SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIES. 



A SURVEY FROM THE RAVENSBOURNE TO THE 



DARENTH. 



Edited by T. A. INGRAM, M.A., LL.D., and J. STUART KER, B.Sc., 

 A.M.Inst.E. (Late Head of Engineering Dept., Woolwich Polytechnic). 



PREFACE. 



THE district included in the descriptive survey of the Scientific 

 Industries is that which stretches from the Darenth on the East and 

 South to the boundary of Kent on the West, including also North 

 Woolwich, Beckton, and Silvertown on the North. 



The Darenth, or Dart (giving name to Dartford and the neigh- 

 bouring village Darenth) is navigable for lighters for three miles, 

 as the Dartford Creek, and supplies water power (to a certain 

 extent supplementary to steam and other power) for the manufac- 

 ture of paper and explosives. The creek gives easy access to the 

 Thames, facilitating the export of manufactured goods and 

 agricultural produce. Joining the Dartford Creek below Dartford 

 there is the Cray river, lying west of Dartford, and navigable to 

 within a mile of Crayford. On the Cray are silk and calico-printing 

 works, tanneries, motor car works, and large paper mills. 



The Ravensbourne on the West boundary is also navigable for 

 one mile for lighters of 500 tons burden, and joins the Thames as 

 Deptford Creek ; many industries are located in the neighbourhood 

 of this creek. The Royal Dockyard, Deptford (see below), which 

 was closed in 1869, and is now the Victoria Victualling Yard and 

 the Foreign Cattle Market of London City (probably the largest in 

 the world) formerly gave great importance to the immediately 

 surrounding district, which still is an important industrial centre. 



Between these two creeks there is an important reach of the 

 Thames dotted with factories on both the North and South banks, 

 and having one long succession of wharves, from which the manu- 

 factures of the district are shipped to all parts of the world, and 

 to which also the raw products for manufacture come from the 

 uttermost corners of the globe. 



FF 



