Johnson, William Beckett, Timperley engineer Johnson was the manager of St. George's Iron Foundry (Richard Ormerod and Sons), Manchester. He was a prolific patentee with patents for example in improvements in the construction of locomotive engines (1847), improvements in steam boilers and safety valves (1855), improvements in raising and lowering trucks, carriages, engines, and other such railway appendages (1858) and others. Johnson died in 1902.