Shill Workshop of the World

Birmingham's Industrial Heritage
1. Auflage 2006
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5416-7
Verlag: The History Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten

Researches Birmingham's industries - primarily the manufacture of components, paints and varnish, plastics, toys, aircraft components, and the food industry. This book interweaves company history and product development with descriptions of technical processes, as well as including site visits. It is also illustrated with a wide range of pictures.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shill, Ray

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

The inventiveness of Birmingham manufacturers was quite remarkable. Their ability to take on new products and adopt modern methods enabled the introduction of a wide range of different trades and established Birmingham as an important manufacturing centre. They were fortunate to be able to draw on the skills of local people, whose assistance was essential to the continued success of any company. Many firms showed versatility and the ability to adapt and pursue lucrative lines and there was a ready market for their products not only in Britain but also throughout the British Empire and indeed the world. It was no small wonder that when the British Association held their Exhibition in Birmingham in 1886, they credited Birmingham as the Workshop of the World.

Specialist crafts were interwoven with metal fashioning abilities that were to be found in Birmingham and surrounding communities located in the Black Country, Coventry and Redditch. Metal working has remained an important skill through to the present day. The methods might have changed, as have the tools and machines and techniques needed to accomplish the task. Yet metal fashioning is needed as much today as it ever has been.

The first forms of mechanical power entailed the use of water- and wind-powered mills. Water power, in particular, proved invaluable to the development of local industry. The rivers local to the Birmingham district were the Cole, Rea and Tame. They provided a natural, but hard-won power source. Watermills were arranged at strategic places alongside these rivers or the streams and brooks that fed them. A common method was to build up a head of water behind a dam and divert the surplus flow around through a series of man-made channels, called races.

Watermills played important roles in the industrial revolution. Mills were used to grind corn into flour, but their wheels could also be used for industrial work such as rolling metal or grinding edge tools. Some were also adapted to provide the blast for smelting iron, forging iron or pounding rags for paper making. Watermills were a constant feature of Birmingham industry through to the early years of the twentieth century. Perhaps the most famous local watermill is Sarehole Mill, which was a corn mill built in the 1760s that worked through to 1919. It is well known because of its association with the author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Working with water had its drawbacks as supply was sometimes restricted and power of the mill was equally limited to the turning of the wheel, or wheels. The advent of the steam engine enabled factories to move away from the riverside and into the towns. Steam power did much to enhance the development of industry in Birmingham. Steam was a much more versatile means of driving machinery than the water mill. Engines could be placed close to the work and factory bosses were keen to exploit every new refinement in steam-engine technology. A feature of many nineteenth-century factories was the overhead or underfloor shafting that drove belting to dynamos, lathes and other machinery. Gas engines and oil engines added to the versatility of the power. But the most drastic change came through the adoption of electric power, which promoted the use of compact machinery and heavier presses.

In the eighteenth century various prospect views of Birmingham were published. The South East Prospect included the Heath (or Cooper’s) Mill, at Digbeth, which is shown in the centre of the enlarged section of the engraving. Heath Mill stood on the River Rea and used its waters to drive the water wheel. Water supply was controlled by floodgates that were aligned at the junction of the old river and the diverted course, which ran around the west side of the mill. The house (no. 17) belonged to Mr Cooper, the mill owner, while the two horsemen in the foreground are seen on Heath Mill Lane. (Local Studies Department, Birmingham Reference Library)

Birmingham is a town of hills and valleys. This feature was used to best advantage by the windmill builders. Although the Birmingham windmills have long since gone, Windmill Street, Holloway Head, is a reminder of Chapman’s Windmill, which formerly stood on the hillside nearby. This drawing of the Dog and Duck shows the windmill to the rear. (Birmingham Weekly Mercury, October 20 1895)

Tolkien drew his inspiration for his books from a variety of sources that included his childhood homes in Birmingham. Many other authors have also based fictional accounts around life in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Birmingham. There remains a host of untold stories and untold lives hidden in the rich industrial heritage of the district. Intertwined with the hard-working lives of many Birmingham people were the difficult working conditions that were common in the industrial towns and cities throughout Britain. Hardship had no boundaries whether people laboured in the factories and foundries of Birmingham, the mills of Manchester or the coalmines around Newcastle. Some employers, like Cadbury Brothers, adopted a benevolent attitude to their workers. The move from the smoke- and soot-laden atmosphere that prevailed around the city centre to the clean air and new factory site at Bournville was a caring move. Other factory owners shared similar views and made every attempt to improve the lot of their workers. Others did not. Workers’ pay was often low and employment sometimes irregular. There were those who even lived in poverty. Such people were caught in the trap where income barely paid for rent and pawned belongings were the only financial buffer for food.

Yet new industry continued to draw skilled and unskilled workers to the city. From their numbers was derived an entrepreneurial spirit where workers used their abilities to adapt and found further trades. Birmingham at this time supported a large number of small industries and a proportionate small workforce. It was only during the twentieth century that company mergers and takeovers created the large workforce employers. Family-run firms were particularly common where father and sons built up the business.

The simple hand press was the universal tool of many small firms. The basic concept of pressing parts by hand was used to best advantage by the button, gun and steel pen nib makers.
(Birmingham Daily Post)

Time and again this pattern is repeated, and some went on to found large concerns. The names of Matthew Boulton and James Watt are frequently connected with the Birmingham engineering industry and their names head a long list of industrialists that were based in the town. Writers and historians have long praised Boulton and Watt as the industrial heroes that set Birmingham to commercial success, but there are many more who deserve a share of the credit and among their numbers the following deserve mention:

Herbert Austin, a pioneer of the automobile industry, set up the Longbridge Car Plant, where motor cars, commercial vehicles and aeroplanes were manufactured.

James Booth, engaged in the manufacture of Duralumin alloys, which assisted the manufacture of aircraft components.

Thomas Carlyle found fortune and success through the making of buttons.

Arthur Chamberlain may have been overshadowed by the political achievements of his brother, Joseph, but was a successful industrialist who turned around the fortunes of Kynochs. The firm founded by George Kynoch went on to be the keystone of the vast Imperial Metal Industries.

Benjamin Cook started as a jeweller and maker of steel toys, but then expanded his business to include the making of ornamental brassware and the first Birmingham-made metallic bedsteads.

Edward and Harry Crane set up a small bicycle-making business that developed into the massive Hercules Cycle Works in Aston.

Dudley, Ludford and William Docker started as retailers of black varnish and went on to manufacture varnishes and paints for automobiles, rail and road vehicles.

George and Henry Elkington brought the principles of electroplating to Birmingham and were integral to the foundation and development of this industry.

Henry Fulford brought new practice to the local brewery trade. Fulford was one of a number of brewers who established successful concerns and a pioneer in the use of up-to-date brewing methods at the Holt Brewery.

Joseph Gillott founded a successful business based on the making of steel pen nibs.

George Kynoch founded a business based on the making of percussion caps, that grew into a diverse group of occupations that included ammunition manufacture, metal working, cycle manufacture and soap-making.

Joseph Lucas began making oil lamps. He and his sons went on to found a multinational company that supplied parts to the automobile and aerospace industries.

Josiah Mason was a notable Birmingham entrepreneur who became a successful steel pen nib maker and was later a pioneer in the electroplate trade.

Alfred Morcam adapted his engineering skills to transform the business of G.E. Bellis into a successful marine engine and steam turbine manufacturing concern.

James Lansdown Norton started in business as a bicycle component maker during 1898 but went on to supply motors for bicycles and develop new motorcycles. He was the founder of Norton Motor Co., which gained an international reputation for the motorcycles produced at the Bracebridge Street factory.

William Priest helped to build up the reputation of the Quadrant Cycle Co. as a leading maker of quality bicycles and motorcycles.

Richard Prosser trained as a brass worker but studied engineering in his spare time. His work with tube manufacture helped to lay the foundation of the weldless tube industry.

John and Edmund...