram or solid piston, 

 which, while capable of keeping out the water under the tremendous 

 internal pressure exercised by the pump, should, on the withdrawal 

 of that pressure, allow the ram to sink into its original place. This 

 was at length accomplished by the invention of the self-tightening 

 leather-collar, which was firmly secured in a recess at the top of a 

 cylinder, with the concave side downwards. Consequently, when 

 the water was pumped into the cylinder, it immediately forced its 

 way between the bent edges of the collar ; and the greater the 

 pressure of water, the tighter became the hold which the collar 

 took of the solid piston. It appears from the testimony of Mr. 

 James Nasmyth, that Bramah was indebted for this simple but 

 beautiful contrivance, to Henry Maudslay, who was at that time a 

 workman in his shop, and who had already greatly assisted him in 

 the construction of his lock. 



Bramah continued his useful labours as an inventor for many 

 years, and his studies of the principles of Hydraulics, in the course 

 of his invention of the press, enabled him to introduce many valuable 

 improvements in pumping machinery. By varying the form of the 

 piston and cylinder, he was enabled to obtain a rotary motion, 

 which he adopted in the well-known fire-engine. In 1797 he took 

 out a patent for the beer-machine, now in such general use in public 

 houses, and in the description of this he includes a mode of con- 

 verting every cask in a cellar into a force pump, so as to raise the 

 liquor to any part of the house ; a filtering machine ; a method of 

 making pipes ; a vent peg, and a new form of stop-cock. Bramah 

 also turned his attention to the improvement of the steam-engine, 

 but in this, Watt's patent had left little room for other inventors : 

 and hence Bramah seems to have entertained a grudge against Watt, 

 which was shown strongly in the evidence given by him in the case 



* For Maudslay's connection with this lock, see Maudslay. 



