Thomas Wood (1849-1886)
Thomas Wood (1849-1886)
of Ebbw Vale Steel Iron and Coal Works, Ebbw Vale, R.S.O., Monmouthshire.
1886 Obituary [1]
THOMAS WOOD was born at Northlew, Devonshire, on 21st March 1849.
Having been educated at the Dowlais schools, he was apprenticed by Mr. Menelaus at the Dowlais Works. After passing through the workshops and drawing office, he was made assistant engineer in 1868.
In 1873 he was appointed by Sir George Elliot to reconstruct the Aberaman Works, which had been idle for a number of years; and shortly after they had been successfully started, he became engineer to the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Works, Workington, where he made many alterations and improvements, including the conversion of a marine engine into a reversing rolling-mill engine.
In 1877 he was appointed chief engineer to the Ebbw Vale Steel Iron and Coal Works, for which he designed now blast-furnace plant at Victoria, two new togging mills at Ebbw Vale, and numerous other works. Of the blooming mill with balanced top roll a description was given to this Institution in 1885 (Proceedings, page 292).
His death took place from an attack of pneumonia after a few days' illness on Saturday, 17th July 1886, at the age of thirty-seven.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1885.
1886 Obituary [2]
Mr. THOMAS WOOD, who died on the 17th July 1886, was born at Northlew, Devon, on the 21st March 1849, and had thus entered his thirty-eighth year.
As a lad he was apprenticed at the Dowlais Ironworks under Mr. Menelaus, and was made assistant-engineer of that important establishment in 1868. Five years later he was employed to reconstruct the Aberaman works in South Wales, and from there he proceeded to the works of the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company at Workington, where he remained until, in 1877, he was appointed chief engineer to the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron, and Coal Works. While employed in the latter capacity, Mr. Wood designed and erected two new blast furnaces at the Company's Victoria Works, as well as two new togging works at the works at Ebbw Vale.
He became a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1876, and he was also a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.