Fairbairn, SIR WILLIAM, was born at Kelso, in Roxburghshire, 19th February 1789. Having got some plain schooling, he was apprenticed (1804) to an engine-wright at Percy Main Colliery, North
Shields. Here he was assiduous in self-improvement, gained a knowledge of mathematics, read extensively, and made the acquaintance of George Stephenson, which was continued through life. His apprenticeship over, he moved about a good deal, till in 1817 he started business on his own account in a humble way in Manchester. It was a struggle in which, without money or connections, only great abilities and perseverance could succeed. The first great improvement introduced by Fairbairn was the substitution of iron for wood in the shafting of cotton-mills, and the substitution of light for heavy shafting where metal was already in use. This extended his reputation, and orders flowed in faster than they could be executed. Fairbairn was amongst the earliest of the iron shipbuilders, his plan of using iron boats on the Forth and Clyde Canal being the first suggestion in this direction; and in their construction he originated various improvements. His works (1835) at Millwall, London, turned out several hundred vessels, but, as they did not prove a financial success, he parted with them, after fourteen years' experience, at a loss. In 1834-35 Fairbairn and Mr E. Hodgkinson were invited by the British Association to seek out the cause of certain supposed defects in the iron produced by hot-blast furnaces. About the same time Fairbairn tested the strength of the various kinds of iron of Great Britain.
The first idea of a tubular bridge across the Menai Strait is due to Robert Stephenson, but its realisation was largely the work of Fairbairn. Stephenson's idea was a circular tube, supported by chains; but the Britannia and Conway bridges are rectangular structures, without chains, invented and designed by Fairbairn (see BRIDGE, Vol. II. p. 440). He patented his design, and erected more than a thousand bridges upon this principle. He devised improvements in connection with steam-boilers and other steam machinery, and was the inventor of a tubular crane. He aided Joule and Sir W. Thomson in 1851 in their investigations of the earth's surface, and guided the experiments of the government committee (1861-65) in the application of iron for defensive purposes. Fairbairn was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and was created a baronet in 1869. He published a good many works and papers on iron, bridges, boilers, mills, &c. He died at Moor Park, Surrey, 18th August 1874. See his Life by W. Pole (1877), and Smiles's Lives of the Engineers (1862).