Joseph Bramah

Inventor, born in Stainborough, South Yorkshire, N England, UK. He made numerous inventions, including a beer machine used at the bar of public-houses, a safety lock, an improved water-closet (1778), a hydraulic press (1795), and a machine for printing bank-notes (1806). He was one of the first to propose the application of the screw-propeller.

Joseph Bramah (1748 - December 9, 1814), born Stainborough, Yorkshire, England.

Bramah started life as a farm worker in Yorkshire before an injury caused him to divert his attention to woodworking.

Bramah started the Bramah Locks company in London which survives today.

The locks produced by his company were famed for their resistance to lock picking and tampering, the company famously had a "Challenge Lock" which was displayed in the window of their London shop from 1790 mounted on a board containing the inscription:

The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 guineas the moment it is produced.

The challenge stood for over 60 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851 an American by the name of Alfred Charles Hobbs was able to open the lock and, following some argument about the circumstances under which he had opened it, was awarded the prize.

The Challenge Lock (or at least a version of it, as it was probably updated over time) still resides in the Bramah shop in London.

Partly due to the precision requirements of his locks, Bramah spent a lot of his time developing tools to assist him in various manufacturing processes.