Oldjohnw wrote:Captain Brown and his Welsh chain-making company Brown Lenox & Co would play vital part in the development of chain bridge design in the UK. Brown erected a test bridge in 1813, and went on to construct the country's first wrought iron cable chain suspension bridge, Union Bridge (1820), now the world's oldest surviving bridge of its type. Telford's spectacular Menai Suspension Bridge opened in Wales six years later.
It's a very unusual route for technology transfer... eastern Asia to Pennsylvania to Britain. I can't think of anything else like that before the era of electronics.
Jonathan
PS: Do you know the story of Wren putting the chain around the base of the dome of St Paul's? One version of the story has this resulting from him wanting to solve the problem in masonry but losing confidence.