Sir William Fairbairn was a Scottish engineer. He was born in 1789 at Kelso and died in 1874. He was apprenticed as an engine-wright at a colliery in North Shields, and commenced business on his own account in Manchester with a Mr. Lillie in 1817, where he made many improvements in machinery, such as the use of iron instead of wood in the shafting of cotton-mills. About 1831, his attention having been attracted to the use of iron as a material for ship-building, he built the first iron ship. His firm became extensively employed in iron shipbuilding at Manchester and at Millwall, London, and had a great share in the development of the trade. He shares with Mr. Stephenson the merit of constructing the great tubular bridge across the Menai Strait. William Fairbairn was one of the earliest members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was president in 1861-1862. He was created a baronet in 1869. Research William Fairbairn
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