Brennan, Louis Philip (1852 - 1932)

Summary

Louis Brennan invented a steerable torpedo propelled by counter-rotating screws, a monorail locomotive with gyroscopic stabilisers, a gyroscopically balanced automobile, and helicopter designs. He arrived in Melbourne in 1861 with his family and was, at an early age, apprenticed to the engineer Alexander Kennedy Smith. In 1880 he took his steerable torpedo invention to the English War Office where the rights were purchased for £110,000 in 1886. He was awarded Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1892, and Honorary Member, Royal Engineers Institute in 1906. He did not return to Australia.

Details

From the "Australian Dictionary of Biography" Volume 3, (1969): "At 22 he invented for coastal defence a torpedo which was propelled by counter-rotating screws driven by the unwinding of two fine steel wires from internal drums and steered by the differential action of the two wires which were wound on to drums on shore or on shipboard by a steam engine of twenty horse-power. Among the advantages claimed were that the torpedo could be retrieved if it missed its mark. William Kernot, then lecturer in engineering at the University of Melbourne, made calculations on which a working model was based, its test performances in 1879 on Hobson's Bay 'exciting wonder and approbation'. This work was aided by a grant of £700 from the Victorian government."

The Gillingham Library, England retains the archive of his papers. It was in Gillingham that he successfully demonstrated a full size gyroscopically-balanced monorail on 10 November 1909.

Chronology

1861

Life event - Arrived in Melbourne, Australia

c. 1870

Career position - Apprentice to Alexander Kennedy Smith

1874

Career event - Invented the Brennan Torpedo

1880

Life event - Arrived in England

1886

Career event - Sold the rights for the Brennan Torpedo to the British War Ofice for £110,000

1887

Patent - Brennan Torpedo

1887 - 1896

Career position - Superintendent, Government Brennan Torpedo Factory, Gillingham, Kent, England

1892

Award - Companion Order of the Bath (CB)

1896 - 1907

Career position - Consulting Engineer, Government Brennan Torpedo Factory, Gillingham, Kent, England

1902

Patent - Application for a patent for means or apparatus for facilitating the ascent of stairs and inclined ways [19352/1902]

1905

Patent - Improvements in and relating to the imparting of stability to otherwise unstable bodies, structures or vehicles [2663/1905.]

1906

Award - Honorary Member, Royal Engineers Institute, England

1907

Career event - Invented a monorail locomotive with gyroscopic stabilisers

1910

Patent - Improvements relating to methods of and means for imparting stability to and maintaining stability of bodies such as single track vehicles or vessels [17529/1910]

1914 - 1918

Career position - Munitions Inventions Department, Ministry of Munitions, England [Working on confidential aircraft research work]

1919 - 1926

Career position - Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, England [Responsible for experiments on helicopter designs]

1922

Career position - Foundation Member, National Academy of Ireland

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Ross, H. M. [revised by Bosnell, John], 'Brennan, Louis Philip (1852 - 1932)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Sandow, Mary, 'Brennan, Louis (1852-1932)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 3: 1851 - 1890 A-C, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 223-224. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030208b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Beauchamp, David, 'The world's first guided missile: A Victorian invention', in From the Past to the Future: 18th Australian Engineering Heritage Conference 2015 [Newcastle] (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2015), pp. 62-71., https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.696560494961022. Details

Edited Books

• Chrimes, M. M.; Cox, R. C.; Cross-Rudkin, P. S. M.; Elton, J. M. H.; Hurst, B. L.; McWilliam, R. C.; Rennison, R. W.; Sutherland, R. J. M.; Thomas, R. E. ed., Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3: 1890-1920 (London, United Kingdom: Thomas Telford Publishing, 2014), 775 pp. 'Brennan, Louis Philip, CB', p.89. Details

Journal Articles

• Brennan, Louis, 'Monorail railways (Letter & Discussion)', Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers vol. VIII (1908), 127-130. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24399. Details

Resources

• 'Louis Philip Brennan', Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, Grace's Guide Ltd, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Louis_Philip_Brennan. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1871553. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/70889988. Details
• CA 5305 Patents Office, Victoria 1873 - 1904, 'NAA: A13150, 1640 [1872] : Specifications for registration of patent by William Calvert and Lewis Brennan titled - An improved weighing apparatus', A13150 Specifications, examiners reports and correspondence relating to the Registration of Victorian Patents - Second system, National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=9039379. Details
• CA 5305 Patents Office, Victoria 1873 - 1904, 'NAA: A13149, 19352 [1902] : Application for registration of patent by Louis Brennan titled - Means or apparatus for facilitating the ascent of stairs and inclined ways', A13149 Applications for Registration of Victorian Patents - Second system, National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=9038240. Details
• CA 5305 Patents Office, Victoria 1873 - 1904, 'NAA: A13150, 19352 [1902] : Specifications for registration of patent by Louis Brennan titled - Means or apparatus for facilitating the ascent of stairs and inclined ways', A13150 Specifications, examiners reports and correspondence relating to the Registration of Victorian Patents - Second system, National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=9610653. Details
• Cahill, Dennis, 19th Century torpedoes: an annotated bibliography, eSchoarship Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2015. https://torp.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/index.html. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 17529/1910. Title: Improvements relating to methods of and means for imparting stability to and maintaining stability of bodies such as single track vehicles or vessels', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1910017529. Details
• IP Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, 'Application: 2663/1905. Title: Improvements in and relating to the imparting of stability to otherwise unstable bodies, structures or vehicles', Australian Patent search database, Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, https://ipsearch.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/1905002663. Details
• 'Brennan, Louis (1852-1932)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1469676. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_b.html. Details
• Beauchamp, David, 'The World's First Successful Guided Missile', in Engineering Heritage Victoria, Speakers Programme (2016)., https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/Event/worlds-first-successful-guided-missile-david-beauchamp. Details
• Engineers Australia ed., Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 236 pp. pp.176-177. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details