Archibald Eadie
From ‘Captains of Industry’ by William S. Murphy. Published 1901.
MR. ARCHIBALD EADIE, OF MESSRS. ARCHIBALD EADIE & CO., TRADESTON PAINT AND OIL MILLS, AND MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS, COOK STREET, GLASGOW.
IT is a healthy tradition of our race that from the poorest condition a boy may achieve wealth and distinction in his manhood if he has good principles, healthy energy, and sincere devotion to the business to which he has been called. Too much may be made of such success. Many worthy and able men have to struggle all their lives for a bare subsistence; and some who are born to riches have the powers to keep and enhance their inheritance. These acknowledgements having been made, a large and inspiring fact remains. We have the right to rejoice in the freedom that leaves the avenues of power open to the ablest and the best. The strong man who wrestles with and overcomes adverse fortune gains victory not for himself alone; he inspires and smooths the path of those who follow after. The industrial and commercial greatness of this country has been achieved through the efforts of free men struggling forward to higher position, better fortune, wider usefulness. Seeking self- advancement, they have forwarded the interests of their country more than professed patriots have done; helping themselves, they have helped the nation at large. The lives of such men are the substance of history; but unfortunately the historian has generally to content himself with recording the results of their achievements under an abstract heading, for they are too busy working in the present to record the past. Not infrequently men who have done good work are surprised to find themselves of public interest; they have toiled up the steeps unconscious that it brought them before the general gaze.
Such a man is Mr. Archibald Eadie. A shrewd business man, ardent and able in his industrial endeavours, he is as unspoiled as a boy, and as unaffectedly gratified at the approval of others. Mr. Eadie's humility has deeper sources than mere lack of proper pride; his self-respect bows only before the high ideal of duty within him. Mr. Archibald Eadie was born in Stockwell Street, Glasgow, in the year 1848. His parents had little to give their children save the inheritance of a respected name and godly training awl example. Like many more famous men, Mr. Eadie owes much to his mother, whose high intelligence and piety won the reverence of all who knew her. Owing to domestic circumstances, Archie was required to engage in work at an early age, and was apprenticed to the painting and decorating-trade with Mr. Hugh Brown, reputed to be one of the best craftsmen in his day. During summer the boy's hours were from five in the morning till eight at night, but in the winter his working day was shorter, and he took advantage of the respite to improve the deficiencies of his education by attending Buchan Street night school from 8 to 10 P.M.
When Mr. Eadie was in the third year of apprenticeship his employer's business stopped, and threw him out of employment. On the surface it appeared that the lad had thus lost three years of precious time; but the fact was far otherwise. He had been frequently sent messages to Tradeston Paint Mills, and the proprietor, late Bailie MacBean, took special note of him. Bailie MacBean's friendliness, however, was of little practical value at the moment. Mr. Eadie had to find other employment and engaged himself as an apprentice to the cabinetmaking and upholstering trade, with Messrs. Alexander Cree & Son, then a well-known firm in Gordon Street.
After working with that firm for about two years, the young man conceived the idea that he might improve his education by attending classes at the Andersonian University. With this end in view he became a clerk in the office of a wholesale iron merchant, attending classes from 7 to 8 in the morning and from 8 to 10 in the evening. His desire for self-improvement did not escape the eyes of his employers, and in a short time he was advanced to the position of cashier; from this also it may safely be inferred that his scholastic ambition hindered nothing his diligence in business.
He afterwards entered the employment of Messrs. Wm. Sloan & Co., steamship owners, and here was again brought into contact with his early admirer, Bailie MacBean. The ultimate result of the renewed acquaintance was that Mr. Eadie became leading traveller for the firm of Messrs. H. MacBean & Co. In this position the young man found scope for his abundant energy, pluck, and business ability. He extended the firm's connections far and near, winning the confidence of men not prone to trustfulness. Had fortune destined Mr. Eadie for the service of other interests than his own, he should have remained here. Perfectly happy in his work, confiding in his employers, he had for the time no other outlook. But a crisis came in his career which compelled him to decide on starting business on his own account. In this resolution he was backed by the powerful aid of a well-known Clyde shipbuilder, who had watched the young man's career for years with interest and delight. Messrs. MacBean, however, would not willingly lose the services of so able a man, and they offered him a share in the business. Mr. Eadie accepted the terms agreed on, and ten years afterwards the business became his by arrangement with his former employers.
The works over which Mr. Eadie presides are situated in the Tradeston Division of Glasgow, and occupy a large space in that busy district. The office and paint and oil mills are in Cook Street; the varnish-making, tallow-melting, rosin-distilling, and soap-powder works are situated in Paterson Street. Behind the counting-house, private rooms, and offices in Cook Street is a square court, round which are ranged the buildings known as Tradeston Paint and Oil Mills.
In one large apartment a series of paint-grinding machines and granite rollers are ranged along the wall. The oil and dry paint go into the mixers, and then pass under the heavy stone rollers, coming out a pure stream of colour. Overhead is the chemical laboratory, and adjoining is a warehouse filled with casks and tins, with auxiliary paint-grinding plant beside the wall. The other side of the square is occupied by the oil refining plant. Underneath the floor the crude oil is stored in tanks, and a hot-air pump of ingenious design brings up the oil into the refining boilers or stills. These refiners are said to be the largest of their kind in the country, and remarkable for the quantity they can produce.
Even to the unskilled eye the twin giants, with their height and strange pipes, present an impressive appearance. The oils dealt with can scarcely be detailed. It would involve the quoting of a catalogue. Adjoining is the oil store, a hall of tanks, into which the oil is pumped straight from the refining department. Installed in the year 1901, driven a powerful gas engine, is one of the largest oil pumps in existence capable of pumping 1000 gallons every hour. Everything seems to be subordinated to the one object, that of production. At unexpected places a putty-grinding mill, or some other productive operation, comes into view.
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manner toward his workmen, exacting only to the inanimate mechanical producers. He pensions an old man, but roots out an old machine; such is the character of this industrial leader; in short, kindliness to the verge of Quixotism, and swift practicality.
Mr. Eadie has travelled constantly for a long period of years, not only throughout the three kingdoms, but also to Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South America., the West Indies, and up the Mediterranean, leaving everywhere behind him the impress of a strong and absolutely honest man. He has good taste in art, and frequently picks up a treasure on his travels.
To give an idea of the ubiquity of this extraordinary man is scarcely possible; but an instance or two may indicate his travelling powers. At one time Russian tallow was in great demand, and not a cask of the genuine stuff was on the market. Packing his traps after an exhausting journey, Mr. Eadie set off for the land of the Czar. Travelling night and day he traversed the European dominion of the Czar, picking up trade or tallow as he went. Again he returned to Russia on a similar mission several years after, but this time found friends and customers where before he had met strangers. When he was setting out on a long tour round the eastern half of the world, Mr. Eadie told the friends who entertained him to a complimentary dinner that he would be back at business on a certain day at a given hour. The assertion was received with incredulity. punctual to the hour the indomitable man was back in his place, without having omitted a single item in his programme.
A sincere lover of Glasgow, he has a collection of fine engravings and prints picturing the city in its earlier days. He interests himself in all manner of trade guilds and benevolent societies, was president of the Glasgow Caithness Benevolent Society for several years, Deacon of the Incorporation of Coopers, and is a member of the Incorporations of Hammermen, Wrights, Anderston Weavers, and Govan Weavers. The Free Kirk, now the United Free, claims him as an office-bearer. At one time he was precentor of Govan Free Church, giving his services for the love of the work. Mr. Eadie's many activities and services have not included municipal work, chiefly because the frequent absences from the city required of him by his business would not permit him to undertake the duty of a Town Councillor; but even the work he has done leaves the question how he did it almost unanswered. Two facts help to explain the mystery; he is a man of unresting energy, and he is also a man of swift decisions and practical application. He is ably assisted by his son, Mr. John Stephen Eadie, who, after receiving a good education and a special teaching in chemistry, was given practical training in the works.
When machinery came into industry it was said that the day of romance in that department of human life was past. Romance has its springs in humanity, and such men as this Glasgow oil-refiner prove that the source is still fresh and full. He carries on his business with the force and ideality of a chivalrous knight. But for his kindly disposition Mr. Archibald Eadie might have, almost certainly would have, attained a much more commanding place in the world; his soul would not have been so rich in gladness as it is now.