INDUSTRIES 



conclusion of peace. ^* But the firm did not 

 restrict itself to the manufacture of warlike im- 

 plements, for in 1813 the churchwardens paid 

 to Messrs. Cookson for the iron chest ;^I0 ioj.'^ 



But Cookson's was not the only iron foundry 

 near Chester-le-Street, for in the first half of the 

 nineteenth century W. and J. Murray of Chester- 

 le-Street were the most noted engineering firm 

 of the county.'^ 



The change that had been wrought by Ambrose 

 Crowley in the early eighteenth century in the 

 neigiibourhood of the Derwent was to be re- 

 peated on a much more gigantic scale not far 

 from the scene of the first experiment. In 1839, 

 John Nicholson, a cartwright by trade, but a 

 somewhat speculative man by nature, discovered 

 ironstone on the blue heaps at Consett (the 

 present site of part of the public park). He 

 took a specimen to Jonathan Richardson, mana- 

 ger of the Northumberland and Durham District 

 Bank, who in his turn submitted the specimen 

 to the Quaker managers of the Bishopwear- 

 mouth Iron Works. They at once agreed to 

 take up the enterprise, and in 1840 the works 

 were started under the name of the Derwent 

 Iron Company, with Jonathan Richardson as 

 managing director.'' In 1857 the stoppage of 

 the District Bank caused a crisis in the affairs of 

 the company, for nearly a million was owing to 

 the bank. Some of the shareholders of the bank 

 formed themselves into a company registered under 

 a new name, the Derwent and Consett Iron Com- 

 pany, Limited ; but the new company were not 

 able to complete the purchase, and the works 

 came again into the market. They were pur- 

 chased by the present Consett Iron Company in 

 1 864. The transaction was a large one ; eighteen 

 blast furnaces, with puddling forges, plate, angle, 

 and bar mills, producing 80,000 tons of pig iron, 

 and from 40,000 to 50,000 tons of finished iron 

 were purchased. Five hundred acres of free- 

 hold land, 1,000 cottages, and coal royalties 

 were included. Mr. Jonathan Priestman was 

 appointed managing director,'* and the company 

 was reconstituted by him, with Mr. Dale, later 

 Sir David Dale, as adviser. On his resignation 

 in 1869, Mr. Dale, who had throughout acted 

 as his chief adviser, succeeded to his post, and in 

 1884 become chairman. 



But many changes have taken place in the 

 works since the inauguration of the new com- 

 pany. When Mr. Dale took over the manage- 

 ment in 1869, the firm had practically con- 



" From inform.ition given by Mr. N. C. Cookson 

 of Oakwood, Wylam. 



" Rev. Canon Blunt. A Thousand Years of the 

 Church in Chester-k-Street. Extract from church- 

 wardens' accounts. 



'^ White and Parson, op. cit. i, 236. 



'" I am indebted to Mr. C. F. Scott of Leadgate 

 for these details. 



°' W. Jenkins, Description of the Consett lion Works, 1 2 . 



centrated on the manufacture of iron rails and 

 plates ; taking the home, colonial, and foreign 

 trade about the year 1876, the output for rails 

 alone sometimes touched a weekly maximum of 

 2,000 tons. The substitution of steel rails for 

 iron about this time reduced the output at Con- 

 sett fully one-third. Fortunately, however, the 

 increased demand for iron plates for shipbuilding 

 neutralized the effect of this change ; they con- 

 centrated on iron plates, the rail mill was aban- 

 doned, and by 1882 frequently nearly 2,000 

 tons of iron ship-plates were turned out each 

 week. Another cliange was imminent in 1882, 

 for steel plates made by the Siemens-Martin 

 process were being rapidly substituted for iron 

 plates. To meet this new demand the company 

 had by 1883 erected two small Siemens furnaces, 

 a steam hammer, and an additional Siemens fur- 

 nace for heating the ingots. Before long eight 

 furnaces had been built, cogging substituted for 

 hammering, and a 20-ton melting furnace for 

 the Siemens gas-heating furnace. 



Exclusive of collieries and coke ovens, the 

 Consett Iron Works consist of seven (an eighth 

 is being built) blast furnaces. Each furnace has 

 seven tuyeres and three Cowper stoves, is 55 ft. 

 high, is fed with imported Spanish and other 

 ores by means of a bell and hopper, with standard 

 beam hydraulic brake. The average weekly pro- 

 duction of each furnace is 700 tons. The hema- 

 tite ore comes from Bilbao, in which mines the 

 company have a large share, and the limestone 

 comes from the company's own quarries at Stan- 

 hope. The temperature of the blast when it 

 enters the furnace is 1,200 dcg. Fahr., the pressure 

 5 lb. per square inch. Tliere are two melting 

 shops for supplying ingots for the manufacture of 

 steel plates, twenty furnaces with a total capacity 

 of more than 500 tons, and producing about 

 4,200 tons of ingots per week. There are four 

 plate mills with twenty-five boilers, all driven 

 by high-pressure, direct-acting, non-condensing 

 fly-wheel engines, each having one stand of 

 pinions, one stand of roughing, and one stand of 

 finishing rolls ; in addition, No. 3 has one stand 

 of chequering rolls, 5 ft. 6 in. by 25 in. No. I 

 and No. 3 have steam lifts with slab-raising 

 capacity of about 25 cwt.. No. 4 is a 28-inch 

 clutch reverse mill, with a weekly output of 

 1,250 tons of steel plates. It has also an over- 

 head 15-ton steam travelling crane running upon 

 stecl-built girders. All the mills have plate and 

 scrap-shearing machines conveniently placed for 

 their use. The total maximum output from the 

 four plate mills is 3,000 tons of plates per week. 

 There are three angle mills : there is a 32-inch, 

 a 22-inch, and a 12-inch angle mill, the total 

 capacity of the three mills being about 2,000 

 tons of finished material per week. Two over- 

 head cranes with boiler attached run the whole 

 length of the three angle mills. At the south 

 end of the mills is a bar bank. The loading is 



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