Thomas Ellis (1818-1884)
Thomas Ellis (1818-1884)
1884 Obituary [1]
THOMAS ELLIS, who died at his residence, Coatbridge, N.B., on the 26th July 1884, was one of the most prominent men in the Scotch malleable iron trade.
He was born in Whittington, Shropshire, where his father was a cabinetmaker, in 1818. After having had a limited education at Wrexham, he entered a forge in that locality as a mill-boy.
About 1842 he came to Glasgow, and obtained employment at the Govan Ironworks as a mill-roller. He was not long engaged in this capacity when he was appointed manager of the Dundyvan Ironworks, near Coatbridge; but as that establishment was the reverse of prosperous, he returned to Govan, and resumed his former employment as. a merchant-bar roller.
About 1856 Mr. Ellis became a partner in a newly erected malleable ironworks at Coatbridge, known as the Phoenix, and some time later he acquired an interest in a three years' lease of the Globe Ironworks in the same locality. He was the managing partner in these two establishments until 1870, when he erected the North British Ironworks, which he continued to carry on until the time his death.
Mr. Ellis became a member of the Institute in 1872, and was often to be found at the meetings both in London and in the provinces, though he never took part in any di6cussions. He was a member of the Committee that received the Institute on the occasion of the Glasgow meeting in 1872, and his works were examined by the members on that occasion with much interest because of a new revolving rabble, known as Dormoy's, with which he was then making experiments that promised at one time to lead to more important results than were ultimately realised.