John Ellis

John Devonshire Ellis (20 April 1824 – 11 November 1906) was a steelmaker in Sheffield, England. He developed armour-plating for warships, and worked on the Bessemer process of steelmaking. Early life Ellis was born in Handsworth on 20 April 1824, son of Charles Ellis, a Birmingham brass manufacturer, and was educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham. He obtained a practical knowledge of the manufacture and working of brass in his father's works, and in 1848 became a partner in the firm. On 5 December 1848 he married Elizabeth Parsons Bourne of Childs Ercall, Shropshire. Armour-plate for warships In 1854 he purchased with John Brown and William Bragge the Atlas engineering works in Sheffield, then a modest establishment covering about three acres. Shortly after the partners took over the works, the adoption of armour for warships in France (1858) led the company to produce iron plates by a new and cheaper process of rolling welding them. Four-inch plates made by this process were fitted to and , the earliest ironclads of the British Royal Navy.