John Cockerill and Co
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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.
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)[1]
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[2]
See Also
Sources of Information
- 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