  charles frederick beyer (an anglicised form of his original german name carl friedrich beyer) (14 may 1813 &mdash; 2 june 1876) was a german-british locomotive engineer, co-founder of the firm beyer-peacock. ==early life== beyer was the son of a weaver, born in plauen, saxony. he was taught to draw by a student, convalescing in the district. some of his pinned-up drawings were noticed by a local official, and a place was procured for him at dresden polytechnic, an institute of technical education. (it was said that his parents could not afford his education, but were afraid of giving offence to the civil servant.) beyer supplemented a meagre state scholarship by doing odd jobs. (a philanthropic lady was in the habit of giving sunday dinner to the student with the highest marks that week. beyer relied on the meal, and consequently made sure that he out-performed everyone else.) ==career== upon graduation beyer took a job in a machine works at chemnitz, and he obtained a state grant from the saxon government to visit the united kingdom to report on weaving machine technology. he visited manchester, then considered the major centre in engineering technology. he returned to dresden to file his report, but then returned to england in 1834. he wanted experience at a large foundry, but his youth and foreign origin seemed to tell against him. at one interview, he was offered some gold sovereigns to defray the costs of his journey. he angrily expostulated that it was work that he wanted, and this swayed the potential employer. ===sharp, roberts and company=== beyer began work with sharp, roberts and company in manchester, manufacturers of textile machinery, as a junior draughtsman and developed a lifelong friendship with richard roberts. during the following years sharp, roberts and company began to turn its main attention to the construction of locomotives, and roberts soon delegated most of the locomotive design work to beyer. the sharp locomotives of the 1840s, particularly the 2-2-2 passenger and 0-4-2 goods, were almo
1813_births 1876_deaths British_businesspeople British_mechanical_engineers German_businesspeople German_mechanical_engineers History_of_Manchester