Henry Trueman Wright Wood

“ Bramwell, whose only relaxation was in variety of work, was indefatigable in honorary service to the various societies and institutions of which he was a member. Here he showed to advantage his exceptional gifts of speech and his powers of historical survey. He joined the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1854, was elected to the council in 1864, and became president in 1874, when he reviewed the history and progress of mechanical engineering. ”

“ A keen mechanical instinct enabled him to contrive ingenious models for the illustration of his evidence. In parliamentary committee-rooms, where he dealt almost entirely with questions of civil engineering, Bramwell soon gained as great a reputation as in the law courts. His authority on questions relating to municipal and water-works engineering especially became so high that he was permanently retained by all the eight water companies of London. ”

“ Equally abortive was a more modest proposal to construct an experimental atmospheric railway from Waterloo station over Hungerford suspension bridge to Hungerford Market. In Hague's engineering works Bramwell also studied methods of steam propulsion on common roads, and while still an apprentice came to know Walter Hancock [q. v.] , who first constructed a successful road locomotive. In later life Bramwell was sole survivor of those associated with the first experiments in steam-carriages, which the development of railroads killed. ”

“ In 1865 he graduated D.Sc. at the University of London, and in the same year he resigned his post on the geological survey and became lecturer to the Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon and secretary to the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In 1868 he was employed by the Khedive of Egypt on an exploring expedition to examine the mineral resources of the Sinaitic peninsula. ”

“ After attending a school in France, he entered Merchant Taylors' School in January 1858, and on leaving continued his education in Germany for eighteen months. He then after a short time as a clerk went at the age of twenty into the works of Lavers & Barraud, glass painters and designers. Thence he moved to the workshops of Clayton & Bell, makers of stained glass, and there he remained for two years, his principal work being to design the cartoons. In 1870 he worked for Heaton, Butler & Bayne on the decoration of Eaton Hall, Cheshire, and in the same year he started for himself in London. ”

“ He also reported in the same year on a Venezuelan goldfield, and from 1869 to 1872 he was engineer to a gold-mining company in Northern Italy. In 1872 he was nominated Inspector of Mines under the new Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, being appointed to Cornwall. Eight years later—in 1880—he was transferred to North Wales, where he retained for twenty-one years. In 1890, on the death of Sir Warington Smyth [q. v.] , he became professor of mining at the Royal School of Mines, an office which he held concurrently with his inspectorship. He proved an excellent teacher. ”

“ Yet it was not till he was over forty that he made 400l. in any one year. In 1860 he took with hesitation an office at No. 35A Great George Street. Thenceforth his practice as a consultant rapidly increased, and within ten years his income grew very large. ”