Farmer and Broughton

of Adelphi Iron Works, Adelphi Street, Salford.

formerly J. and T. Farmer and Co

1862 'A TRADE OUTRAGE IN MANCHESTER. One of those fiendish outrages, hitherto confined almost exclusively to Sheffield and its neighbourhood, was perpetrated in Manchester, on Saturday night. About a quarter before eleven o'clock an explosion was heard in the brickmaking works of Messrs. Hadfield and Atkins, Cheetwood. The watchman, who was at the opposite end of the enclosure at the time, proceeded to the spot, and a careful examination was made. The building injured was of brick, with a slate roof, and contained an engine and a new machine for making bricks. It was found that several bricks, which were recently placed in the hole through which the exhaust pipe from the engine used to pass had been removed; and that through this aperture a sealed tin bottle, as large as a hat, and capable of containing 12lb of gunpowder, had been thrust into the room. The fuse had then been fired. The force of the explosion carried away about 48 square feet of roofing, a few of the upper bricks of the walls, and the two gable ends. Some of the debris fell outside, and about half of it dropped upon the engine, yet without injuring it. The amount of the damage is estimated at £12. The proprietors of the works have recently patented a machine for making bricks, and about a week ago they put up a machine for the first time. It had been made by Messrs. Farmer and Broughton, Adelphi-street, Salford. The machine receives the clay direct from the mine into a hopper; and in one process the clay is ground, pulverized, moulded, and turned out in well-made bricks. It can make 15,000 bricks in ten hours, or in other words, it does the work of twenty-four men and six boys under the old system; and the bricks are walled as soon an they leave the machine. The special advantages of the machine are that it enables those using it to make bricks at from 2s. 6d. to 3s. a thousand, the present price of hand-made bricks being 9s. per thousand ; and that brick-making can be carried on with it all the year, whereas now the average time during which bricks can be made is only twenty weeks in a year. The cost of the machine Is about £350. Messrs. Hadfield and Atkins had enclosed upwards of an acre and a quarter of clayey land with board fencing, and along the south side is a low shed, at the east end of which stands the engine and machine house. They had been unable to obtain bricks to complete the shed, because of the jealousy of the trade union. A cart was in the yard with bricks when our reporter was there, and a man was waiting outeide, as we were informed, to ascertain whence the cart came, that its owner might be warned not to supply any more bricks. Repeated threats had been made to Messrs. Hadfield and Atkins and their men, by persons supposed to be connected with a union club of brickmakers. About six weeks ago the partners and one of the workmen were accosted at the bottom of Cheetwood Lane by a man, who said, " We'll blow the - up, and you with it, when it starts." He was watched to his residence. To the home of one of the hands a coffin was sent lately, with a message to his father to the effect that he had better keep his knob-stick boy at home. The tin can is in the possession of the police; and it is to be hoped that, through their diligent exertions, the offenders will soon be brought to justice, and to the punishment they so richly deserve.'

1863 Slater's Directory of Manchester and Salford, 1863 lists James Broughton, engineer (Farmer & Broughton): home address - Talavera Place, Lower Broughton and James Farmer, engineer. Farmer & Broughton listed as millwrights, engineers, machinists, makers of bleachers', calenderers', embossers' and finishers' machines, & cotton & flax bowl manufacturers, Adelphi Iron Works, Adelphi Street, Salford.

1869 Dissolution of the Partnership between James Farmer and James Broughton, as Millwrights and Engineers, at the Adelphi-street Iron Works, in Salford, in the county of Lancaster, under the style or firm of Farmer and Broughton

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Two machines made by Farmer & Broughton were included in a sale of plant at the Liquorice Works, Frodsham (presumably MacAndrew and Co) reported in 'The Engineer' in 1872. One was a double action force pump with a cylinder of about 6" dia., the other a 'Very fine table engine with vacuum pump, by Farmer and Broughton, with inverted steam cylinder about 16in. bore and 30in. stroke, mounted on handsome independent entablature and columns. The vacuum pump below, with cold water cistern, is worked from an engine crank shaft direct. Fly-wheel turned for belt 8in. Diameter, high-speed governors, equilibrium valve, &c…'

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