Metropolitan-Vickers:1935 Review
Note: This is a sub-section of Metropolitan-Vickers
Visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to the Iron, Steel and Engineering Industries of Manchester and District
Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd
Among the works to be visited by members of the Iron and Steel Institute during their Autumn Meeting in Manchester are those of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd., at Trafford Park.
The site was chosen by the late George Westinghouse, and the works were built by the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and both site and works have proved their worth since manufacture was begun in the year 1902.
The works are erected on a plot of land 100 acres in extent and the Company hold 30 acres of adjacent land for future development.
The works are unique in that they were, when built, and still remain, the largest of their kind in the country, and also in that they were built on this large scale at one time, whereas most engineering works have small beginnings and develop gradually with increasing business.
The buildings run from north to south, the main offices being situated at the north end of the main machine shop, one of the largest and most up-to-date in the world. It is 900 feet in length and 440 feet wide and with its three galleries, the total floor area in the building amounts to nearly 3/4 million square feet. The shop is divided into a number of bays, two of the largest of which have a span of 90 feet and are 80 feet high to the ridge of the roof.
Since the works were built, there have been many changes in the electrical industry, the major one being the development of the steam turbine now universally used for driving large generators except when water power is available. The manufacture of steam turbines was begun as soon as their commercial practicability was assured, and the Company is now one of the foremost in the manufacture of this type of prime mover and the alternators which they are built to drive.
At the present moment, the Company is completing on site a turbo-alternator set for the new Battersea Power station in London which will have an output of 105,000 kilo-watts. This is greater than any machine of its kind in the whole of Europe.
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