Elswick Ordnance Co
Ordnance factory, Elswick, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
1859 William Armstrong was appointed government engineer for rifled ordnance and superintendent of the royal gun factory at Woolwich but the factory was unable to produce the Armstrong design of guns so, whilst it was being reconstructed, the Elswick ordnance factory was established alongside the Elswick engine works, exclusively to supply the government with Armstrong guns. The partners were George Cruddas, Richard Lambert, and George Wightwick Rendel who was also appointed manager of the works.
1860 Armstrong persuaded Andrew Noble, an artillery officer who had been secretary to the rifled ordnance committee, to become joint manager of the works.
By 1863 More than 3,000 guns had been supplied to the government.
Public controversy arose over the government monopoly enjoyed by the Elswick ordnance factory, and by rival claims of other inventors and manufacturers, especially Joseph Whitworth.
Soon after the completion of the reconstruction of Woolwich, the government withdrew its unconditional support for the Elswick ordnance factory. Armstrong resigned his government positions in 1863.
c.1863 The Elswick Ordnance Co merged with what was by then Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co, and the focus turned to finding overseas orders.
1866 'Big Will', a 600-pound gun , was supplied to Woolwich by Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co
Between 1863 and 1878 the Elswick factory only received about £65,000 of government orders. Meanwhile, the army decided to abandon the construction of Armstrong-type guns and reverted to muzzle loading with simple three-groove rifling. It took 20 years to persuade the authorities of the merits of the Elswick design.
1876 120-ton sheer legs at Elswick[1] featured a hydraulic ram for lifting the load, worked by water pressure at 900 psi from the works' hydraulic mains. The sheers were used in shipping 100-ton gun barrels to Italy.
1881 Work in progress at the Elswick Works included a 45-ton crane for Valparaiso and a lighthouse for Brazil[2]. Some special machine tools included a Whitworth lathe of 36" centre height and 44 ft 6" between centres, another by Fairbairn, Kennedy and Naylor, modified at Elswick, which could swing work 20 ft dia and 4 ft 6" long or 8 ft dia and 34 ft long
1881 The Institution of Mechanical Engineers visited the Elswick Works and published their description in The Engineer. Read it at the links below;
- (No. I) : The Engineer 1881/07/15
- (No. II) : The Engineer 1881/07/22
- (No. III): The Engineer 1881/07/29.
1882 W. G. Armstrong and Co merged with Charles Mitchell and Co to form Armstrong, Mitchell and Co.
1897 Armstrong Mitchell merged with Whitworths to form Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co.
20th century: it became essential, due to the increasing size of ships, to find a yard below the Tyne bridges; as a consequence what is now known as the Armstrong Naval Yard came into being.
1918 Shipbuilding ended at Elswick
1982 The giant Elswick works, now owned by Vickers closed.
1877 Article [3]'In our last issue we completed our account of the
proceedings of the Iron and Steel Institute at Newcastle.....
ELSWICK WORKS
These works were first started as an engineering establishment on a small scale by Messrs.
Donkin, Cruddas, Potter, and Lambert, and were
carried on by them in a quiet way until about the
year 1847, when Sir William Armstrong joined
the business, and introduced the manufacture of
hydraulic machinery, which at once gave the works
a distinctive character and a great impetus, and
necessitated considerable enlargements. Each year
saw the development of the hydraulic system, and
the consequent enlargement of the Elswick Works.
In 1858, Sir William - then Mr. Armstrong, having
completed his exhaustive course of artillery experiments, and having proved the success of the system
of artillery bearing his name, added the ordnance
department to the works. It was about that date
that Mr. Armstrong was appointed engineer of
rifled ordnance to our Government, and had a knighthood and the Order of the Bath conferred upon
him. From 1858 to 1863 the ordnance department
was practically carried on as a Government establishment. In the latter year, however, the contract
with the Government terminated, and since that time
the ordnance manufactured at Elswick has chiefly
been for foreign powers. From the time of starting
the ordnance department down to th e present,
about 4000 guns of all descriptions have been turned
out at Elswick, from 14-pounders to the Italian
100-ton guns.
The works are situated on the banks of the Tyne
just outside Newcastle, and have a river frontage of
nearly a mile, but an average width of only about
150 yards. They cover 40 acres of land, and are
bounded on the land side by the Newcastle and
Carlisle Railway. As a rule they give employment
to from 3500 to 4000 hands, whilst fixed engines
giving a total of 2000 .horse power, and three small
locomotives, are always kept going. The total con-
sumption of fuel for all purposes is 300 tons per day. The works are intersected by lines of rail way
in all directions, and there are two jetties fitted up
with the necessary hydraulic apparatus. At one of
these jetties are the hydraulic sheers, which are used
for loading heavy ordnance and machinery on to
vessels, and which are capable of lifting 150 tons.
On entering the ordnance works the visitors were
first shown the putting on of one of the outer tubes
of a 100-ton gun, the gun being supported breech
upwards in a pit in the yard, and the tube-brought
from the shops in a heated state on a suitable
truck-being raised by a powerful travelling crane,
and dropped slowly on the gun, a partial rotary
to-and-fro motion being given to it as it was lowered.
In this department adjoining the end of the works at
which the visitors entered are the finishing rooms
for the guns, and stores for the shot and shell which
are cast at Elswick, and which are highly chilled.
Near the projectile store are two large machine shops
fitted with drilling, slotting, planing, and shaping
machines, about which, for the most part, there is
no novelty. The forge stands opposite to the ma-
chine shops, and in it is a fine steam hammer, the
anvil of which weighs 120 tons, and the head
30 tons. It has a 3 ft. cylinder and a 12 ft. 6 in.
stroke, and uses steam at 50 lb. pressure. This
hammer, which the visitors had an opportunity of
seeing in operation welding a coil for a 100-ton gun,
was made by Messrs. Thwaites and Carbutt, of
Bradford, and we propose shortly to publish engravings of it. Besides this large hammer are other
smaller ones and a number of reheating furnaces,
which, like all those used at Elswick, are constructed
upon Siemens' regenerative principle. There are also
four hydraulic cranes for lifting the coils from the
furnaces to the hammers. In an adjoining shop
the visitors were shown the coiling of a bar to form
a large gun tube. As at Woolwich the bar to be
coiled is heated in a long narrow furnace, and coiled
on a mandrel as it issues from this furnace; but at
Elswick this mandrel with its turning gear is
arranged to traverse laterally in front of the furnace so as to avoid dragging the bar sideways over
the floor of the furnace at the point of exit.
The carriage department is of considerable extent,
and here the visitors saw the four hydraulic gun
carriages in course of construction for the 80-ton
guns of H.M.S. Inflexible. Other carriages too
they saw which were being made for the 100-ton
guns. In the finishing shops the principal objects
of interest were the heavy tools employed for finishing the 100-ton guns, a very fine rifling machine
being especially noticeable. In the foundry are
twelve large cupolas furnished with seven hydraulic
and two hand cranes which command the casting
pits.
There are two blast furnaces at Elswick each
75 ft. high and 21 ft. in diameter in the bosh, and
which are capable of turning out about 600 tons of
pig iron per week. They are producing a special
iron known as "Ridsdale" and "B. Ridsdale," and
which is used for special purposes, auch as the
manufacture of projectiles. The ore is found in
Northumberland over an area of about 15 square
miles, which is bounded on the west by the North
Tyne and Haresham Burn, and on the south by
Heugh Burn. The bed of ironstone shale is
about 30 ft. thick and occasionally a few inches
of coal are found at its base, while in its upper part
a coarse band composed of fossils and called the
shell band is found. Throughout this shale and
both above and below the shell band are nodules
of ironstone varying in size from that of a pea to
6 in. or 8 in. in diameter. The slag from the furnaces is utilised for building and other purposes on
the works.
The departments devoted to the construction of
civil engineering works are as extensive and as
complete in their appointments as those applied to
the production of war materiel. In this department
the swing bridge over the Tyne was made. In the
erecting shop the visitors saw the construction of
hydraulic machinery generally, and of one of the
engines for revolving the turret of the Duilio in
particular. On the jetty connected with this
branch of the establishment is a movable hydraulic
crane which has an adjusting feed pipe, and can
thus be used in various positions. The special
feature in this department was a hydraulic squeezer
which has been made for treating blooms from the
Danks furnaces. It consists principally of a massive
frame carrying a horizontal hydraulic cylinder,
the ram of which has a stroke of 6ft. 6 in., and is
capable of applying a pressure of 750 tons. This
ram actuates a sliding head which is opposed to a fixed head on the other side of what we may term
the table of the machine, the bloom to be squeezed
being placed between these two heads. The bloom
is conveyed to what we have called the table of
the machine by means of a sliding carriage moved
by hydraulic power, and when it has been so deposited the movable head carried by the horizontal
ram is immediately thrust forwards, and squeezes
the bloom again st the fixed head. At the moment
when the bloom is thus held between the two heads
a square iron trap in the table underneath the
bloom opens downwards and the cinder squeezed
out falls into a carrier below. The trap then returns to its place, and at that moment the movable
head is withdrawn. Next, by opening this trap
upwards, the ball is tilted up and turned over, and
the movable head then returns and gives the iron
another squeeze, retreating after the operation.
The next process is to turn the bloom round.
Supported by the massive tie-bars which connect the
upper part of the fixed head with the main hydraulic cylinder, is a vertical hydraulic cylinder, the
ram of which works out of the lower end and carries
a horizontal disc full of holes, in which are loosely
fitted a number of stout iron pins, these pins being
supported by their heads. To turn the bloom the
ram and disc are lowered upon it, and a rotary motion is then imparted to the ram in one direction or
the other by means of auxiliary hydraulic cylinders
provided for that purpose. The ball being caught by
the pins is thus slued round to the required extent,
and then the discs and pins ascend to make room
for the reciprocating head, which coming forward
gives the ball another squeeze. This process is
repeated as often as required. We should mention
that in order to economise power a small auxiliary
cylinder is provided, the ram of which brings the
movable head in contact with the bloom, the large
ram then applying the squeeze. All the motions of
the squeezer, as well as those of the carrier, are
worked by hydraulic power, and are under the control of one man. On the occasion of the visit a
block of lead, having through it a number of holes
filled with clay, took the place of a heat ed bloom,
and was operated upon by the squeezer. The
appliances for handling the bloom acted perfectly
as far as their mechanical movements were concerned, but the whole process of treating the imaginary bloom appeared to us somewhat slow. To
some extent this may have been due to the machine
having been actuated by water supplied at a lower
pressure than that which it is intended to employ
when the machine is actually erected, while the man
by whom the machine was handled of course has not
yet had any great amount of practice. It is, however, certainly a question whether a squeezer of this
kind can compete economically,with a powerful steam
hammer, and the practical trial of the apparatus
we have described will therefore be looked forward
to with much interest.
The main engines at the Elswick Works are all of
the Corliss type made by Messrs. Hicks, Hargreaves,
and Co., and the power from them is transmitted by
belting, many of the belts used being of exceptional dimensions. The engines are all supplied
with steam by cylindrical multitubular boilers fired
underneath, and all fitted with Juckes' grates.
We may add that during their visit to the Elswick
Works the visitors had an opportunity of examining
the working of the Gatling gun, of which the firm
have, we understand, now taken up the manufacture
in this country.'
See Also
Sources of Information
- The Engineer 1866/04/06 p248