The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company of Wednesbury, Staffs
c. 1838 Partnership formed to work the 1834 axle patent of James Hardy.[1]
1840 Company established.
1851 Award at the 1851 Great Exhibition. See details at 1851 Great Exhibition: Reports of the Juries: Class V.
1852 Take over the Victoria Ironworks.[2]
1854 Bought by Thomas Walker.[3]
1864 Incorporated as a Limited Company.
1867 The business of Messrs. Lloyds Fosters and Co (which had gone into liquidation) was transferred to the Patent Shaft and Axletree Co; Mr. Sampson Lloyd became vice-chairman; the company did so well on the deal that in seven years the profits were sufficient to pay the whole of the purchase money in dividends.
1869 Built Blackfriars Bridge, a project that was taken on with the takeover of Lloyds, Fosters and Co.[4]
1870 Built Stourport Bridge.[5]
1870 Advert this page: Patent Shaft and Axletree Co (Lloyds, Fosters and Co's department). Agents were at 26 Parliament St, London SW; 2 Brabant Court, London EC; 8 New Broad St, London EC
1877 The firm had made the original Colenso and Frere bridges.
1880 'One hundred and forty trucks laden with finished appliances for the erection of bridges in Afghanistan are about to be despatched from the Railway Station. It is asserted that for the next six months about 1,000 men will be engaged at the Patent Shaft Works in preparing bridges for Afghanistan.'[6]
1881 Brunswick Ironworks, of Wednesbury.
1882-7 Built massive steel girders for the Dufferin Bridge over the Ganges at Benares.[7]
1889 The company re-registered to enable financial reconstruction following embezzlement by a company accountant.[8]
1889 Constructed a steel railway bridge over the Magalies River for the Pretoria – Magaliesburg railway line. [9]
1896/7 Directory: Listed for Railway Equipment. [10]
1897 Constructed the lattice girder Mahaica Railway Bridge to caary the railway from Georgetown to Rosignol across the Mahaica River, in what is now East Coast Demerara, Guyana. The bridge was built to accommodate the railway trail that spanned from Georgetown to Rosignol. It was moved in February 2004, to accommodate the construction of the current Mahaica Bridge.[11]
1899 Terminated associations with Hunt and Sacre and opened new offices in London.[12] Member's Mansions, 36 Victoria-street, S. W. under the management of Mr Lincoln Chandler.[13]
1900 Makers of the Tugela River new bridge in South Africa which consisted of five spans of 105 feet each. [14]
1902 Incorporated into the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Co.
Constructed a railway swing bridge connecting the Ensanada Line to La Plata Mole, Argentina. Opening span 122 ft 6" to centres of piers.
1909 Constructed a Scherzer rolling lift bridge to cross the Riachuelo River, Buenos Aires[15]
1909 The company built one of the most impressive railway constructions in Argentina. It is a 266 metre (292 yards) long, 7 bridges structure (6 caged bridges and one open), dating from 1909. The two stations (almost ruins) were linked by the bridges. (see photographs at right).
1914 Manufacturers of Bridgework, Wheels, Tyres, Axles, Steel and Iron Plates and Bars, Bogies and Underframes, Wagons, Turntables, Rivets etc. Specialities: Brunswick Rolled Steel Disc Wheels and Wheels and Axles for Carriages and Wagons, Wrought Iron and Steel Bridgework, Railway Wagons, Pressed Steel Underframes and Bogies, Steel and Iron Plates, Sections and Rivets and all descriptions of Steelwork for Railway Stock. Blackfriars Bridge, London was built by the company; also some of the largest bridges in the world, amongst others the Benares Bridge over the Ganges and the Colenso and Frere Bridge (seven spans) in Natal which held the record for rapid construction. Employees 3500. [16]
1920 Brunswick wheel works and Monway tyre works closed.[17]
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history. The Patent Shaft and Axletree Co developed the basic open-hearth process, and had recently completed an entirely new and up-to-date Siemens plant, in extension of its output of plates, sections, wheels and axles.
1949 Old Park sold outright to Metropolitan-Cammell.[18]
1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain[19]
1956 Purchased from the Holding and Realization Agency by Cammell, Laird and Co (75%) and Metro Cammell (25%), the latter being owned by Vickers and Cammell, Laird and Co[20]. A scheme for the reconstruction of the Patent Shaft works was announced.
Renamed The Patent Shaft Steel Works Ltd.[21]
1970 After a financial crisis, the parent company was renamed as Laird Group; it also held 50 percent of the shipbuilding business (the government took on the other 50 percent), as well as the other activities of the former company.
1909 Railroad Technical Data (presumably related to the pictures):*
- Total length: 500 miles
- Track gauge: 1.67 meters
- Rails: Vignoles type - 12 meters long each - Weight: 99 pounds
- Sleepers: 16 per rail, made of Quebracho (South American very hard wood tree species)
In 1908, the total length of railways in Argentina was 14,732 miles[22]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ Birmingham Daily Gazette - Monday 1 March 1880
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ [1] Cultural Heritage Assessment for the Proposed Hekpoort - Cashan Substation and Powerline Servitude, Wes Rand Local Municipality, Gauteng by Francois P Coetzee, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, University of South Africa, September 2014
- ↑ Peck's Trades Directory of Birmingham, 1896-97:Railway Equipment
- ↑ [2] National Trust of Guyana: Mahaica Railway Bridge
- ↑ The Engineer 1900/01/12 p 52.
- ↑ The Engineer 1900/03/30 p 343.
- ↑ The Engineer of 19th January 1900. p71
- ↑ Birmingham Daily Gazette, 2 November 1911
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ www.blackcountryhistory.org
- ↑ Hansard 19 February 1951
- ↑ The Times, Wednesday, May 30, 1956
- ↑ The Engineer 1963/11/29
- ↑ The Times Tuesday, December 28, 1909