Adam Parkinson
Adam Parkinson (c1769-1823) machine maker
1785 The textile printing process using copper rollers, introduced in Britain by Thomas Bell, was improved by Parkinson. By keeping the rollers in register, Parkinson's improvement allowed the printing of up to six colours at once. Messrs Livesey, Hargreaves, Hall and Co., of Bamber Bridge, Preston, first used the system for the printing of calico in from two to six colours at a single operation[1]
1790s Adam Parkinson was working at Sutcliffe and Parkinson in Salford
1797 Listed as a machine maker, Bury Street, Salford [2]
1800 Had set up business as a machine maker at 28 Balloon Street
1808-9 Millwright and (calico) printing machine maker, Riga Street
1811 Printing machine maker, Riga Street
1812 Advertisement for the sale of the stock and utensils of a calico and fustian dyeing and printing concern at Walness Lodge, Pendleton and Agecroft, the property of Mr Norton, Walness Lodge. Items included a 'Capital water wheel' 12 ft 2" dia, 6 ft 7" wide, nearly new, made by Mr Adam Parkinson [3]
1813-5 William Fairbairn was employed as journeyman. Parkinsons made printing machines, and squeezers for bleachworks.
1818 Sale notice: 'To be sold by Private Contract, in the Yard Mr. King formerly occupied, Vine-street, Lambeth, Narrow-Wall, a Drying Machine complete, Two-Coloured 3-8 Cylinder Printing Press complete, a Squeezers complete, Two Copper Colour Pans to boil by steam, complete. Two Mortars, several Dying Vessels, and sundry utensils, all made Mr. Adam Parkinson, Manchester, and all quite new; a Seven-horse Power Steam Engine, new and complete, Bolton and Watt’s Plan ; Lease of Premises, &c. &c. suitable for Candle Wick Spinning. Apply at No. 20, Bedford-strect, Covent Garden.'[4]
1820 Sale notice: '.... by order of the Receivers, under a Commission of Bankrupt, awarded and issued against Mr. Adam Parkinson. Machine Maker, of Riga-street, Manchester, ...; ALL the valuable STOCK of the said Adam Parkinson, consisting of large and small sliding, boring, chasing, spacing and jobbing Lathes, Vices, about 70 tons of new English and Swedish bar and Scrap Iron, about 30 cwt. Files of every description, Screws, Bolts, Nuts, Washers, Water of Ayr Stone, Steel Doctors, a great variety of Castings, and Iron Models, about 60 tons of Cast Iron, 30 Mandrells; Copper Cylinders, Rollers, two Dash Wheels, old and new Copper and Brass, cast Steel, 40,000 Nails of various sorts, Wood Screw s, Smiths’ Anvils, Bellows, Vices, Benches, Fly punches, Screw Stocks, Joiners’ and Smiths’ Tools &c. &c. . Also 500 logs of English and American Oak, Elm and Sycamore and ditto cut for Printers’ rollers, also Mahogany, Elm, Alder and Deal, in planks, two large Cranes, Joiners’ Benches, Hand Carts, Calender Bowls, and a great quantity of Paper for new Bowls. Iron Safes, Print Blocks, Counting House Desks and Fixtures, &c. likewise a Steam Engine, ten horses power, and Apparatus, now in work, and a smaller one of six horses power, several Hydraulic and Screw Presses, &c, &c. For particulars apply to Mr. Jonathan Peel or Mr. Ebenezer Smith, Iron Founders.....'[5]
1823 Adam Parkinson Snr, machine maker of Manchester, died aged 54 [6].
1826 Adam Parkinson (Jnr), machine maker, married Ellen Bagnall [7]
1841 Adam Parkinson, son of the late Adam Parkinson, died 15th July in London, aged 36 [8]
According to one source, Adam Parkinson unwittingly aided industrial development in Belgium and France: Using trickery, using deception, Belgian entrepreneur and industrial spy Liévin Bauwens apparently obtained parts of a mule jenny from Parkinson and secretly shipped them to the Continent. However, Parkinson appears to have focused on millwrighting and on machinery for the textile and dyeing industries, not on textile spinning machinery.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1]Wikipedia entry: Roller Printing on Textiles
- ↑ Scholes's Manchester & Salford Directory, 1797
- ↑ Manchester Mercury - Tuesday 20 October 1812
- ↑ Morning Advertiser - Saturday 10 January 1818
- ↑ Manchester Mercury - Tuesday 12 September 1820
- ↑ The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser, 21 June 1823
- ↑ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Saturday 16 September 1826
- ↑ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Saturday 24 July 1841
- 'Science and technology in the Industrial Revolution' by Albert Edward Musson, Eric Robinson