Daniel Rankin
Daniel Rankin ( -1885) of Rankin and Blackmore.
1885 'DEATH OF MR. DANIEL RANKIN.
Mr. Daniel Rankin, partner of the well-known engineering firm of Messrs Rankin end Blackmore, Baker Street, Greenock, died at his residence, 21 Octavia Terrace, yesterday morning, at the age of 61 years. He had been connected with the town from his earliest years, and on the completion of his education he was apprenticed to the firm of Messrs Caird & Co., and subsequently served in the Old Eagle Foundry, developing in these years that inventive faculty which has done so much to make himself, his firm, and family famous in engineering circles all over the world. Having finished his apprenticeship, he spent a short time at sea, where he studied that phase of his business which such a connection can best exhibit. Returning home in 1851, he was appointed leading foreman to Messrs Denny & Co., which firm about that year began operations in Dumbarton. A few years afterwards he received an important appointment under the North British Railway Company in connection with their extensive steam ferry service at Burntisland; he subsequently became manager of Messrs Robert Napier & Sons’ boilerworks in Glasgow, and thereafter manager to the old Greenock firm of Messrs M'Nab& Co. On the 1st Nov., 1862, he along with Mr Edward Blackmore purchased the Eagle Foundry in Baker Street, and has since in this partnership assisted to carry on a large, extensive, end most successful marine and other engineering business. He was personally a practical engineer of a high class on whom workmen could have the most complete reliance for guidance and advice in intricate matters of their profession. He showed great ability in the simplicity his appliances and in the general carrying out of the designs his engines. He was also the inventor ofthe patent compound twin-screw and paddle engines for tugboats and other vessels, which have considerably added to his fame as an engineer. Although at one period Mr Rankin was for a short time in the Harbour Trust, yet in no sense could he be called a public man; but as a citizen he was well known and thoroughly esteemed by all who knew him. He was a firm supporter of the Established Church, and interested himself considerably in Church matters. He has left a widow and grown-up family, two of his sons being his successors in the same line of business.' [1]
A nephew, Archibald Paterson Rankin (1866-1952), emigrated to America, becoming the first vice president and a director of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co.[2]