Hydraulic Engineering Co
Hydraulic Engineering Co of Charles Street, Chester were engine builders.
1869 Edward Bayzand Ellington entered into partnership with Bryan Johnson of Chester. The company, renamed Johnson and Ellington, began specializing in hydraulic machinery.
1874 Incorporated as a limited company.
1875 they acquired the right to manufacture the Brotherhood three cylinder hydraulic engine. The company was converted to a limited company named the Hydraulic Engineering Co.
1876 Had a pair of small engines running for the hydraulic hoists at Nettlefolds[1]
1876 Hydraulic punching and shearing machine to the design of R. H. Tweddell. [2]
1876 Supplied a range of equipment on Tweddell's sytem to the French Government dockyards at Toulon, including large hydraulic pumping and shearing machines and two 50 HP pumping engines. The contract was handled by Henry Chapman of Paris[3]
1883 Two 40-ton hydraulic cranes to work in the forge at Portsmouth Dockyard. [4]
1884 Description of the works and some of its products. Extracts: '.... There is a face-plate lathe, 3 ft. 9 in. centres, which will take 12 ft. in the pit ; it is a good deal used for accumulators, and will take a length of 25 ft. 6 in. with a diameter of 6 ft. A horizontal boring machine, by Messrs. Buckton, of Leeds, has been made specially for boring the cylinders of Brotherhood’s engines, in which the three cylinders are in one casting, and are equidistant from each other. In this case, of course, the boring bar cannot be carried threugh and steadied on the outer end, and there is an exceptionally long bearing on the headstock, in order to compensate for this, and so steady the overhung boring bar. The table is circular, and is divided off in such a way, that it will revolve so as to bring each cylinder to the exact position required for boring, and no resetting is therefore necessary. ... erecting shop, as well as the machine shop last described, are both served by rope-driven travelling cranes, one by Messrs. Craven Brothers, the other having been made on the works. .... A light railway is laid down on the premises, and hydraulic capstans are placed at intervals for hauling heavy pieces. .... We noticed several lifts in course of construction. A number of these, we were informed, are intended for some large residences that are now being erected on the Kensington Court Estate. There are about thirty in all, and they are on the direct-acting principle, intended for personal use as well as for general household purposes. They will be worked by hydraulic power, from an adjacent branch establishment of the London Hydraulic Power Company. The woodwork for the cages of these lifts, which we had an opportunity of examining later on, at the works of the makers, Messrs. W. and F. Brown and Co., of Chester, is of polished ash and walnut, ....'[5]
1891 For another description of works see 1891 The Practical Engineer
1894 Chester Hydraulic Co supplied 4 triple expansion engines for the central hydraulic station at Manchester.
1903 Two Horizontal Engines with gear drive for the Great Western Railway (Kemble Station)
1905 Plaque at the Museum of the Great Western Railway 'No. 101'.
1914 Engineers, ironfounders and manufacturers of hydraulic power plants, cranes and lifts. Employees 400. [6]
1920 Mangnall's Earth Thrust-borer. [7]
Pre-1927 Hydraulic Pumping Engine. Exhibit at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1876/07/28 p60
- ↑ The Engineer of 29th September 1876 p228
- ↑ [1] 'Engineering', 24 November 1876, p.441 & 446
- ↑ The Engineer of 4th January 1884
- ↑ Engineering 1884/09/05
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Engineer of 9th April 1920 p369 & p376
- The Steam Engine in Industry by George Watkins in two volumes. Moorland Publishing. 1978. ISBN 0-903485-65-6