INDUSTRIES 



by the new methods of production only slowly 

 evolved. The struggles between the hand-loom 

 and the power-loom, and between the hand- 

 mule and self-actor, were of long duration. It was 

 only at the beginning of the second quarter of 

 the nineteenth century that the manufacture of 

 alkali passed over to the factory system, and it 

 was many years later before the Prescot watch 

 industry yielded itself to the new power. Steam- 

 driven machinery was first employed in the latter 

 industry during the ' sixties,' but it was not until 

 the end of the ' eighties ' that the domestic 

 system was entirely replaced by the factory 

 system. 



As has already been stated, one of the most 

 important aspects of the industrial revolution was 

 the invention of new machinery, but it was the 

 nineteenth century which saw the establishment 

 of the machine-making industry in Lancashire. 

 Some textile machinery and a certain number of 

 steam engines were being built in this county at 

 the end of the eighteenth century, but no great 

 progress was possible until the means at the 

 disposal of engineers had been improved. Thus 

 many of the greatest Lancashire engineers during 

 the first half of the nineteenth century devoted 

 themselves to the development of the machine- 

 tool industry ; three men who particularly dis- 

 tinguished themselves in this direction being 

 Richard Roberts, Joseph Whitworth, and James 

 Nasmyth. The manufacture of textile ma- 

 chinery, steam engines and machine tools, has 

 continued in Lancashire till the present time, 

 but during the course of the nineteenth century 

 many new branches of the engineering industry 

 were developed. Several of these were closely 

 connected with the improvements in transport 

 effected from time to time during this period. 

 Locomotive building was started early in the 

 county ; the first Lancashire railway, the Man- 

 chester and Liverpool, was opened in Septem- 

 ber, 1830, and within a few years several 

 existing, or newly established, local firms were 

 undertaking the construction of locomotives. 

 This industry has steadily increased up to the 

 present time, together with the construction of 

 railway carriages and wagons. Another result 

 of the growth of railways was a prodigious 

 expansion of the demand for iron, as a conse- 

 quence of which the exports of iron ore from the 

 Furness district were greatly augmented. The 

 displacement of wooden sailing vessels by iron 

 steamers intensified the demand for iron, and the 

 new needs of the shipbuilding industry gradually 

 forced it from Liverpool to Barrow, where the 

 first shipbuilding works were established in 1870. 

 The most important event in the iron industry 

 was the discovery by Bessemer, in 1856, of a 

 process for the direct conversion of pig-iron into 

 steel. As a result of this, the iron-smelting 

 industry was re-established in Lancashire both in 

 Fuxness and at Wigan. It is from 1859, when 



Messrs. Schneider, Hannay & Co., built furnaces 

 in Barrow, that the new growth dates. 



Recent developments of electricity as a motive 

 power have led to the expansion of one or two old 

 works and the establishment of several new works 

 in the county. An example of the former is 

 Messrs. Mather & Piatt, Ltd., of Salford Iron 

 Works, who attached an electrical branch to 

 their business in 1882; examples of the latter 

 are Messrs. Dick, Kerr & Co., Ltd., and the 

 United Electric Car Co., Ltd., founded at Pres- 

 ton, in 1900, and the British Westinghouse 

 Company, which commenced business in Trafford 

 Park, Manchester, in 1 90 1. The appearance 

 of certain new industries in Lancashire during 

 the nineteenth century may be accounted for by 

 the fact that they were subsidiary to other indus- 

 tries already established there. 



An important aspect of the most recent indus- 

 trial history of Lancashire is the growth of 

 industrial combination. The movement is only 

 some fifteen years old ; the earliest ' combine ' 

 was formed in 1890. This was the United 

 Alkali Co., Ltd., which is an association of alkali 

 manufacturers employing the Leblanc process. 

 In 1897, Sir Joseph Whitworth & Co., Ltd., 

 amalgamated with Armstrongs of the Tyne to 

 form Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., 

 Ltd. About 1900, the combination movement 

 was exceedingly active, and in rapid succession 

 the Fine Spinners' Association, the English Sew- 

 ing Cotton Co., the Bleachers' Association, the 

 Calico Printers' Association, and the Wallpaper 

 Manufacturers, Ltd., were established. Some of 

 these combinations have not hitherto proved 

 financially successful. 



The debt which Lancashire industries owe to 

 foreign immigrants is very uncertain. It has 

 been frequently alleged that Flemish weavers 

 settled in Lancashire during the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, but the only authority we can find for the 

 assertion is a passage in Fuller's Church History, 

 written in 1655,^ and Lieut.-Col. Fishwick has 

 pointed out ' that contemporary documents con- 

 tain no names indicating Flemish origin. Some 

 doubt also attaches to the statement that the 

 cotton industry was brought to Lancashire in the 

 sixteenth century by refugees from the Nether- 

 lands. Another traditional case of early foreign 

 immigration is that given by James Nasmyth, 

 the inventor of the steam hammer, in his Auto- 

 biography* : — 



I was first informed of this circumstance by William 

 Stubbs, of Warrington, then the maker of the cele- 

 brated ' Lancashire files.' The P.S. or Peter Stubbs's 

 files, were so vastly superior to other files, . . . that 

 every workman gloried in the possession and use of 

 such durable tools. . . . Mr. Stubbs proceeded to 



' Bk. iv, 112. 



' Hist, of Lane. 83 ; and Hist, of Rochdale, 33. 



'pp. 214-15. 



353 



45 



