Easton and Amos
of the Grove Works, Southwark. This entry includes Easton, Amos and Sons
1837 The founding partners were Charles Edwards Amos and James Easton
1843 James Beswick leaves the partnership. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us, James Easton, Charles Edwards Amos, and James Beswick, carrying on the business of Plumbers, at the Grove, Great Guilford-street, in the parish of Saint Saviour, in the borough of Southwark is this day dissolved, by mutual consent...'[1]
1849 Mentions as insolvent debtor James Butterworth, of No. 6, Belvidere-road. Lambeth, Surrey, Clerk and Traveller to Messrs. Easton and Amos, of the Grove, Great Guildford-street, Southwark, Surrey, Engineers, and also Clerk of the District Church of All Saint's, Lambeth.[2]
1850 Easton & Amos beam engine at Taunton Museum (The Museum of Somerset), formerly in Pearsall's Silk Mills, Taunton. Numerous photos of various features of this engine are shown in Easton and Amos Beam Engine in Taunton
1853 Twin grasshopper beam pumping engine for West Butterwick Drainage, Lincs (South Common Area). Bought by the landowner, Sir Robert Sheffield, to drain an area of 1000 acres. Capacity 60 tons of water per minute. Scheduled for replacement in 1938[3]. Photographed by George Watkins in 1935.[4]
c.1855 Four column Woolf-type beam pumping engine for the Ashbridge Estate, Little Gaddesden [5]
Late 1850s: Modernisation works at Alnwick Castle: '....The numerous larders and sculleries have been conveniently placed on one level; and hydraulic lifts from the kitchen to the principal floor also combine to save unnecessary labour: these latter are the engineering works of Messrs. Easton & Amos.' From The Builder[6]. The lift's prime mover, which remains in situ, is unusual, having a large horizontal hydraulic cylinder, apparently working at relatively low pressure, whose piston moves a rack engaging with a pinion driving speed-increasing gearing to turn the winding drum.[7]
1857 Supplied six hydraulic rams for raising the main spans of the Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash.[8]
1858 Beccles, Suffolk: 'Drainage op the Corporation Marshes.— The steam mill erected by Messrs. Easton and Amos, the celebrated engineers, of the Grove, Southwark, having been completed, we give the following account of the machinery, which we apprehend will not prove unacceptable to our readers. The apparatus for raising the water consists of an Appold's pump (similar to the one shown in the Exhibition of 1851), but much improved by Messrs. Easton and Amos. The fan, 2ft. 9in. in diameter, works horizontally in a strong cast-iron cistern. A pair of high-pressure expansive and condensing vertical grasshopper engines of ten-horse power each, are placed and attached to each side of the iron cistern, the fly-wheel, shaft, &c. being at the top and over it. The whole machinery is placed in such a compact manner as to occupy but very small space. The boiler is multitubular with large steam chest; and a stout iron funnel 23ft. high acts as a chimney shaft. The whole building is of red brick with corrugated iron roof, no wood being used except for the doors. A convenient coal-house is formed in that portion of the structure next the boiler. Very great credit is due to the eminent firm who planned and erected the works for the excellent and the efficient manner in which they have performed their contract.' [9]
1859-60 'The well at Courage & Donaldson's Brewery, Horsleydown, is 350 ft. deep. It was sunk in 1859-60 by Messrs. Easton & Amos. It has two sets of pumps, each set capable of throwing about 120 gallons per minute.'[10]
1860 Became Easton, Amos and Sons.
c.1860 Stationary steam engines for Portsmouth Water Works.
1860 Provided pumps for North Wall Dock, Dublin[11]
1861 Drainage machine for the Somerset Rivers Drainage Board (Westonzoyland Station). This is a two-cylinder steam engine driving Appold centrifugal pump preserved in running order at Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum. In 2016 it received an Engineering Heritage Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
THE ROYAL FARMS. Barton Farm, Osborne, Isle of Wight..... The machinery too is well arranged, shafting, fixed wherever necessary, affords easy means by drum and strap for driving all kinds of machines, and Messrs Clayton & Shuttleworth's threshing machine with straw elevator, &c., Garrett's chaff cutter, Burgess & Key's oscillating turnip-cutter, Huges' mill stones, Persson's saw-bench. Kiddell's cake-crusher, and corn-crusher are all worked in convenient places, the 8-horse-power engine and the selection and fitting all the other machinery was the work of Messrs Easton & Amos. [12]
1862 'Easton, Amos, and Sons have lately completed a 7 ft. Fourneyron turbine for the Duke of Wellington's estate, Strathfieldsaye [Stratfield Saye].[13]
1863 Beam pumping engine from Cliftonville Pumping Station (Northampton) now preserved at Kew Bridge Steam Museum
1863 Supplied hydraulic lifts for Exeter St David's railway station[14]
c.1863-5 Supplied a hydraulic lift to raise carriages to the carriage and harness sales gallery at Tattersall's auction rooms, Knightsbridge Green[15]
1864 Easton Amos & Sons pumping machine preserved at Curry Moor Pumping Station in Somerset.
1864 Supplied five hydraulic lifts for the Brighton Hotel[16]
1864 Gas pumping engine used at Old Kent Road gasworks. (Exhibit at Birmingham Thinktank museum)
1864 William Anderson joined the company and planned the new works at Erith. The company's business was making pumping machinery of all kinds, centrifugal pumps, cranes, boilers, and paper and sugar machinery.
1864 Engine for Somerset Rivers Drainage Board (Stanmoor Station).
1865 New works at Erith 'are progressing rapidly towards completion'[17]
1865 Easton & Amos supplied five hydraulic lifts to the Langham Hotel, Portland Place, London[18]Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Advertiser - Saturday 17 June 1865
1866 'James Easton the elder, Charles Edwards Amos, James Easton the younger, Edward Easton, Percy Shaw Easton, James Chapman Amos, and William Anderson, carrying on business together as Engineers, Ship Builders, and Iron Workers and Founders, at the Erith Works, Erith; in the county of Kent, expired on the 30th day of June, 1866, by effluxion of time, so far as respects the said James Easton the elder and Charles Edwards Amos' [19]
1866 Portsmouth: '.... In constructing the Minotaur or No. 11 dock, at Portsmouth yard, the pumping system has alone been adopted for emptying the dock of water, but this appears to be so efficient as to altogether supersede the necessity for reservoirs as an additional power for rapidly filling or emptying docks or basins, and has also again established the great superiority of the centrifugal over all other forms of pumping gear in dealing with large volumes of water where the time occupied in the work done is of importance. No. 11 dock at Portsmouth yard is connected with and entered from the steam basin. In constructing this dock a centrifugal pump was erected at its head by Messrs Easton, Amos, and Co., of London, under contract with the Admiralty, and connected by culverts with the No. 11 dock and the steam basin, and also with the reservoir of the old docks of the yard. The official trials of this centrifugal pumping-engine have been made during the past week, the last trial having come off on Saturday, and have been attended with very remarkable success. No. 11 dock and the connecting steam basin were selected for the pump’s trials as affording perfectly reliable data by which to measure its capabilities. The pump, which is in reality, as may be supposed, simply an “Appold,” is 6ft. 6in. in diameter, and has nine blades or vanes. It is fixed on vertical shafting, like the hydraulic wheel of Her Majesty’s ship Waterwitch, and is driven by two engines 40-horse power, nominal, each; the cylinders having a diameter of 30in., and a stroke of 30in., steam being cut off at one-fourth stroke. Steam is supplied to the engines by two double-flue Cornish boilers, ... Messrs Easton and Amos have reason to be much gratified with the results of the trials to which their pumping machinery has been subjected, and the civil engineering department of the Admiralty also deserve credit for advising the expenditure of money upon machinery that appears to be so efficient.'[20]
1866 Easton, Amos and Sons. Largest makers of the true Appold pump. [21]
1866 Installed a hydraulic lift at E. P. Bouverie's East Lavington Manor House, Wiltshire[22]
1866 James Easton and C. E. Amos retired from the company which became Easton and Anderson
1867 Company refered to as Easton, Amos and Anderson. [23]
In 1863 an advertisement for the sale of Twyford Mills at Bishops Stortford included the steam engine and mill equipment made by Easton & Amos[24]
From 1863 to 1869 a 'new engine and pumping machine' were included in advertisements for the sale of the Northern Estate, Wexford, formerly the property of John Edward Redmond M.P., deceased, reclaimed by the Wexford Harbour Embankment Co.[25][26]
In 1869 a 35 HP compound Easton & Amos was included in the sale of the Abbey Print Works, West Ham[27]
In 1873 Tunbridge Wells Water Works advertised for sale two Easton & Amos engines: one 1 HP table engine of 6.5" bore, 18" stroke, and one 18 HP beam engine, high and low pressure combined, 2 ft 10" stroke[28]
1875 Plant and machinery advertised for sale at Quenington Paper Mills near Fairford, Glos, included a 40 HP grasshopper engine by Easton & Amos [29]
Note
- By 1872 Cater and Walker were occupying the Grove Steam Boiler Works, Southwark
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1] Gazette Issue 20296 published on the 15 December 1843. Page 22 of 48
- ↑ [2] Gazette Issue 20962 published on the 30 March 1849. Page 37 of 40
- ↑ Sheffield Independent - Monday 17 October 1938
- ↑ Stationary Steam Engines of great Britain, Vol 5: The North Midlands. George Watkins, Landmark Publishing Ltd, Plate 92
- ↑ Plate 103, 'Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain, Volume 6: The South Midlands', by George Watkins, Landmark Publishing Ltd
- ↑ Alnwick Mercury, 1 September 1860
- ↑ AIA Industrial Archaeology News, 176, Spring 2016, 'The Hydraulic Lift at Alnwick Castle' by Tim R Smith. The article includes two recent photos of the machine
- ↑ 'Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge' by John Binding, Twelveheads Press, 1997
- ↑ Norfolk News - Saturday 13 February 1858
- ↑ Building News - Friday 13 December 1872
- ↑ Freeman's Journal - Friday 10 February 1860
- ↑ Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser - Friday 10 January 1862
- ↑ The Engineer, 19 Sept 1862. No further details provided
- ↑ Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Friday 14 August 1863
- ↑ [3] British History Online - Knightsbridge Green Area: Knightsbridge Green
- ↑ [4] Scientific American, 16 April 1864, quoting from the Building News
- ↑ Gravesend Reporter, North Kent and South Essex Advertiser - Saturday 28 January 1865
- ↑ Kentish Chronicle - Saturday 9 September 1865, reporting the death of William Chasmar, killed by being struck by the lift due to him operating it incorrectly
- ↑ Gazette Issue 23216 published on the 5 February 1867. Page 42 of 78
- ↑ Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service - Saturday 17 November 1866
- ↑ The Engineer of 13th April 1866 p279
- ↑ Salisbury and Winchester Journal - Saturday 23 June 1866
- ↑ The Engineer 1867/12/13.
- ↑ Bell's Weekly Messenger, 9 May 1863
- ↑ Wexford Constitution - Wednesday 3 January 1866
- ↑ Wexford Constitution - Saturday 27 March 1869
- ↑ Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Saturday 18 September 1869
- ↑ Kent & Sussex Courier, 5 September 1873
- ↑ Stroud Journal - Saturday 14 August 1875
- Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain by George Watkins. Vol 10