Mardi Gras Shipwreck

Alexander Brodie's Patent Stove

Alexander Brodie (Figure1), a Scotsman, was born in 1732 in the Parish of Traquair in Peebleshire, a small community south of Edinburgh. Brodie served as an apprentice blacksmith before setting out to London to seek his fortune in 1759. By this time, Brodie had achieved the ranking of master blacksmith and proceeded to set up shop and make a name for himself in this trade (Watson 1968:409). It was here that Brodie began to produce household items such as fire gates and dampers, as well as stoves for homes. In 1767, Brodie and a partner named Richard Williams applied for and received a Royal patent for a fire stove and register (Brodie and Williams 1767). On December 8, 1780, Brodie was issued a Royal Patent for a Ship's stove. Brodie's patent describes this new invention as "A New Ship Stove, Kitchen, Or Hearth, With A Smoak [sic] Jack And Iron Boilers, Which Was Preferable To Any Hitherto Discovered Or Made And Would Be Of Public Utility" (Brodie 1780:1).

You can view Brodie's patent transcription in PDF format.

Figure 1. Alexander Brodie late in life. Note the large stove in background. (Buchan 1925: 224)

Essentially, Brodie had taken an old idea and improved it. This new design is described as generally square in shape with varying sizes according to the type of ship and ship's complement. The stove is constructed of wrought iron with the fireboxes consisting of cast iron. There was a ventilator and associated copper hood and the entire stove was held together with nuts and screws. This design made it easy to disassemble for cleaning or to replace broken or damaged components (Brodie 1790:1-4; Lavery 1987:199; Macdonald 2004:105). The stove had spaces for two separate fires. The first was open at the front of the stove and was divided into three separate sections. These three sections could be used independently of one another. The stove came equipped with two spits that were long enough to roast a medium-sized animal such as a pig, a side of beef, lamb, or poultry. A system of chains and pulleys connected to a smoke jack in the flue enabled the spits to rotate and roast these victuals. In addition, there were hotplates to keep small pots warm as well as a series of "cranes" or hinged arms that swung across the top of the stove and could handle larger pots. An oven also extended across the width of the stove with its own separate fire. Above the oven and second fire were two boilers with lids. There were additional rails and stewing stoves. Finally, the stove had a closed ventilator under the fire box "for carrying off foul air" and was intended to go through the deck below the stove where it could "be conveyed to any part of the ship, or where the sick people are kept" (Brodie 1780:3; Macdonald 2004:105-106).

Other components of the stove include a water distiller used in the sick bay. The stove was fixed on short legs in order to raise it above brick or flagstones used to protect the deck timbers.

As discussed earlier, this stove was designed with two specific functions: first, to cook meals for the ships complement; and two, to keep the inside of the hull warm and dry. The latter was critical, as many of the ships were often damp and humid. This is detailed in a letter from George Combe who served in the Royal Navy cruising throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Combe explains that the "…Brodiestoves were constantly used, until every appearance of humidity vanished. The lower deck and cock-pit were washed once every week in dry weather; but Brodiestoves were constantly kept burning in them until they were quite dry again" (Combe 1974 [1827]:93). Finally, these stoves were important in aiding the sick and wounded by keeping a dry and healthy environment for these men as they lay recovering below deck.

The galley in the Royal Navy (and likely other ships of the time) was forward (Blake 2005:50). For example, the Brodie Stove on the Armed Transport HMS Bounty was located in the fore starboard section of the vessel (Denning 1992:28-29). The Brodie Stove found on HMS DeBraak was reported by Shomette as being located amidships (Shomette 1993:221). HMS Pandora's stove was also located forward on the starboard quarter of the vessel (www.qm.qld.gov.au/.../expeditions/1983.asp).

Brodie secured other Royal contracts, including one to provide armaments, and it appears that he opened other iron foundries elsewhere in England. For example, sometime shortly before 1794, Brodie opened a foundry in Manchester and became a major supplier of pig iron. According to Musson and Robinson (1960), Brodie was an ironmaster and armaments manufacturer in Calcutts, Broseley, Shropshire, and Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. His first appearance in the Manchester Directories is in 1794, when he owned ‘St. George's Iron Foundery, Knot-mill," in partnership with two others, McNiven and Ormrod. Brodie was one of the main suppliers of pig iron to Manchester foundries. Aikin states that he was ‘well known for his very extensive manufactory of grates and stoves, as well…for kitchens and dinning rooms, as ships'. Brodie is said to have made "many thousands of pounds out of his ‘patent Stove' though he was not the inventor (Munson and Robinson 1960:228) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. A Ship's Stove; note the similarities to the one found on the Mardi Gras Shipwreck Site.
(Cooke: no date; Courtesy of Mariners Museum; Greenwich England).

As Munson and Robinson (1960) point out, the stove for which Brodie applied and received a patent was likely a design that existed for sometime prior to the 1780 issuance of the patent. While it is not totally clear as to all of the improvements that Brodie made to the stove, it is true that he held an exclusive contract with the Royal Navy for over thirty years. In 1810, the monopoly was toppled with the Lamb and Nicholson stove. This stove came with a much improved still that was capable of producing at least four gallons of fresh water a day. In addition, the new Lamb and Nicholson stove was advertised to use less fuel and the stove was constructed with three boilers. Within a year of Lamb and Nicholson receiving a contract with the Royal Navy, Brodie was dead.

A memorial tablet on the Traquair Parish Church reads:

In memory of
Alexander Brodie Esq
Iron Master
Late of Carey Street
In the Liberty of the Rolls of London
And Calcut in the Country of Salop
A Native of Traquaire
First Inventor of
The Register Stoves and Fire
Hearths for Ships
Had the honour of Supplying
The whole British Navy with the later
For upwards of thirty years
To the preservation of many valuable lives
Since their introduction
And was a great saving to the government
Died 6th of January 1811
Aged 78 years
(Watson 1968:411)

References

Blake, N. 2005. Steering to Glory: A Day in the Life of a Ship of the Lone. Chatham Publishing, London.

Brodie, A. 1780. Ship's Stove: Brodie's Specification. In George Eward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, pp. 4. No. 1271, London, England.

Brodie, A. and R. Williams. 1767. Fire Stove and Register. George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode; Pritners to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, London, England.

Buchan, J. W. a. H. P. (editor) 1925. A History of Peeblesshire. 3 vols, Glasgow.

Comb, G. 1974 [1827] The Constitution of Man: and its Relations to External Objects. University of Michigan.

Dening, G. 1992 Mr. Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty. Cambridge, New York.

Lavery, B. 1987 The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815. Naval Institute Press, London.

MacDonald, J. Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era. 2004.

Musson, A. E. and E. Robinson 1960 The Origins of Engineering in Lancashire. The Journal of Economic History 20(2):209-233.

Shomette, D. 1993 The Hunt for HMS De Braak: Legend and Legacy. Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina.

Watson, W. N. B. 1968 Alexander Brodie and His Firehearths for Ships. Mariners Mirror 54(4):409-412.