Peter Brotherhood

Peter Brotherhood (1838–1902) was an English engineer. He invented the Brotherhood engine used for torpedoes as well as many other engineering products.

With his son he built a large engineering business in London bearing his name, Peter Brotherhood. His son Stanley moved the works to Peterborough in 1903 where their engineering business continued to grow.

Family of engineers Brotherhood was the second son of the 14 children of Priscilla (née Penton) and Rowland Brotherhood (1812-1883), an English engineer. He was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire on 22 April 1838 and raised in comfortable circumstances in Chippenham, Wiltshire near his father's engineering works.

From the ages of 13 to 18, he studied applied science at King's College School. After practical experience including a period at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works he joined the leading marine engineering works, Maudslay, Son & Field in Lambeth in their drawing-office.

In 1861 Brotherhood built the 15-inch gauge model steam locomotive 'Pearl' which is on display at the Strand Campus of King's College London and is understood to be the oldest large-scale model railway engine in existence.

He is said to have had a "mechanical instinct" which allowed him to design machinery without resorting to calculations or formulae. He also had a passion for experimentation.

In 1881 the business moved to Belvedere Road, Lambeth. Brotherhood's backer Fitzwilliam of Milton near Peterborough and Wentworth Woodhouse near Tinsley took over the car business naming it for Sheffield the nearby town and the operational simplicity of his expensive cars.

Stanley Brotherhood was a director then chairman of Humber Limited until it merged with Hillman Motor Company and came under the control of the Rootes Group in 1929.

Peter Brotherhood Limited On 16 December 1907, a private limited liability company was incorporated to own the Peter Brotherhood business. In 1920 it joined the engineering combine Agricultural & General Engineers or AGE however AGE sold its 70 per cent share of Peter Brotherhood in late 1930 before AGE collapsed in 1932. On 29 June 1937 Peter Brotherhood became a public company and was listed on the London Stock Exchange a few days later. Products In June 1937, Peter Brotherhood's products included: high and low pressure compressors, compressors for torpedo service, torpedo tubes, Brotherhood high speed forced lubrication steam engines, steam turbines, turbo-generators, high speed diesel engines, oil and gas engines, refrigerating compressors, pumps, water cooling towers, filtering plants, fans, dynamometers, pressure gauge testing and other precision instruments.