Charles Beyer
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Charles Frederick Beyer (an anglicised form of his original German name Carl Friedrich Beyer) (14 May 1814 — 16 June 1876) was a German-British locomotive engineer, co-founder of the firm Beyer-Peacock.
Beyer was the son of a weaver, born in Plauen, Saxony. He was taught to draw by a student, convalescing in the district. Some of his pinned up drawings were noticed by a local official, and a place was procured for him at Dresden Polytechnic, an institute of technical education. (It was said that his parents could not afford his education, but were afraid of giving offence to the civil servant.) Beyer supplemented a meagre state scholarship by doing odd jobs. (A philanthropic lady was in the habit of giving Sunday dinner to the student with the highest marks that week. Beyer relied on the meal, and consequently made sure that he out-performed everyone else.)
Upon graduation, he obtained a state grant from the Saxon Government to visit the United Kingdom to report on weaving machine technology. He visited Manchester, then considered the major centre in engineering technology. He returned to Dresden to file his report, but then returned to England in 1834. He wanted experience at a large foundry, but his youth and foreign origin seemed to tell against him. At one interview, he was offered some gold sovereigns to defray the costs of his journey. He angrily expostulated that it was work that he wanted, and this swayed the potential employer. He began work with Sharp-Roberts in Manchester, one of the foremost British locomotive builders and developed a lifelong friendship with Richard Roberts.
In 1853, with Richard Peacock, Beyer founded Beyer-Peacock in Gorton, Manchester. The new works was built on a site that was then virtually in open country, and the undertaking was always known locally as 'Gorton Tank'. Beyer-Peacock became one of the most famous locomotive building companies, exporting engines all over the world. They remain famous for the 'Beyer-Garret' articulated locomotive, which was extensively used by South African Railways, East African Railways, and Australia. A narrow gauge version can still be seen in operation on the Welsh Highland Railway. This K1 is in fact the first Garret to be built, returned to England from New Zealand and put on display at the National Railway Museum York, before being returned to working order on the Welsh Highland.
He was a founding member and a prime mover in the foundation of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847, but there is no truth in the long-standing report that the institution was actually founded in his house in Manchester. (It was, in fact, founded at the Queens Hotel at Curzon Street station in Birmingham.) He was a generous supporter of the Victoria University of Manchester and endowed the Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics.
