John Cockerill and Co
.jpg)
John Cockerill and Co of Seraing (Liege, Belgium).
Founded 1817 by British engineer and industrialist John Cockerill.
From 1825 the owner was John Cockerill and the company known as John Cockerill & Cie.
After John Cockerill's death in Warsaw after a business trip to Russia raising funds to save the company from bankruptcy in 1840 the company became state owned
From 1842 known as Société anonyme pour l'Exploitation des Etablissements John Cockerill.
1842-3 Cockerill constructed the first Meuse Suspension Bridge, Seraing (Belgium). It was replaced in 1905.
The company was one of the major iron and steel producers in western Europe throughout its existence, and a major producer of derived products, including rail and railway locomotives, iron production equipment, and other large-scale iron and steel construction.
1894 Antwerp Exhibition. Triple expansion steam engine of 1,600 hp. Models of ships built at their Antwerp yard.
1894 Six-hundred horse-power triple-expansion Frikart-Corliss Engine.
1899 Description and drawings of a hydraulic dredge, designed by Lindon W. Bates and constructed by Cockerill, for use on the River Volga.[1][2]
1900 Brief description and engraving of blast furnace blowing engine fuelled by blast furnace gas. 'The gas for working the engine is taken direct from the blast-furnace gas main It is not purified in any way, but is only cooled in an iron chamber, 6 metres (19ft. 8 in.) long, 6 metres high, and 1.25 metres (49.21 in.) wide ; into this chamber a spray of water is injected by a 10-millimetre Korting pulveriser. By this means the temperature of the gas is reduced to 20 deg. Cent., which is found suitable for working. The running of the engine is not affected by the presence of dust or water vapour in the gas. In starting the engine the first explosion is effected by means of air carburated with petroleum spirit; this method is found to be quite efficient, no other device being necessary. No difficulty is experienced with the packing of the stuffing-boxes of the gas cylinder ...'[3]
Supplied a breakdown crane to the Hedjaz Railway in 1908.
Exhibited a 1750 kW turbine-generator at the 1910 Brussels Exhibition (Brown, Boveri-Parsons type)[4]
Built steam powered breakdown cranes - for the SNCF in 1939 one of 130 ton capacity, and in the late 1940s four number 85 ton machines. Two survive, albeit now diesel powered, one for the national museum collection, one is preserved by a scrapyard owner at Culoz.
Similar 85 ton breakdown cranes built in Italy in 1958 under Cockerill license for FS/Italian Railways.
Makers of Zoelly turbines.
In 1955 the company merged with Ougrée-Marihaye to form SA Cockerill -Ougree, later merged into Cockerill-Sambre in 1981.
Bridges
See here for an illustrated list of metal bridges and other structures by Cockerill[5]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Engineering 1899/12/01
- ↑ Engineering 1899/12/29
- ↑ Engineering 1900/01/19
- ↑ ZVDI 18 June 1910
- ↑ [1] 'Metal bridges and buildings by S.A. John Cockerill (1842-1955) in Belgium and abroad: an overview' by Ine Wouters, Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- The Engineer of 8th June 1894 p493
- The Engineer of 12th October 1894 p320 & p322
- Stationary Steam Engines of Great Britain by George Watkins. Vol 10
- Wikipedia