XXVIII. NORMAN SELFE. 



painter) was thenceforward and until his retirement in 1863, the 

 engineering head of this famous firm. 



The author was articled to Mr. Peter Nicol Russell and his 

 three partners in January 1855, and after serving an apprenticeship 

 to practical work in the pattern, millwright, fitting, turning, and 

 erecting shops, was afterwards most of his time in the drawing 

 office, where he became chief draughtsman before the expiry of 

 his articles, and continued with the firm for five years afterwards 

 until Mr. Dunlop retired. While there he prepared plans for 

 numbers of flour mills, and for the first ice-making machines, 

 designing machinery for the multifarious requirements of 

 colonial industries, many of which (such as sheep-washing and 

 boiling down) no longer exist on the old lines The business of 

 this firm increased so rapidly and was so prosperous, that in 1859 

 they purchased Brodie and Craig's wharf in Barker-street off 

 Bathurst-street, (since and until lately in the possession of the 

 Adelaide Steam Ship Company). Mr. Peter Nicol Russell 

 returned to Sydney in 1859, when the Bathurst-street works were 

 projected and finally retired from the firm in 1860 to reside in 

 London. The plans for these new works, and also for the wharf, 

 were made by the author ; and afterwards the laying out, and 

 superintendence during their construction and erection, was com- 

 mitted to his charge. A quarter of a century afterwards, when 

 the establishment was broken up, these very plans with other 

 interesting mementos of the firm's career, came into his possession. 

 The subsequent enterprise of P. N. Russell & Co. in the construc- 

 tion of dredges, in the erection of another factory (now a fruit 

 market) on the eastern side of Barker-street, for the building of 

 rolling stock for the railways, and in undertaking other important 

 engineering works, until the great lockout of their employees, 

 which took place in 1875, is comparatively modern history. 



Reminiscences of colonial engineering during the term of the 

 author's connection with this firm, would alone afford material for 

 a lengthy paper, but would hardly be in place here. Mr. Dunlop 

 retired from the firm in 1863, and the author left at the same 



