J. F. Clarke and Sons
of London
J. F. Clarke and later J. F. Clarke and Sons was a firm of gas engineers and iron founders, active in the City of London in the second half of the 19th century (1836 – c.1916). The firm owned a foundry at 41, Featherstone St, Finsbury, just north of the City of London; and a showroom at 49 Moorgate, in the City.
1836 John Farrand Clarke (1820-1898), the son of a Bethnal Green watchmaker, is said to have started the business.[1]
1857 Clarke described himself as a ‘Gas Steam and Hot Water Engineer’ when advertising sanitary water filters designed by Henry Lethaby, Medical Officer of Health for the City.[2]
1861 Employing 7 men and 4 boys.[3].
1860s / 1870s John Farrand Clarke took his sons Robert (1846-1922), Alfred (1851-1912) and Arthur (1854-unknown) into the partnership. Precise date of partnership unknown.
1861 Patent of invention 1453: ‘improvements in apparatus for regulating the supply of fluids.’ (JFC the patentee).
1867 Patent of invention 3456: ‘improvements in means and apparatus to be applied for melting snow and ice in public thoroughfares or otherwise.’ (JFC the patentee). Clarke’s apparatus was trialled by the Corporation in 1870, 1872 and 1881. The gas-powered apparatus was installed at a corner of Finsbury Square. It melted snow but at a high cost, and was not recommended as a permanent solution to snow nuisance.[4] The Engineer commented in 1871. ‘No doubt the gas companies would like to see Mr Clarke’s plans carried out but we rather fancy that the ratepayers might object to it. If Mr Clarke had taken the trouble to ascertain what the cost of melting snow in this way would be we do not think that he would have patented his plan.’ [5]
1872 Patent of invention 3726: ‘improvements in water closet apparatus. [Later advertised as the ‘self-flushing and water-waste preventing water closet’] (JFC the patentee)
1874 Patent of invention 2660: ‘distributing water in public thoroughfares for watering roads, extinguishing fire and other purposes’ (JFC the patentee)
1879 Patent of invention 1599 ‘improvements in pneumatic signalling or communication apparatus’. Patent taken out by JFC’s third son, Arthur.
1870s–1900 J. F. Clarke and Sons of Featherstone Street and 49, Moorgate advertised regularly in trade journals (Sanitary Record, The Engineer etc). Products include: electric and pneumatic bellows, speaking tube, lifts and iron staircases, self-acting pneumatic bell indicators, gas steam and hot water systems, electric bells, ‘A C Illuminator’ gas burners and globes.
They were trusted tradesmen for the City Corporation: ‘[Clarkes’] business connection with the City Corporation and with many of its departments as contractors is of long standing … they have gained the complete confidence of the London School Board and the Commissioners of Sewers, as well as that of many proprietors of hotels and restaurants, and administrative bodies of clubs, banks, exchanges, &c.’ [6]
1890 Installed the hot water system and vertical steam boiler in the kitchens of the Ophthalmic Isolation School at Hanwell, for the School Board of London, Central District, [7]
1891 Made experimental street lamps for the City - with a portable ladder incorporated in the design to overcome difficulties in winter [8] 1891 The firm expanded its scope. ‘We are notified that Messrs JF Clarke & Sons of 49 Moorgate Street EC desire to become as well known in connection with electric light installation work generally as they have been for so long a time in the direction of gas fitting’. [9]
1892 JFC retires from the partnership, leaving Robert and Alfred to run the business. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, John Farrand Clarke, Robert Clarke, and Alfred Clarke, carrying on business as Engineers, at 41, Featherstone-street, St. Luke's, Middlesex, and 49, Moorgate-street, in the city of London, under the style or firm, of J. F. Clarke and Sons, has been dissolved, by mutual consent, as and from the 30th day of June, 1892.. All debts due and owing to or by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said Robert Clarke and Alfred Clarke, and that in future such business will be carried on by the said Robert Clarke and Alfred Clarke...'[10]
1893 Clarke’s registered design patent 206870 of 1893. ‘for a lamp for electric lighting, applicable for its shape’, a metal shade lined with fluted glass reflectors. These were made for Julius Sax & Co, then equipping the Central Meat Market at Smithfield with a new electric lighting system. In December 1895 Clarkes issued an injunction against Sax & Co claiming their copyright had been infringed by Sax’s own version. Sax argued that Clarke’s design was neither new nor original and should never have been copyrighted in the first place. Legal arguments continued into 1896 when Clarke’s design was expunged from the Design Register. [11]
1894 Drainage work for the Central Meat Market at Smithfield. [12]
1906 J. F. Clarke and Sons incorporated [company number 87175].
1916 The firm was dissolved by 1916. [13]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Illustrated London and its representatives of commerce etc, 1893, 139.
- ↑ The Lancet, 15 August 1857, 158.
- ↑ 1861 census
- ↑ London Metropolitan Archives, CLA/006/AD/07/012/012 ‘Report on melting snow by Clarke's Apparatus’, 7 Feb 1882.
- ↑ The Engineer, vol12, 1871, 414.
- ↑ Illustrated London and its representatives of commerce etc, 1893, 139.
- ↑ The Lancet, 5 April 1890, 771.
- ↑ Lighting and Electrical Times 17th December, 1891, p204.
- ↑ Electrical Times 5 November, 1891, 60.
- ↑ The London Gazette Publication date:21 October 1892 Issue:26336 Page:5891
- ↑ The lamp is illustrated in The Electrical Journal, 17 Feb 1893, 461. Also see Reports of Patent, Design and Trademark Cases, vol. XIII., No. 22. 1896, 351- 363. Also see The Times 12 May 1896, p. 15.
- ↑ London Metropolitan Archives, COL/PLD/PL/02/LCM/MTM/054.Plan of drainage alterations at the Metropolitan, Meat and Poultry Market 5 December 1894.
- ↑ The National Archives: BT 31/11370/87175