Francis Dixon Bumsted

Francis Dixon Bumsted (c1848-1929) of Bradley and Bumsted and Bumsted and Chandler

1889 Brief description and engraving of a high speed single cylinder vertical engine constructed by F. D. Bumsted, driving a Crompton dynamo. The dynamo had no bearings of its own, the armature being built on the extended crankshaft.

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1929 Obituary.

The late Mr. F. D. Bumsted, J.P. was an enthusiastic student of science, and at the age of 12, had a laboratory in which he carried out experiments in telegraphy and telephony became a student at King's College, his special interest being on the mechanical side. He had, as a fellow student. Mr. Noel Chandler, J.P., of Cannock, who later accompanied him to Glasgow, where they worked side by side as engineers.

'In 1873 Mr Bumsted migrated to Cannock district, and in company with Mr. Bradley started the engineering firm of Messrs. Bradley and Bumsted, Hednesford. This partnership did not last for long, however, and Bumsted then took into partnership his old friend Mr. Chandler. This partnership continued for nearly half a century, during which time the concern gained a world wide reputation for its manufacture of high speed single-acting steam engines, fans for colliery, and other work, and paper-bag making machines. The latter activity led to the firm adopting the word "Bags” their telegraphic address. Many of the collieries in the Midlands are using large fans for ventilation purposes, which were made at the Hednesford works of Messrs. Bumsted and Chandler. Mr Bumsted was married in 1871, his best man being Mr Chandler, who has been his life-long friend, and until several weeks ago sat with him on the magisterial Bench at Cannock....

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1929 Obituary

FRANCIS DIXON BUMSTED had been a Member of the Institution for thirty-eight years at the time of his death on 3rd December 1929, in his eighty-second year.

He was educated at King's College, London, and served his apprenticeship at the works of the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company, then known as Messrs. Elders, at Glasgow.

In 1873, in conjunction with Mr. Fred Bradley of Kidderminster, he built and equipped the Cannock Chase Engine Works at Hednesford, and he continued as sole proprietor for some years. He became the patentee of the well-known square-bottom paper-bag making machines, and installed the first colliery electric light equipment in the Midlands in 1879, at the Earl of Shrewsbury's Brereton Collieries.

In 1890 he entered into partnership with Mr. Noel Chandler, the patentee of the well-known single-acting high-speed engines, and the firm became known as Messrs. Bumsted and Chandler.

In 1908 it was converted into a limited liability company to continue the manufacture of high-speed engines, mine-ventilating fans, pumps, paper-bag machines, etc.

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