D. P. Battery Co
of Lumford Mill, Bakewell, Derbyshire, and,
66 Victoria Street, London.
1888 Walter Claude Johnson and Bernard Mervyn Drake built and equipped works at Charlton for making storage batteries and formed the D.P. Battery Co., Ltd.
1888 Company founded as the Dujardin-Plante Battery Co. which developed prototype accumulators.
1895 Private company incorporated.[1]. The new enterprise would provide the batteries needed in the electrification of large English houses.
1898 Manufacturing plant installed at Bakewell in Arkwright's disused water-powered Lumford Mill.
1914 Manufacturers of storage batteries and accessories. [2]
1917 Chloride tried to buy the 95% of the shares of Tudor Accumulator Co which were vested in the Public Trustee but did not succeed; Hart Accumulator Co, D. P. Battery Co and Pritchetts and Gold bought the shares jointly between themselves[3]
1918 Supplied the electrical equipment for a small electric battery locomotive built by the North Staffordshire Railway company; provided one motor per axle of the B.T.H. Company's G.E. pattern.[4]
1926 M. C. L. and Repetition was set up by J. Stone and Co, Hart Accumulator Co and D. P. Battery Co to manufacture "repetition" parts (principally nuts and bolts) but also made magnetos on a small scale.[5].
1928 National Accumulator Co formed, to hold all of the shares in D. P. Battery Co and a major interest in Hart Accumulator Co; the company was owned by J. Stone and Co and other competitors.
1929 Chloride Electrical Storage Co acquired National Accumulator Co.[6].
1937 Storage battery manufacturers. "D.P." and "Dualode" Batteries. "Kathanode" Batteries. [7]
1930s One of the main manufacturers of traction batteries in the Chloride group.[8].
1955 Cessation of the use of two large waterwheels at the works, formerly used to drive Lumford Mill, following the fracture of a gear segment. One of the wheels, 25 ft dia and 18 ft wide, was made by Hewes and Wren, and parts are preserved at Bakewell Old House Museum. The other wheel, 21 ft dia and 7 ft wide, was made by Kirkland and Son of Mansfield. Together they drove a generator.[9]. Kirkland & Son of Bleakhills Foundry?
1955 Jesse Nadin, General Manager and Director, was awarded the MB 28 Dec 1956[10]
1961 Lead acid battery manufacturers. 400 employees. [11]
1972 The company was voluntarily wound up[12]
The former factory at Lumford Mill is now in multiple occupation by various companies.
Bakewell Old House Museum has a good display of photographs and small items connected with the company
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Competition Commission report: [1]
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Times, 15 June 1917
- ↑ The Engineer 1918/03/08
- ↑ Competition Commission report [2]
- ↑ Competition Commission report: [3]
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ Competition Commission report: [4]
- ↑ 'Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire' by Frank Nixon, David & Charles, 1969
- ↑ London Gazette 28 Dec 1956
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ London Gazette 28 Mar 1972