BRASSEY

brassey, thomas (1805-1870), english railway contractor, was born at buerton, near chester, on the 7th of november 1805. his father, besides cultivating land of his own, held a large farm of the marquess of westminster; his ancestors, according to family tradition, having been settled for several centuries at bulkeley, near malpas, cheshire, before they went to buerton in 1663. thomas brassey received an ordinary commercial education at a chester school. at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a surveyor, and on the completion of his term became the partner of his master, eventually assuming the sole management of the business. in the local surveys to which he devoted his attention during his early years he acquired the knowledge and practical experience which were the necessary foundation of his great reputation. his first engagement as railway contractor was entered upon in 1835, when he undertook the execution of a portion of the grand junction railway, on the invitation of the distinguished engineer joseph locke, who soon afterwards entrusted him with the completion of the london and southampton railway, a task which involved contracts to the amount of l4,000,000 sterling and the employment of a body of 3000 men. at the same time he was engaged on portions of several other lines in the north of england and in scotland. in conjunction with his partner, w. mackenzie, brassey undertook, in 1840, the construction of the railway from paris to rouen, of which locke was engineer. he subsequently carried out the extension of the same line. a few years later he was engaged with his partner on five other french lines, and on his own account on the same number of lines in england, wales and scotland. brassey was now in control of an industrial army of 75,000 men, and the capital involved in his various contracts amounted to some l36,000,000. but his energy and capacity were equal to still larger tasks. he undertook in 1851 other works in england and scotland; and in the following year he engaged in the construction of railways in holland, prussia, spain and italy. one of his largest undertakings was the grand trunk railway of canada, 1100 m. in length, with its fine bridge over the st lawrence. in this work he was associated with sir m. peto and e.l. betts. in the following years divisions of his industrial army were found in almost every country in europe, in india, in australia and in south america. besides actual railway works, he originated and maintained a great number of subordinate assistant establishments, coal and iron works, dockyards, &c., the direction of which alone would be sufficient to strain the energies of an ordinary mind. his profits were, of course, enormous, but prosperity did not intoxicate him; and when heavy losses came, as sometimes they did, he took them bravely and quietly. among the greatest of his pecuniary disasters were those caused by the fall of the great barentin viaduct on the rouen and havre railway, and by the failure of peto and betts. brassey was one of the first to aim at improving the relations between engineers and contractors, by setting himself against the corrupt practices which were common. he resolutely resisted the "scamping" of work and the bribery of inspectors, and what he called the "smothering of the engineer"; and he did much in this way to bring about a better state of things. large-hearted and generous to a rare degree, modest and simple in his taste and manners, he was conscious of his power as a leader in his calling, and knew how to use it wisely and for noble ends. honours came to him unsought. the cross of the legion of honour was conferred on him. from victor emmanuel he received the cross of the order of st maurice and st lazarus; and from the emperor of austria the decoration of the iron crown, which it is said had not before been given to a foreigner. he died at st leonards on the 8th of december 1870. his life and labours are commemorated in a volume by sir arthur helps (1872). he left three sons, of whom the eldest, thomas (b. 1836), was knighted and afterwards (1886) created baron brassey. lord brassey, who was educated at rugby and oxford, entered parliament as a liberal in 1865, and devoted himself largely to naval affairs. he was civil lord of the admiralty (1880-1883), and secretary to the admiralty (1883-1885); and both before and after his elevation to the peerage did important work on naval and statistical inquiries for the government. in 1893-1805 he was president of the institution of naval architects. in 1894 he was a lord-in-waiting, and from 1895 to 1900 was governor of victoria. in 1908 he was appointed lord warden of the cinque ports. his voyages in his yacht "sunbeam" from 1876 onwards, with his first wife (d. 1887), who published an interesting book on the subject, took him all over the world. lord brassey married a second time in 1890. among other publications, his inauguration of the _naval annual_ (1886 onwards), and his volumes on _the british navy_, are the most important. his eldest son thomas, who edited the _naval annual_ (1890-1904), and unsuccessfully contested several parliamentary constituencies, was born in 1862. brasso (ger. _kronstadt_; rumanian, _brasov_), a town of hungary, in transylvania, 206 m. s.e. of kolozsvar by rail. pop. (1900) 34,511. it is the capital of the comitat (county) of the same name, also known as burzenland, a fertile country inhabited by an industrious population of germans, magyars and rumanians. brasso is beautifully situated on the slopes of the transylvanian alps, in a narrow valley, shut in by mountains, and presenting only one opening on the north-west towards the burzen plain. the town is entirely dominated by the zinne of kapellenberg, a mountain rising 1276 ft. above the town (total altitude 3153 ft.), from which a beautiful view is obtained of the lofty mountains around and of the carefully cultivated plain of the burzenland, dotted with tastefully built and well-kept villages. on the summit of the mountain is one of the numerous monuments erected in 1896 in different parts of the country to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the hungarian state. it is known as arpad's monument, and consists of a doric column erected on a circular pedestal, which supports the bronze figure of a warrior from the time of arpad. brasso consists of the inner town, which is the commercial centre, and the suburbs of blumenau, altstadt and obere vorstadt or bolgarszeg, inhabited respectively by germans, magyars and rumanians. to the east of the inner town rises the schlossberg, crowned by the citadel, which was erected in 1553, and constitutes the principal remaining fragment of the old fortifications with which brasso was encircled. the most interesting building in the town is the protestant church, popularly called the black church, owing to its smoke-stained walls, caused by the great fire of 1689. this church, the finest in transylvania, is a gothic edifice with traces of romanesque influence, and was built in 1385-1425. in the square in front of it is the statue of johannes honterus (1498-1549), "the apostle of transylvania," who was born in brasso, and established here the first printing-press in transylvania. in the principal square of the inner town stands the town hall, built in 1420 and restored in the 18th century, with a tower 190 ft. high. brasso is the most important commercial and manufacturing town of transylvania. lying near the frontier of rumania, with easy access through the tomos pass, it developed from the earliest time an active trade with that country and with the whole of the balkan states. its chief industries are iron and copper works, wool-spinning, turkey-red dyeing, leather goods, paper, cement and petroleum refineries. the timber industry in all its branches, with a speciality for the manufacture of the wooden bottles largely used by the peasantry in hungary and in the balkan states, as well as the dairy industry, and ham-curing are also fully developed. a peculiarity of brasso, which constitutes a survival of the old methods of trade with the balkan states, is the number of money-changers who ply their trade at small movable tables in the market-place and in the open street. brasso is the most populous town of transylvania, and its population is composed in about equal numbers of germans, magyars and rumanians. the town, especially on market days, presents an animated and picturesque aspect. here are seen germans, szeklers, magyars, rumanians, armenians and gipsies, each of them wearing their distinctive national costume, and talking and bargaining in their own special idiom. amongst the places of interest round brasso is the watering-place zaizon, 15 m. to the east, with ferruginous and iodine waters; while about 17 m. to the south-west lies the pretty rumanian village of zernest, where in 1690 the austrian general heussler was defeated and taken prisoner by imre (emerich) tokoly, the usurper of the transylvanian throne. brasso was founded by the teutonic order in 1211, and soon became a flourishing town. through the activity of honterus it played a leading part in the introduction of the reformation in transylvania in the 16th century. the town was almost completely destroyed by the big fire of 1689. during the revolution of 1848-1849 it was besieged by the hungarians under general bern from march to july 1849, and several engagements between the austrian and the hungarian troops took place in its neighbourhood.