Andrew Betts-Brown, was closely associated with a number of improvements in  marine engineering.  He was educated in his native city, and served his apprenticeship as an engineer in the locomotive works of the North British Railway Company at St. Margaret's. During his apprenticeship he attended the evening classes at the Watt College. He subsequently went to Manchester and studied chemistry.

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He went to London about 1863, and took an old brewery, which he converted into engineering works.  During his time here he invented an overhead traveling crane, which was used on the construction of Blackfriars Bridge, and plant which used steam and hydraulic power for discharging ships and was contracted to be installed in Hamburg Docks.

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By around 1870 he continued to construct plant in London but realised that conditions were more favourable in Edinburgh.  He acquired land at Rosebank adjoining the North British Railway Company's line to Granton, and the necessary plant was erected to complete the Hamburg contract.  The works at Rosebank were extended and added to until they became one of the largest engineering works in the East of Scotland.

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Mr. Brown was  a member of numerous engineering institutions, the best known at the time being the Institution of Naval Architects.  He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institution of Marine Engineers.​

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He died in 1906 at the age of 67.