INDUSTRIES 



to all others. The lead must have been imported, 

 as efforts to work native lead had proved useless. 

 Yet, at some ancient date, lead-mines were prob- 

 ably worked near the Frome, for two Roman 

 pigs of lead have been found in the river-bed, 

 and at Penpark Hole, near by, is an old lead-mine, 

 20O ft. deep. It was examined in 1669 and in 

 1776, but no practical use could be made of it. 1 



The Bristol lead-works progressed, how- 

 ever, and by 1828, besides the shot manu- 

 facture, Matbew'i Guide notices two sheet- 

 lead and white-lead works. By 1863* there 

 were eight sheet-lead makers. At the present 

 day a large industry is carried on at the ' City 

 Lead Works,' where 250 tons of sheets have 

 been rolled in a single week. From 150 to 

 250 sheets (in sizes up to 50 ft. long and 8 ft. 

 wide) are kept in stock, besides 1,500 coils of 

 lead and compo pipe, and 1,500 lengths of large 

 bore pipe. For making the latter, the company 

 have a patent press, which will turn out ten tons 

 a day. 



Brass-founding also developed greatly at 

 Bristol. By 1828 the Baptist Mills firm had 

 become a company ; the Hanham Works were 

 turning out copper, spelter, zinc, brass battery, 

 sheet-brass and wire ; other brass and spelter 

 works had sprung up at Crew's Hole, St. George's ; 

 and a zinc company had been established with a 

 patent for malleable zinc for covering buildings. 

 By 1863 there were eighteen brass-founders and 

 braziers at Bristol, besides three bell-founders. 3 

 Tin-smelting was going on at Bedminster and 

 Barton Hill, and there were already more than 

 twenty iron-founders and engineers. 



This brings us back to engineering as a whole, 

 and to shipbuilding in particular. Gloucester- 

 shire may really claim to have produced the in- 

 ventor of steamships, for, fifty years before Watt, 

 a clock repairer of Chipping Campden, called 

 Jonathan Hulls, discovered the first principle 

 of steam locomotion. He never succeeded in 

 combining his locomotive engine with an 

 ordinary vessel, but placed it on a sort of steam- 

 tug. The first case in which the invention was 

 tried was not however a success, and from lack 

 of funds to experiment Hull gave up the attempt 

 to improve it. 4 



Since this outburst in the early i8th cen- 

 tury the county has shown no special inven- 

 tive genius in the matter of ships, though it 

 carries on a considerable modern business in 

 building. The chief constructive dockyards are 

 at Bristol, where The Great IFestern, the first 

 steamship for regular Transatlantic trading, was 

 built and launched in 1837. Owing to the 

 obstructive policy of the Dock Company, how- 



1 J. Nicholls, ' Penpark Hole,' Brist. and Ghiu. 

 Arch. &X-. Trani. iv. 



' See Mathew, Brist. and Clifton Directory. 



' See infra, ' Bell-founding.' 



' P. C. Rushen, Hiit. of Chipping Camp Jen. 



ever, Bristol did not pursue this advantage, and 

 did not produce its second steamship The Great 

 Britain, an iron screw vessel, till 1 843, when 

 Liverpool had already a service of four ships 

 with New York. The same policy has continu- 

 ally retarded the shipping industry of Bristol. In 

 1871 a large steamship company was started, 

 but suffered several misfortunes to its vessels. In 

 1 88 1 the Great Western Steamship Company 

 was formed, and built seven vessels for the Atlan- 

 tic trade. It failed however to keep pace with 

 Liverpool competition, and came to an end in 

 1896.* 



In 1879 a fresh line of steamers between 

 Bristol and New York was started by Messrs. 

 Charles Hill & Sons, who have now in the 

 Albion Dockyard one of the biggest shipbuild- 

 ing industries in Bristol. Messrs. G. K. Stothert 

 are another large shipbuilding company. In 

 1900 the former firm constructed the SS. Bristol 

 City, of 2,51 1 tons gross about the largest size 

 of vessel that can be safely brought up to the 

 centre of the city. Since that date, however, 

 little shipbuilding has been done in Bristol 

 beyond the construction of small tugs and 

 lighters, which can be engined in the port. As 

 there are no big marine engineering works in 

 Bristol, engines for larger vessels, such as The 

 Bristol City, have to be built elsewhere a fact 

 which, coupled with the absence of any large 

 mills for rolling steel or iron plates, places 

 Bristol shipyards at a disadvantage. Their total 

 output, in fact, for 1905 was only ten vessels, 

 with the small capacity of 1,471 tons. 



At Gloucester Messrs. Summers & Scott have 

 a small manufacture of steam launches, and 

 ship machinery and equipment are made by 

 Messrs. Newman, Hender & Co. of Wood- 

 chester, and Sisson & Co. of Gloucester. The 

 latter firm supplied engines and boilers for all 

 the fastest launches on Windermere. Boilers 

 are manufactured separately by most of the 

 steamship builders, and a special boiler compo- 

 sition is turned out by the Anti-Lithon Com- 

 pany at Bristol. ' Anti-Lithon ' is a liquid 

 formed of pure vegetable products, which forms 

 a soft filmy covering on the metal of the boiler, 

 besides precipitating all harmful ingredients in 

 the water. It is designed to prevent the forma- 

 tion of ' scale,' which is apt to cause explosions 

 in all classes of steam boilers. 



The most interesting engineering industry of 

 the county, after shipbuilding, is perhaps the 

 manufacture of locomotives, of which Bristol is 

 now the chief seat, though railway trucks were 

 constructed in Gloucester in 1852 by Messrs. 

 Butt & Co. (now general iron-founders). The 

 Gloucester Wagon Co., too, has now a consider- 

 able manufacture of railway goods. At the 

 Atlas Locomotive Works, Bristol, every sort of 

 locomotive is built, except the heaviest engines 



' Arrow$mith, op. cit., 365-7. 



203 



