Samuel Bentham
| Samuel Bentham | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
11 January 1757 England |
| Died | 31 May 1831 (aged 74) London, England |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Sophia Fordyce |
| Children | George, Clara, Sarah, Mary Louisa |
| Relatives | Jeremy Bentham (brother) |
Sir Samuel Bentham (11 January 1757 – 31 May 1831) was a noted English mechanical engineer and naval architect credited with numerous innovations, particularly related to naval architecture, including weapons. He was the only surviving sibling of philosopher Jeremy Bentham, with whom he had a close bond.
Samuel Bentham was one of two surviving siblings of Jeremiah Bentham. His father was an attorney, and his older brother was the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, five other siblings having died in infancy or early childhood, and their mother dying in 1766. At the age of 14, Bentham was apprenticed to a shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard, serving there and at Chatham Dockyard, before completing his 7-year training at the Naval Academy in Portsmouth.
In 1780 he moved to Russia, where he was employed in the service of Prince Potemkin, who had an establishment designed to promote the introduction of various arts of civilization. Initially hired as a shipbuilder, he soon discovered other opportunities to use his talents as an engineer and inventor, constructing industrial machinery and experimenting with steel production. He also designed and constructed many novel inventions, including an amphibious vessel and an articulated barge built for Catherine the Great, and the first Panopticon.
He was also decorated for his part in a decisive victory in the war against the Turks, and commanded a battalion of 1,000 men in Siberia. He eventually came to have complete responsibility for Potemkin's factories and workshops, and it was while considering the difficulties of supervising the large workforce that he devised the principle of central inspection, and designed the Panopticon building which would embody that principle and was later popularized by his brother Jeremy.
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