Beyer, Charles Frederick

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 14 May 1813 Plauen, Saxony, Germany

d. 2 June 1876 Llantysilio, Denbighshire, Wales

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German (naturalized British in 1852) engineer, founder of locomotive builders Beyer, Peacock \& Co.

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Beyer came from a family of poor weavers, but showed talent as an artist and draftsman and was educated at Dresden Polytechnic School. He was sent to England in 1834 to report on improvements in cotton spinning machinery and settled in Manchester, working for the machinery manufacturers Sharp Roberts \& Co., initially as a draftsman. When the firm started to build locomotives he moved to this side of the business. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was founded at his house in 1847. In 1853 Beyer entered into a partnership with Richard Peacock, Locomotive Engineer to the Manchester, Sheffield \& Lincolnshire Railway, and Henry Robertson to establish Beyer, Peacock \& Co. The company soon established a reputation for soundly designed, elegant locomotives: it exported worldwide, and survived until the 1960s.

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Further Reading

Obituary, 1877, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 47. R.L.Hills, 1967–8 "Some contributions to locomotive development by Beyer, Peacock \& Co.", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 40 (a good description of Beyer, Peacock \& Co's locomotive work).

See also: Garratt, Herbert William

PJGR