Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/213

  gaol, but was 'unmercifully beaten by the wicked gaoler and not suffered to come in;' and at another time he was sent to prison, along with Thomas Briggs, a Cheshire man, for preaching at Salisbury. A John Braithwaite, who may be identical with the quaker, was resident in the island of Barbadoes between 1669 and 1693, where he suffered frequent fines in default of not appearing in arms, and for refusing to pay church dues. Braithwaite is stated by Smith in his 'Catalogue of Friends' Books' to have died at Chippenham, Wiltshire.

 BRAITHWAITE, JOHN (1700?–1768?), was the author of 'The History of the Revolution in the Empire of Morocco upon the Death of the late Emperor Muley Ishmael,' a spirited work which was published in 1729, and translated into Dutch 1729, German 1730, and French (Amsterdam) 1731. In his preface Braithwaite describes himself as being in the service of the African Company, and as having, when very young, served in the fleet in Anne's reign, and then having been a lieutenant in the Welsh fusiliers, ensign in the royal guards, and secretary to his kinsman Christian Cole, British resident at Venice, with whom he travelled through Europe. He also states that he was in the Santa Lucia and St. Vincent expeditions, and was present at the siege of Gibraltar (1727). Thence he crossed to Morocco and joined the British consul-general, John Russel, in his expedition in the emperor's dominions, the experiences of which he relates in his book. The diary of the narrative extends from July 1727 to February 1728. A Captain Braithwaite is mentioned in the 'London Gazette' as being appointed in 1749 to command the Peggy sloop, and again in 1761 as commanding the Shannon; and in February 1768 John Braithwaite was 'removed' from the post of secretary to the governor of Gibraltar; but the connection of these notices with the subject of this article is merely conjectural.

 BRAITHWAITE, JOHN, the elder (d. 1818), engineer, is best known as the constructor of one of the earliest successful forms of diving-bell. In 1783 he descended in one of his own construction into the wreck of the Royal George, which had gone down off Spithead in the August of the previous year, and recovered her sheet anchor and many of her guns. In the same year, and by the same means, he recovered a number of guns sunk in the Spanish flotilla off Gibraltar, In 1788 again he made a descent to the wreck of the Hartwell, an East Indiaman, lost off Bonavista, one of the Cape de Verd islands, and recovered dollars to the value of 38,000l., 7,000 pigs of lead, and 360 boxes of tin. In 1806 he raised from the Abergavenny, an East Indiaman, lost off Portland, 75,000l. worth of dollars, a quantity of tin, and other property to the value of 30,000l., and successfully blew up the wreck with gunpowder. For these purposes, in addition to perfecting the actual diving apparatus, he devised machinery for sawing ships asunder under water. His ancestors had carried on a small engineers' shop at St. Albans since 1695. His own engineering works were in the New Road, London. Braithwaite died in June 1818 at Westbourne Green from the effects of a stroke of paralysis. His business was afterwards carried on by his two sons, Francis and John. The latter is noticed below.

 BRAITHWAITE, JOHN, the younger (1797–1870), engineer, was third son of [q. v.] He was born at 1 Bath Place, New Road, London, on 10 March 1797, and, after being educated at Mr. Lord's school at Tooting in Surrey, attended in his father's manufactory, where be made himself master of practical engineering, and became a skilled draughtsman. In June 1818 his father died, leaving the business to his sons Francis and John. Francis died in 1823, and John Braithwaite carried on the business alone. He added to the business the making of high-pressure steam-engines. In 1817 he reported before the House of Commons upon the Norwich steamboat explosion, and in 1820 he ventilated the House of Lords by means of air-pumps. In 1822 he made the donkey-engine, and in 1823 cast the statue of the Duke of Kent by Sebastian Gabagan which was erected in Portland Place, London.

He was introduced to Messrs. G. and R. Stephenson in 1827, and about the same time became acquainted with Captain John Ericsson, who then had many schemes in view. In 1829 Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson constructed for the Rainhill experiments the locomotive engine, The Novelty. This engine was the first that ever ran a mile within a minute (fifty-six seconds).

At this time Braithwaite manufactured the first practical steam fire-engine, which was ultimately destroyed by a London mob. It