William Bown was an engineer and inventor from Birmingham England during the mid 19th century.
In the 1860's Bown was making and patenting sewing machine shuttles at 45 Brearley St., his company later went on to become a producer of the Moldacot machine in the late 1880s in Summer Lane.
In 1876 William Bown patented a design for the wheels of roller skates which embodied his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving, apart. He suggested doing this by means of a felt ring placed inside a circular box around the axle whose lubricating oil would slowly run under the two bearing surfaces at each side. A hole or lid would be provided so that the felt could be regularly re-moistened. While this clearly shows that Bown understood the need to keep the two surfaces apart by some medium that would reduce friction it crucially does not introduce the idea of the third rolling surface that is the genius of the ball or roller bearing. The bearer of that genius was Joseph Henry Hughes who, in September 1877, drew up the patent for a ball bearing race for bicycle and carriage wheels which includes all the elements of an adjustable system.
William Bown died on 28th July 1900 at the age of 66. His obituary in The Birmingham Post of 4th August 1900 reveals how extensive his commercial enterprise had become. By 1892 his Summer Lane works were a limited company with a capital of £100,000 employing one thousand men. He also was proprietor for a while of a stamping and engineering works in Bracebridge Street which employed a further 250 men. he article conceals, however, a sadder truth. Acknowledging that "the state of his health compelled him to retire about five years ago" the newspaper states that he had died at home. This was untrue. William died in the Warwick County Lunatic Asylum from "general paralysis of the insane" which Barbara Bown had been told was a common euphemism for the final stage of syphilis. Whether that was true or not it was a sad end to a vigorous life. In April 1896 Bown had left his estate to his wife Clara. Four years later this still amounted to the respectable sum of £4,075 5s. William does not appear to have left any children so the Bowns who carried on the family firm, including W A R Bown, must have been nephews, great-nephews or descendants of other branches of the family.
The Bown Aeolus motor cycles appeared in 1914 - produced by Bown Ltd and then disappeared in 1916, though the same machines actually returned to the market in 1919 under Bown's own badge, continuing until the mid '20s, when the business relocated to Chadwell Heath in Essex and made specialist bicycles. Around halfway through the 1930s the company became absorbed by The Aberdale Cycle Co , based at Bridgeport Road, Edmonton, North London, and finding William A R Bown (William Bowns nephew) listed among the board of directors. March 1947 saw the announcement of an Aberdale autocycle powered by the Villiers Junior de Luxe motor, which continued in production into 1948, when Villiers notified its customers that the JDL was to be succeeded by a new 2F autocycle motor. A complete replacement autocycle was going to be needed, and along with the concept for a following light motor cycle, William Bown took the tasks in hand. The new Aberdale models were displayed at the Earls Court Motor Cycle Show in November 1948, to much acclaim from the press. To meet the 1949 selling season, production was scheduled to begin in March, but never happened due to the provision of a second plant under the Labour Government 's Advanced Factories Scheme , so listing of the old Aberdale autocycle was extended to cover the 1949 season. The new manufacturing site at Llwynypia, Tonypandy, Glamorgan to produce both autocycles and motor cycles was titled the Bown Cycle Co Ltd and by February 1950 started delivering its new Welsh dragons to the dealers. Gone was the Aberdale brand on the petrol tank - the Bown had returned albeit not in Birmingham.
External Link
Sewing Machine link to Bown
