A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the present time, and the total number of the 

 firm's employees at its two works and three 

 collieries approaches 12,000. 



Many varieties of textile machinery are built 

 at the Hartford Works, including opening, card- 

 ing, combing, preparing, spinning, doubling and 

 weaving cotton, wool, worsted, silk waste and 

 asbestos machines ; also cotton seed opening and 

 ginning machinery. The specialties of the firm 

 are many, the chief among them being the 

 cotton gin, hopper bale breaker, hopper feeder, 

 lattice feeding machine, Creighton opener 

 cylinder part, exhaust opener lap, and Chapon's 

 patent cup spinning machine for cotton wool 

 and wastes. Special mention is made by the 

 firm of its carding engine and fine spinning mule, 

 the latter prepared for spinning counts of 90J. 

 and upwards. 



Messrs. Mather and Piatt, Ltd., Salford Iron- 

 works, Manchester, are primarily engaged in the 

 making of bleaching, dyeing, calico-printing and 

 textile-finishing machinery. Business was begun 

 at the Salford Ironworks in 1830 by Messrs. 

 William and Collin Mather and W. W. Piatt, 

 though the firm had already been founded earlier 

 by a Mr. Mather of an older generation. During 

 the nineteenth century several changes in the 

 firm's partners took place, and in 1899, after 

 absorbing the business of Messrs. Dowson, 

 Taylor & Co., Ltd., the firm became a limited 

 liability company with a capital of ^^800, 000. 

 The chairman is Sir William Mather and the 

 vice-chairman Dr. Edward Hopkinson. 



Among the chief products of the firm may be 

 mentioned machines for singeing, shearing, wash- 

 ing, chemicking, souring, soaping, starching, &c.; 

 mangles, dyebecks, and calenders ; forcing and 

 ageing machines ; electrolizers ; mercerizing 

 ranges ; padding and printing machines and hot- 

 air drying plant.*" In this connexion the 

 ' sprinklers ' made by the firm may be men- 

 tioned. The ' Grinnell ' sprinkler was intro- 

 duced by Messrs. Mather & Piatt over twenty 

 years ago, and is now manufactured by the firm 

 at their Park Works, Newton Heath. 



One striking feature of the organization of 

 the firm's works is the eight-hour day (strictly 

 speaking forty-eight hours per week) which is 

 adopted there. First tried as an experiment 

 in 1893, it was found to work satisfactorily, 

 and has been retained ever since. 



The firm of Messrs. Howard & Bullough, Ltd., 

 Globe Works, Accrington, was founded in 1853 ^7 

 Mr. John Howard, who was joined a few years 

 later by Mr. James Bullough. After belonging 

 to Mr. John Bullough and later to Sir George 

 Bullough, the business was converted into a 

 public limited liability company in 1 894 with a 

 share capital of ;^ 1, 000,000 and debenture stock 



" The electrical and other products of the firm are 

 mentioned beneath. 



to the amount of ^^250,000. The growth of 

 the firm is well illustrated by the steady increase 

 in the number of hands employed. In 1855 

 they numbered 80 ; in i860, 200 ; in 1870, 

 350 ; in 1880, 700 ; in 1890, 1,600 ; in 1900, 

 3,500; in 1905,4,100. At the present time 

 the chief products of the firm are hopper bale 

 openers, hopper feeders, exhaust openers, Buck- 

 ley openers, scutchers, revolving flat carding 

 engines, drawing frames, slubbing, intermediate, 

 roving and 'Jack' frames, ring-spinning frames 

 for twist and weft, ring-doubling frames, self- 

 acting mules, and winding, beaming and sizing 

 machines. 



Messrs. Brooks & Doxey, Ltd., of Union 

 Ironworks, West Gorton, and Junction Iron- 

 works, Newton Heath, Manchester, originated 

 in 1859, when Samuel Brooks became the tenant 

 of a room in Union Mills, Minshull Street, 

 Manchester, and commenced to make temples and 

 repair cotton machinery. Shortly afterwards he 

 moved to Union Ironworks, West Gorton. He 

 first became known in connexion with drawing 

 fi-ames, but the firm's reputation was chiefly 

 made by ring-spinning and doubling machines. 

 The Junction Ironworks were acquired in 1888, 

 four years before the name of the firm was 

 changed to Brooks & Doxey, At present the 

 firm employs over 2,000 hands, and manufactures 

 all the machinery for cotton spinning, from the 

 bale breaker to the bundling press, including 

 carding, preparing, spinning, winding, and reeling 

 machinery. A specialty is made of doubling 

 machinery for every variety of doubled yarns, 

 particularly sewing cottons, and machines for 

 making up and finishing the same. 



Turning to another class of the textile 

 machinery, we may mention first among Lanca- 

 shire loom-makers Messrs. Robert Hall & Sons, 

 Bury, Ltd., of Hope Foundry, Bury. It was in 

 1844 that the late Robert Hall, in conjunction 

 with three other working men, founded the firm 

 of Diggle, Tuer, Hodgson & Hall. They started 

 in a cottage-like building with general engineer- 

 ing and repairs, all the partners sharing in 

 the ordinary work. In a short time the con- 

 struction of power-looms, with the necessary 

 preparation machinery for the same, was com- 

 menced. In 1845 Diggle's drop-box motion 

 for power-looms was brought out at Hope 

 Foundry. As the business extended, special 

 looms of all classes were added, including the 

 'Moxon Carpet Loom.' When Diggle and 

 Hodgson retired the style of the firm became 

 Tuer and Hall, until Tuer died in 1862, when 

 the title became Robert Hall. On the founder's 

 death in 1888 the firm became Robert Hall 

 & Sons, which was converted into a limited 

 liability company in 1894. At the present time 

 500 hands are engaged in making machinery 

 for weaving and all preparation. Other loom- 

 makers are Messrs. Henry Livesey, Ltd., Black- 



370 



