Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ellis, John Devonshire
ELLIS, JOHN DEVONSHIRE (1824–1906), civil engineer and metallurgist, born at Handsworth on 20 April 1824, was son of Charles Ellis, a Birmingham brass manufacturer. Educated at King Edward VI's School, Birmingham, he obtained a practical knowledge of the manufacture and working of brass in his father's works, in 1848 became a partner in the firm. 1854 he purchased with (Sir) John Brown [q. v. Suppl. I] and William Bragget Atlas engineering works at Sheffield, then a modest establishment covering about three acres and employing about persons. Shortly after the partners took over the works the adoption of armour by the French for warships (1858) led Messrs. Brown and Ellis to produce iron plates by a new and cheaper process of rolling welding them. Four-inch plates made this process were fitted to the Black Prince and Warrior, the earliest ironclads of British navy. For several years Ellis was occupied in devising appliances for the manufacture of thicker and thick plates for guns and projectiles. Steel was tried, but was not found to have the necessary toughness under the impact of shot. After many experiment Ellis perfected a process for uniting a hard steel face with a wrought-iron backing. Such compound armour was used down to about 1893, the Royal Sovereign class of battleships being protected with an 18-inch belt of it on the water-line. Meanwhile, as early as 1871, Ellis had turned his attention to the process of cementation, and in that year he took out a patent relating to it; but it was not until the chilling process devised by Captain T. J. Tresidder, in which the heated surface of a plate was chilled by means of water under pressure, was applied in conjunction with cementation, that satisfactory results were obtained. The first Ellis-Tresidder chilled compound plate was tried with success at Shoeburyness in 1891.
Ellis was largely instrumental in moting the success of the Bessemer system Sir Henry Bessemer [q. v. Suppl. I] established works close to the Atlas works and Ellis, adopting at an early stage the new process, at once put up at the Atlas works the first plant in England outside the inventor's own works. In conjunction with William Eaves he introduced the Ellis-Eaves system of induced draught, and he devised a mill for rolling the ribbed boiler-flues of the Purves and other types, and also in connection with the manufacture of Serve tubes.
The Atlas works soon acquired a world wide reputation for mechanical engineering of all kinds. The concern was formed into a limited liability company in 1864. The capital rose to nearly three millions sterling; about 10,000 men were employed at Ellis's death, and the output exceeded 100,000 tons of steel per annum. Ellis was managing director from 1864 until 1905, when he became chairman of the company. Brown retired in 1870 and Bragge died in 1884, when Ellis acquired sole charge. In 1899 the Clydebank Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, employing 8000 men, were taken over by the concern.
In 1867 Ellis was decorated with the Cross of the Order of Vasa in recognition of his aid in certain fortifications in Sweden. From the Iron and Steel Institute, of which he was a member from 1875, a member of council in 1888, and a vice-president in 1901, he received the Bessemer gold medal in 1889, when Sir Henry Bessemer acknowledged Ellis's services in establishing the process. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 8 Jan. 1884. For many years he was a member of the Cullers' Company. He took little part in the public affairs of Sheffield, but was a magistrate for the West Riding, and was for ten years chairman of the South Yorkshire Coalowners' Association. He died at his residence, Sparken, Worksop, on 11 Nov. 1906, and was buried at Carlton in Lindrick.
He married on 5 Dec. 1848 Elizabeth Parsons Bourne of Childs Ercall, Shropshire, by whom he had five sons and one daughter.
A portrait by A. S. Cope, R.A., is at the Atlas Works, Sheffield.
[Journal Iron and Steel Institute, 1906, pt. iv. p. 706; Minutes of Proceedings Inst. Civ. Eng. clxviii. 340; The Engineer, 16 Nov. 1906; Engineering, 16 Nov. 1906; Cassier's Mag., Dec. 1903, pp. 194 seq.]