Sir John Brown (6 December 1816 – 27 December 1896), British industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was apprenticed at fourteen years old to a Sheffield firm manufacturing files and table cutlery. He started his own company John Brown company in 1844 manufacturing Steel on a site at what is the now Orchard Square Shopping centre. In 1902 Sheffield steelmakers John Brown Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth Sons, the companies continuing under their own management until they finally merged in 1930 Forming Firth Brown Ltd. In 1848 Brown invented the conical steel spring buffer for railway carriages. In 1860, after seeing the French ship La Gloire armoured with hammered plate, he went on to produce armour using a rolling process, eventually producing armour plate to protect three-quarters of the British navy. In 1856 Firth
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