Salt's Mill
of Saltaire, Bradford.
The large mill and Saltaire village were built by Titus Salt and, at the time, represented a major departure from the grim environment then typically associated with textile mill in major northern English towns.
See Sir Titus Salt, Bart, Sons and Co
Saltaire is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List [1]
The mill buildings have largely survived intact, and are in use for industrial purposes and for shops, galleries and restaurants. Website.
1851 The extensive mills were erected on the river Aire at Shipley; they were intersected by the main line of the Midland Railway Co. and by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which connects Hull with Liverpool.
As well as his mill, he built 9.5 acres of top quality housing and infrastructure including parks, hospitals, schools and churches for his workers.
1851 Titus Salt employed upward of 3000 work people[2]
c.1852 William Fairbairn completed the fitting out of the mill at Saltaire
1853 Sir Titus Salt invited 2,440 workers and 1,310 guests to the opening banquet.
1871 There were 820 houses and 4389 persons at the mill.
Today, Salts Mill is a place for art, dining and shopping in one stunning historic building. The building contains a very large collection of works by David Hockney.
Notes on the Machinery at the mill
The engravings show the arrangement of the two double engines and ten boilers. The source of the prints has not been identified. William Fairbairn described the boilers[3] - they were 7 ft diameter and 24 ft long. The fire was in a pair of flues as in a Lancashire boiler. These merged into a single elliptical flue, stayed by cross tubes. From here the gases passed through ~100 horizontal tubes of 3" diameter. A point not mentioned by Fairbairn, but evident in the engraving, is that the steam manifolds are routed to the engine houses in a tunnel, exposed to the hot exhaust gases. This not only prevented heat loss, but may have given a small degree of superheating.
An article in 'The Engineer' in 1876 stated that the original engines had been supplied by Sir William Fairbairn 25 years previously, but about 9 years ago (i.e. about 1867) the original 'tappet' valve gear was replaced by the Corliss arrangement of Inglis and Spencer. (This may suggest that the cylinders themselves had to be replaced). The article illustrates a large boiler by Galloways, one of two set to work in 1876, apparently to serve these engines. The boiler pressure was relatively low, at 40 psi, and the boiler diameter was large, at 12 ft, the length being 24 ft. The flues were large (5 ft dia) with numerous Galloway cross tubes. Each of the two flues had two fire doors, and these had a clockwork mechanism to gradually close the air inlets after closing the doors. The article also reported that another large Corliss engine had recently been erected by Hick of Bolton (doubtless Hick, Hargreaves and Co), served by a similar but smaller boiler. George Salt is credited with supervision of the selection, design and construction of the machinery over a number of years. [4]
Another article in 'The Engineer' in 1869 states that Corliss engines were installed to compare their output against the older Fairbairn coupled beam engines. The article has the specifications of the Fairbairn engines. [5]
1893 Four new engines replaced the beam engines. Two made by Cole, Marchent and Morley. They were of the horizontal compound tandem Corliss type. 350 HP at the most economical point of cut off. Cylinders 15in and 32in diameter, with a stroke of 3ft 6in, and a speed of 80 rpm, using steam at 140 lb pressure. One of those engines drove the weaving-shed and the other the combing-shed, both driving direct onto their respective line shafts with ropes, all the original gearing being removed. The other two engines, to drive the east and west spinning mills, were made by Hick, Hargreaves and Co. They were inverted vertical compound "marine" type, 500 ihp each, with cylinders 20in and 38in bore, stroke 3ft, 80 rpm. Six steel boilers.'[6]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1] World Heritage Sites list
- ↑ 1851 census
- ↑ 'Treatise on Mills and Millwork' by William Fairbairn, 4th edition, 1878
- ↑ The Engineer, 14th April 1876 pp 274 & 277
- ↑ The Engineer 1869/05/28
- ↑ Bingley Chronicle - Friday 22 September 1893