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.

On 30 October 2015 Hayward Tyler Group PLC completed the acquisition of the trade and assets of the Peter Brotherhood business from Dresser-Rand Company Ltd, a Siemens-owned company.

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 works at Swindon he joined the leading marine engineering works, Maudslay, Son & Field in Lambeth in their drawing-office.^[1]

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.^[1]

On 19 April 1866, he married Eliza Pinniger Hunt, daughter of James Edward Hunt a contractor to the Indian Railways. Together they had five children, two daughters and three sons, two of his sons predeceased him.

Brotherhood died at his home 15 Hyde Park Gardens on 13 October 1902.^[1]

In 1867, before he had reached the age of 30, Brotherhood became a partner in the engineers and millwrights business of Kittoe and Brotherhood in Clerkenwell. At that time the firm's main product was brewing machinery.^[1] A restored Kittoe and Brotherhood beam engine of 1867 can be seen at the Coldharbour Mill museum in Devon - it was originally supplied to the Whitechapel Albion brewery.

Kittoe retired in 1871 and the firm became Peter Brotherhood.

Brotherhood radial engine

After Kittoe's retirement the Peter Brotherhood firm mainly produced machines of Brotherhood's invention, in particular from 1872 the Brotherhood 3-cylinder 120 degrees radial engine which could be powered by steam, water or compressed air at high speed and in perfect balance. Put to many uses the Brotherhood engine drove the Royal Navy's Whitehead torpedoes and was used in the torpedoes of other navies as well.^[1] Fans, dynamos and other high speed machines were directly driven by this engine.^[2]

In 1881 the business moved to Belvedere Road, Lambeth.^[1]

Products 1

The firm's production of the radial engine led not only to fans dynamos etc. but eventually to the manufacture of steam turbines, internal combustion engines and heavy oil and Diesel engines specially the Brotherhood-Ricardo high-speed heavy oil engine.^[2]

In 1903 Brotherhood's only surviving son, Stanley (1880–1938), previously general manager for his father, moved the works from the Lambeth premises to Peterborough where it continues as Peter Brotherhood Limited.^[2]

Peter Brotherhood Limited made cars in Lambeth then, unable to get consent for a car factory in Peterborough, moved their manufacture to Tinsley in Yorkshire before they withdrew from that venture in 1906. They continued to make heavy agricultural tractors. From late 1906 the cars were named Sheffield-Simplex.^[3] 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 Rootes Group in 1929.^[4][5][6]

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^[7] however AGE sold its 70 per cent share of Peter Brotherhood in late 1930^[8] before AGE collapsed in 1932.^[9] On 29 June 1937 Peter Brotherhood became a public company^[2] and was listed on the London Stock Exchange a few days later.^[10]

Products 2

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.^[2]

Before the company went public in 1937 contracts had been undertaken for more than 60 years for H M Government and numerous Dominion and foreign governments and many of the principal industrial, shipping, and utility enterprises in and beyond the United Kingdom including: London County Council, Metropolitan Water Board, Gas Light and Coke Co, Imperial Chemical Industries, Union Cold Storage, Burmah Oil, Anglo-Iranian Oil, LNER railway, LMS railway, P & O.^[2]

In 2008, the business was sold to Dresser-Rand Company Ltd.

On 30 October 2015 the Hayward Tyler Group PLC completed the acquisition of the trade and assets of the Peter Brotherhood business from Dresser-Rand Company Ltd, a Siemens-owned company.

Avingtrans Engineering Technology Group announced an all-share acquisition of the Hayward Tyler Group as of September 1, 2017 in which Hayward Tyler became a wholly-owned division of Avingtrans. Peter Brotherhood, based in Peterborough, UK, which sat within Avingtrans’ Process Solutions and Rotating Equipment (“PSRE”) division, specialises in the design, manufacture and servicing of performance-critical steam turbines, turbo gen-sets, compressors, gear boxes and combined heat and power systems. It was acquired in September 2017, as part of the acquisition of the Hayward Tyler Group (“HTG”) which attracted total consideration of £52.7m, of which Peter Brotherhood represented approximately £9.3m.

On 11 March 2021, Howden acquired Peter Brotherhood from Avingtrans in a Disposal transaction for a total consideration (enterprise value) of £35.0 million, which, after adjustment for debt and working capital, will result in the Company receiving net proceeds of approximately £30.6 million, before transaction costs. The Disposal represents a gross return of almost four times the original capital investment (approximately £9.3m). The Peter Brotherhood acquisition further expands Howden's technologies and capabilities in delivering environmental and energy technology solutions to its customers. Specifically, this acquisition expands Howden's steam turbine product range to include larger scale, multi-stage technology offerings.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peter Brotherhood.

• Peter Brotherhood Limited
• Coldharbour Mill Steam Group page on the restoration of the Kittoe and Brotherhood beam engine
• Video - Peter Brotherhood gets the name back on the door as it is bought by the Hayward Tyler Group in 2015
• A Peter Brotherhood engine video