BRAMAH, Joseph, a practical engineer and machinist, was born at Stainborough, in Yorkshire, on the 13th of April 1749. He exhibited at a very early age an unusual talent for the mechanical arts, and having been incapacitated, when he was about sixteen, by an accidental lameness in his ankle, for the pursuit of agricultural labour, he was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner. When the term of his engagement had expired he obtained employment for some time in the workshop of a cabinetmaker in London, and soon after established himself as a principal in that business. His first patent for some improvements in the mechanism of water-closets was taken out in 1783. In the following year he took out a patent for‘the peculiar locks which have long been named after him. His fertile invention led him to devise new arrangements for pumps, fire-engines, steam-boilers, and paper machinery, for all of which he obtained patents. The invention which has proved of most practical service, the hydraulic press, was first brought forward in 1796. Its principle is that of the hydrostatic paradox, and it has been found of very great use in all operations requiring the application of immense mechanical force. In 1806 Bramah patented a very ingenious printing-machine, specially adapted for bank notes, which was adopted in the following year by the Bank of England. During the latter years of his life Bramah erected some large machines at the Thames bank for sawing stones and timber, began to devise some improvements in bridges and in locks for canals, and was at one time actually employed in the execution of some water-works belonging to the department of the civil engineer, which he completed with ability and success. His great and various exertions appear in some measure to have exhausted ...

BRAMANTE, or BramanteLazzart, one of the most celebrated architects of Italy, famous also as a painter, was born at Casteldurante, in Urbino, in July 1444. He showed a great taste for drawing, and was at an early age placed under a painter of some distinction, Fra Bartolommeo, called Fra Carnavale. But though he afterwards gained some fame as a painter, his attention was soon absorbed by the sister art, architecture. He appears to have studied under Scirro Scirri, an architect in his native place, and perhaps under other masters. He then set out from Urbino, and proceeded through several of the towns of Lombardy, executing works of various magnitudes, and examining patiently all remains of ancient art. At last he reached Milan, drawn thither by the fame of the great Duomo, and remained there for several years. Information as to this part of his life is singularly scanty, but he seems to have left Milan for Rome about 1500. He painted some frescoes at Rome, and devoted himself to the study of the ancient buildings, both in the city and in all the district as far south as Naples. About this time the Cardinal Caraffa, hearing of his studies in architecture, commissioned him to rebuild the cloister of the Convent della Pace. The celerity and skill with which Bramante accomplished his task gained for him the good offices of the cardinal, who introduced him to Pope Alexander VI. He began to be consulted on nearly all the great architectural operations in Rome, and executed for the Pope the palace of the Cancelleria, or chancery, which was much admired. But under Alexander’s successor, Julius IL, Bramante’s talents began to obtain an adequate sphere of exercise. His first large work was to unite the straggling buildings of the palace and the Belvedere. This he accomplished ...

BRAMANTINO. See Suardi.