ABSTRACT
With great joy I have discovered that Crabtree was no less an engineer than a poet. Although there are a few hitherto over-looked clues amongst the recorded researches of the Foundation’s scholars, my main discovery came about by sheer chance. You will all remember in your ‘O‘level physics text books reference to the Bramah press-not a Hindu newspaper but a kind of hydraulic lever, the principle that activates the brakes of modern motor vehicles. An oriental discovery you may think but it is named after its alleged inventor, Joseph Bramah. A curious name-the off-spring of a wayward missionary? Not a bit of it! Joseph Bramah was the son of a Yorkshire farmer.
