A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Strand Road, Preston. The one was that of the 

 English Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and 

 the other that of the Electric Railway and 

 Tramway Carriage Works, Ltd. Both appear 

 to have been closely connected with Dick, Kerr 

 & Co., Ltd. and a short time ago the English 

 Electric Manufacturing Co. became merged in 

 Dick, Kerr & Co. The Electric Railway 

 and Tramway Carriage Works, Ltd., now forms 

 part of the United Electric Car Co., Ltd. The 

 growth of the electrical industry in the county 

 is well shown by the census figures. In 1881 

 there were 251 electrical apparatus makers in the 

 county. Li 1891 these had increased to 

 1,426, and by 1901 there were 7,896 such 

 workers. 



Two other branches of the electrical industry 

 are those of cable-making and the manufacture of 

 accumulators. W. T. Glover & Co., Ltd., cable 

 makers of TrafFord Park, Manchester, owe their 

 origin to the small bell-wire industry established 

 in 1869 by Mr. W. T. Glover in Salford. He 

 undertook the manufacture of insulated wires for 

 electric bells, telegraph, telephones, &c. In 

 1886 Mr. Henry Edmunds joined the firm, 

 which gradually came into touch with the heavy 

 department of electrical construction. In 1898 

 the firm became a limited company with a 

 capital of j^i 50,000. In 1900 the works in 

 TrafFord Park were begun, and by 1902 the 

 entire industry was located on the new site. 



Other cable makers are the British Insulated 

 and Helsby Cables, Ltd., Preston, and the St. 

 Helens Cable Co., Ltd., St. Helens. Electrical 

 accumulators are manufactured by the Chloride 

 Electrical Storage Co., Ltd., Clifton Junction, 

 near Manchester. It had its origin in 1 891 as 

 the Chloride Electrical Storage Syndicate, Ltd., 

 formed for the purpose of taking over a number 

 of patents held by the Electrical Storage Battery 



Co. of Philadelphia, U.S.A. In 1902 the syndi- 

 cate was converted into a company, capitalized 

 at ;^I35,250. 



Although at this point we have far from 

 exhausted the list of important branches of the 

 Lancashire engineering industry, we have very 

 nearly reached the limit of space allotted to us, 

 and shall be obliged to content ourselves with a 

 short sketch of what remains. 



Roller-milling machinery and wood-working 

 machinery are two specialties of Thomas Robin- 

 son & Son, Ltd., Rochdale. The Power Pulley 

 Co., Ltd., the Unbreakable Pulley and Mill 

 Gearing Co., Ltd., and the Vaughan Pulley Co., 

 all of Manchester, are some of the principal 

 pulley makers in the county. Bolts and nuts 

 are made by George Marsden and Sons, Man- 

 chester, and Davis & Sons, Chorley. Two 

 well-known firms of safe makers, whose works 

 are situated in Lancashire, are Milner's Safe Co., 

 Ltd., Liverpool, and Chatwood's Patent Safe and 

 Lock Co., Ltd., Bolton. Steam hammers are 

 made by Nasmyth, Wilson & Co., Ltd., Patri- 

 croft, and B. & S. Massey, Manchester. Frank 

 Pearn & Co., Ltd., John Cameron, Ltd., and 

 William Mathews & Co, of Manchester, are all 

 firms occupied in making pumps. Sewing 

 machines are manufactured by the Jones Sewing 

 Machine Co., Ltd., Guide Bridge, and Bradbury 

 & Co., Ltd., Oldham. Two Accrington firms, 

 Messrs. Taylor & Wilson, Ltd., and Whittaker 

 Brothers, make wringing machines. One of the 

 most recent mechanical industries to be intro- 

 duced into Lancashire is that of motor-car 

 building, which is carried on by the Belsize 

 Motor Co., Ltd., Clayton, near Manchester, and 

 by Crossley Brothers, Ltd., of Openshaw, Man- 

 chester. In 1901 there were 1,708 people in 

 the county occupied in cycle and motor 

 manufacture. 



ORDNANCE AND ARMAMENTS 



The manufacture of ordnance and arma- 

 ments in Lancashire is chiefly carried on by two 

 large firms, viz. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whit- 

 worth & Co., Ltd., of Openshaw, Manchester, 

 and Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Ltd., of Barrow- 

 in-Furness. As both these firms were primarily 

 established for other purposes, a sketch of their 

 history is given elsewhere, and here we give 

 an account only of their guns and armour plates. 



Whitworth's connexion with ordnance and 

 armaments commenced in 1854, when the 

 Board of Ordnance asked him to give an estimate 

 for a complete set of machinery for manufactur- 

 ing rifle maskets. Only after experiments had 

 been made at a specially constructed gallery at 

 Fallowfield did 'W^hitworth submit a rifle for 

 official trial in 1857. ^^ greatly excelled the 

 existing rifles in accuracy of fire, in range, and 



374 



in penetration ; nevertheless it was rejected by 

 the War Office on the ground that the calibre 

 (•45) was too small.^ About i86o Whitworth 

 turned his attention to big guns, and after a 

 course of experiments began to produce weapons 

 of great power and precision. Several 20-pounder 

 guns were supplied in 1863 to the Confederate 

 Army in the American Civil War. 



At first all guns were made of iron, as it was 

 believed that steel was unsafe for the purpose. In 

 1865 Whitworth patented his fluid pressed steel, 

 by means of which the uniformity so indispensable 

 to gun steel could be obtained. The process 

 consisted of applying extreme pressure to the 

 fluid steel by means of an hydraulic press. The 

 same steel was next used in 1879 for the con- 



' The present Lee-Metford rifle has a -303 bore. 



