Brown, Joseph Rogers (b. Jan. 26,1810, Warren, R.I., U.S.—d. July 23, 1876, Isles of Shoals, N.H.) U.S. inventor and manufacturer. He per¬ fected and produced a highly accurate linear dividing engine in 1850, and then developed a vernier caliper and also applied vernier methods to the protractor. With Lucian Sharpe he founded the Brown and Sharpe Manu¬ facturing Co. His micrometre caliper appeared in 1867. He invented a pre¬ cision gear cutter to produce clock gears, a universal milling machine, and (perhaps his finest innovation) a universal grinding machine, in which articles were hardened first and then ground, thereby increasing accuracy and eliminating waste.
Brown, Molly orig. Margaret Tobin (b. July 18, 1867, Hannibal, Mo, U.S.—d. Oct. 26, 1932, New York, N.Y.) U.S. philanthropist, social reformer, and socialite. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she attended a grammar school and later worked at a tobacco factory. She followed her brother c. 1884 to Colorado, where she met and married James Brown, a miner. After he found gold in 1894, they moved to Denver, where they were welcomed into society. She became a founding member of the Den¬ ver Woman’s Club, part of a national network of women’s clubs dedi¬ cated to improving the conditions of women and children. After her husband left her, she traveled to New York and Newport, where she enjoyed social success. As a passenger on the disastrous maiden voyage of the Titanic (1912), she helped command a lifeboat and was celebrated by the U.S. press as “the Unsinkable Mrs. Brown.” Her life, in the semi¬ legendary form she herself recounted it, was popularized in a stage musi¬ cal and movie.
Brown, Robert (b. Dec. 21, 1773, Montrose, Angus, Scot.—d. June 10, 1858, London, Eng.) Scottish botanist. The son of a clergyman, he studied medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before entering the British army as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795). He obtained the post of naturalist aboard a ship bound to survey the coasts of Australia (1801), and on the journey he gathered some 3,900 plant species. He published some of the results of his trip in 1810 in his classic Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae..., laying the foundations of Australian botany and refining prevailing plant classification systems. In 1827 he transferred Joseph Banks’s botanical collection to the British Museum and became keeper of the museum’s newly formed botanical department. The follow¬ ing year he published his observation of the phenomenon that came to be called Brownian motion. In 1831 he noted the existence in plant cells of what he called the nucleus. He was the first to recognize the distinction between gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants).
Brown, William Wells (b. 1814?, near Lexington, Ky.,U.S.—d. Nov. 6, 1884, Chelsea, Mass.) U.S. writer. Born into slavery, Brown escaped and educated himself, settling in the Boston area. He wrote a popular autobiography, Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (1847),
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and lectured on abolitionism and temperance reform. Clotel (1853), his only novel, concerning the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and a slave, was the first novel ever published by an African American. His only play, The Escape (1858), is about two slaves who secretly marry.
brown bear Shaggy-haired, characteristically brown species ( Ursus arctos) of bear with numerous races native to Eurasia and to northwest¬ ern North America. North American brown bears are usually called griz¬ zly bears. Eurasian brown bears are generally solitary animals, able to run and swim well, and usually 48-84 in. (120-210 cm) long and 300-550 lbs (135-250 kg). They feed on mammals, fish, vegetable materials, and honey. The exceptionally large Siberian brown bear is similar in size to the grizzly.
brown dwarf Astronomical object intermediate in mass between a planet and a star. Sometimes described as failed stars, brown dwarfs are believed to form in the same way as stars, from fragments of an inter¬ stellar cloud that contract into gravitationally bound objects. However, they do not have enough mass to produce the internal heat that in stars ignites hydrogen and establishes nuclear fusion. Though they generate some heat and light, they also cool rapidly and shrink; they may differ from high-mass planets only in how they form.
brown recluse spider Venomous species ( Loxosceles reclusa) of brown spider, most common in the western and southern U.S. The brown recluse is light-coloured, generally with a dark violin-shaped design on its back, for which it is sometimes called the violin spider. About 0.25 in. (7 mm) long, it has a leg span of about 1 in. (2.5 cm). It has extended its range into parts of the northern U.S. and is often found under stones or in dark corners inside buildings. The venom of the brown recluse destroys the walls of blood vessels near the site of the bite, sometimes causing a slow-healing skin ulcer. Bites are occasionally fatal.
brown trout Prized and wary European game fish ( Salmo trutta, fam¬ ily Salmonidae) that is favoured for food. The species includes several varieties (e.g., the Loch Leven trout of Britain). The brown trout is rec¬ ognized by the light-ringed black spots on its brown body. It has been transplanted to many areas of the world because it can thrive in warmer waters than most other trout.
It grows to about 8 lbs (3.6 kg).
Oceangoing individuals, called sea trout, are larger than freshwater forms and provide good sport, as do those that enter large lakes.
Brown University Private university in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., a traditional member of the Ivy League. It was founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College and renamed in 1804 for a benefactor, Nicholas Brown. It became coeducational in 1971 when it merged with Pembroke, a women’s college founded in 1891. Today it offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in all major academic fields; its school of medicine awards the M.D. Research facilities include centres for geological, astro¬ nomical, and educational research.
Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka) (1954) U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment says that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. The court declared separate educa¬ tional facilities to be inherently unequal, thus reversing its 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Brown ruling was limited to public schools, but it was believed to imply that segregation is not permissible in other public facilities. Guidelines for ending segregation were presented and school boards were advised to proceed “with all deliberate speed.” See also Thur- good Marshall.
Browne, Sir Thomas (b. Oct. 19, 1605, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 19, 1682, Norwich, Norfolk) British physician and author. While practicing medicine, he began a parallel career as a writer. His best-known work, Religio Medici (1642), is a journal of reflections on the mysteries of God, nature, and man. A larger work commonly known as Browne’s Vulgar Errors (1646) attempted to correct popular beliefs and superstitions. He also wrote treatises on antiquarian subjects and the beautiful and subtle A Letter to a Friend (1690).