INDUSTRIES 



burn ; Messrs. Harling & Todd, Burnley ; 

 Messrs. William Smith & Brothers, Ltd., Hey- 

 wood ; Messrs. Hacking & Co., Bury ; and 

 Messrs. William Dickinson & Sons, Blackburn. 

 Various kinds of finishing machines are made 

 by Sir James Farmer & Sons, Ltd., Salford ; and 

 raising machinery is a specialty of Messrs. Tom- 

 linsons, Ltd., Rochdale. 



Some mention has already been made of the 

 earliest engineers of the county. These firms 

 were occupied with making all classes of machines, 

 and although the amount of specialization in the 

 industry is very great, it is not always pos- 

 sible even at the present time to define the 

 principal product of any one works. Put- 

 ting aside textile machinery, as the chief 

 mechanical trade of the county, the two most 

 important branches of engineering in Lanca- 

 shire, from an historical point of view at any 

 rate, are machine-tool making and locomotive 

 building. Three Lancashire engineers, Richard 

 Roberts, Joseph Whitworth, and James Nasmy th, 

 largely contributed to the development of the 

 former, whilst the latter industry commenced 

 immediately after the opening of the Manchester 

 and Liverpool Railway in 1830 and has steadily 

 increased up to the present time. Now there are 

 no fewer than five large works devoted to the 

 construction of locomotives. We shall now pro- 

 ceed to give an account of some of the most 

 famous Lancashire engineering firms and take 

 them in the order of foundation, for want of a 

 satisfactory system of classification. 



As far as we can learn, the oldest of the large 

 Lancashire engineering firms is Messrs. Gallo- 

 ways, Ltd., of Knott Mill and Ardwick, Man- 

 chester. The firm was foimded in 1790 by 

 Mr. William Galloway, who was joined after- 

 wards by James Bowman and later by William 

 Glasgow, the name of the firm then being Gallo- 

 way, Bowman & Glasgow. Miscellaneous machine 

 building, especially the construction of water 

 wheels and the gear connected with them, occu- 

 pied the attention of the firm in its earliest days. 

 With the adoption of gas about 1800, Galloways 

 designed and constructed a number of complete 

 gas-making plants for various mills and works in 

 the district. A large portion of the trade con- 

 sisted of steam engines and mill-gearing gener- 

 ally. From 1830 onwards the firm became 

 closely connected with the development of rail- 

 ways, a great amount of castings and structural 

 ironwork being supplied by it. Many of 

 the bridges which they built still exist. The 

 first locomotive produced in Manchester was 

 constructed by Galloways in 1 831 to the order 

 of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. In 

 1835 the concern became Messrs. W. & J. 

 Galloway, the two heads being sons of the 

 William Galloway above mentioned. About this 

 period the name of the firm came to be especially 

 associated with boilers. In 1856 the firm was 



altered to W. & J. Galloway & Sons. In 1889 

 it became a private company, and ten years later 

 a limited liability company. 



In 1845 Galloways patented the 'Breeches' 

 boiler, which was improved in succeeding 

 years. In 1 849 the first ' Galloway ' boiler 

 was completed. This boiler, in an improved 

 and altered form, is still one of the principal 

 products of the firm. Other boilers manu- 

 factured by the firm are the 'Lancashire,' the 

 ' Cornish,' and the ' Multitubular.' All the 

 boilers at present made by the firm are manu- 

 factured at their Hyde Road Boiler Works, 

 which were first established in 1872. Here 

 some eight hundred men are employed, and on an 

 average one boiler a day is produced. At the 

 Knott Mill shops, which are exclusively devoted 

 to engine construction, 500 men are at work. 



The firm, which during the later part of its 

 existence in Manchester was known as Sharp, 

 Stewart & Co., Ltd., was established in 1805, 

 when Thomas Sharp began an iron business in 

 Market Street Lane. He was soon joined by 

 his brother, Robert Chapman Sharp, and the firm 

 was known as Sharp Brothers. Later the young- 

 est brother, John, was admitted into the firm. 

 In 1828 Richard Roberts, the well-known 

 inventor, was taken into partnership and the 

 style of the firm became Sharp, Roberts & Co. 

 At this time the firm devoted itself chiefly to the 

 manufacture of cotton-spinning machinery, and 

 Roberts' self-acting mule was particularly suc- 

 cessful. Gradually as the demand for machine 

 tools increased, the firm devoted themselves to 

 meeting it. Machines for planing, slotting, 

 wheel-teeth cutting, punching and shearing, 

 and numerous lathes, were made on the lines 

 of Roberts' inventions, A new departure was 

 taken in 1834, when the building of locomotives 

 was commenced at the Atlas Works. Early 

 in the ' forties ' John Sharp became head of 

 the firm, Thomas Sharp dying and Roberts 

 retiring. About the same time John Robin- 

 son of Skipton entered the firm, which became 

 Sharp Brothers & Co. In 1852 Charles Patrick 

 Stewart became a partner, and another change 

 in name made the firm Sharp, Stewart & 

 Co. In 1863 it was transformed into a limited 

 liability company. Gradually the manufac- 

 ture of locomotives had become the leading 

 feature of the firm. This was probably due 

 in part to the fact that it had acquired the 

 ' GifFord ' injector, which enabled locomotive 

 boilers to be supplied with fresh water by means 

 of their own steam pressure. With the growth of 

 business the condition of the Manchester works 

 became cramped, and in 1888 the firm amal- 

 gamated with the Clyde Locomotive Company, 

 Glasgow, to which town the business was re- 

 moved. The name of Sharp, Stewart & Co., 

 Ltd., was retained by the amalgamated firms 

 until 1903, when further amalgamations led to 



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