John Brown John Brown (1816-1896), one of the greatest of the Victorian industrialist, was born in Orchard Square, in what was then Favell's Yard. He was apprenticed in nearby Orchard Place before setting up his first steelmaking workshop in 1844 at number 24 Orchard Street. Inventor of the conical spring railway buffer and pioneer manufacturer of railway lines and armour plate, his name lived on into the twentieth century through the steel forgings produced at Firth Brown for the famous battleships and liners built at the John Brown Shipyards, Clydebank.