William Muir and Co

Lathe 2670 still in use in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (South India). (2012).

Lathe 2670 still in use in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (South India). (2012). (Detail).

2023. Muir treadle lathe at Ellenroad Steam Museum

2023. Muir treadle lathe at Ellenroad Steam Museum

1847.

1852.

January 1866.

1869.

1874.

1876.

January 1880.

1885. Exhibit at Darlington Railway Museum.

Drilling machine at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry

Cylindrical grinding machine in reserve collection at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry

Manchester Corporation seal embossing press at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry

December 1889.

1895. Muir vertical mill, at the works of J. and G. Thomson, machining piston-rod cross-heads for the engines of HMS Jupiter (1895)

1895. Muir plano milling machine at the works of J. and G. Thomson, machining an IP slide valve for the engines of HMS Jupiter (1895)

June 1898.

August 1899.

1899.

Slotting machine exhibited at Amberley Working Museum.

February 1901.

1901.

January 1902.

1902.

1902.

1902.

1907.

1907.

1907.

1907.

1909. Headstock of turbine rotor lathe.

1909.102 inch turbine rotor lathe.

1909.

1921.

1922.

1922.

1922. Spur Gear Generating Machine.

February 1929.

1932.

1947. Light machine shop before re-organisation.

1947. Light machine shop after re-organisation.

Exhibit at Geevor Tin Mine Museum. No.1688 lathe.

Muir travelling head shaper served a supporting role in store at Wortley Top Forge. Now in private preservation.

Muir flat belt radial drill of unknown date.

Muir flat belt radial drill of unknown date.

Muir milling machine with cast overarm.

Muir (originally steam-driven) punch and shear machine, note the mountings for the steam engine cylinder and crosshead now gone and v-belt pulley bolted to the flywheel.

Muir steam-driven punch and shear machine plate.

Muir steam-driven punch and shear machine gears.

W. Muir and Co Engineers and machinists, of Britannia Works, Sherbourne Street, Manchester.

1842 Business established when William Muir left Whitworths in June and established a workshop in Berwick Street, Manchester, where he had room for a small forge, his lathe, and a bench.

1847 Advertising his business address as 59 Oxford Street (opposite Atlas Works), Manchester. By 1849 an upholsterer was occupying No. 59.

Outgrew his Manchester premises and then, jointly with Thomas Edmondson, Muir occupied a large building in Miller's Lane, Salford. Edmondson occupied the top floor as a Railway Ticket Printing Office; Muir manufactured the printing, dating, and other machines, as well as conducting business as a machine-tool maker. Miller's Lane was in a very old part of the City of Salford, through which the railway viaduct had been built to serve Manchester Victoria station. The lane was a short thoroughfare whose north side was defined by the viaduct, while the western end joined Greengate, and the eastern end led into a yard behind a cotton mill.

1849 advert: 'LETTER COPYING PRESSES, and EMBOSSING Ditto, Designed by WILLIAM MUIR and Manufactured under his own personal superintendence. An assortment of all sizes kept in stock. Presses fitted with Steel Dies for Initials, Address of Business Firms, & c.; also Dies and Stamps of every description, made to order. Sold Wholesale and Retail at Low Prices for cash, at the Manufactory, Millers-lane, Greengate, Salford, four minutes' walk from the Manchester Exchange.

1851 Exhibited at Great Exhibition.

1852 Muir was asked to supply the Woolwich Arsenal with machinery for making interchangeable rifle sights; and with business increasing, he built the Britannia Works in Sherborne Street, Strangeways, and took on partners.

1857 C. F. Partington wrote a pamphlet entitled 'Introductory Account of Messrs. Muir and Co.'s Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Rifle Sights' which described the manufacture of the sights and the special purpose machinery used to fulfill a government contract for 400 sights per week during the Crimean War.

1857 Sale notice: 'THURSDAY NEXT. Highly Important.— To Gun Sight and Mortar Makers, Engineers, Machine Brokers, Grocers, and Others. MB. JOHN HOLMES respectfully intimates to his friends and the public, that he has for nearly two years abstained from selling by auction, but at the request of that firm, Messrs. William Muir and Company, engineers and tool makers, Britannia Works, Sherborne-street, Strangeways, Manchester, will by SELL BY AUCTION, on the premises, on Thursday, the 5th of November, 1857, all their Valuable and Scientifically Made MACHINERY for gun-sight manufacturing, comprising twenty-six machines, with single speed headstocks; cast iron planed beds, slide work, horizontal drills, slotting and other machines for shaping, grooving, drilling, turning, screw making and every process in the making of body, blade, slide, tip, and screws of the sight; the accuracy and simplicity of arrangement and self-acting motions, render imperfection in the manufacturing of the sight impossible; about three thousand finished sights; also important machines for manufacturing large ordnance mortars; trunnion turning and touch-bole boring machine, 10-inch back-geared headstocks, carriage bed, and drill, also second-hand engineers' tools; three patent slide and screw cutting lathes, one 20ft. bed, with 8in. back-geared headstocks, by Muir and Co.; one ditto, 12ft. bed and 6in. headstocks; one 4ft. ditto; one 7ft. 6in. slide, and screw-cutting lathe, with 5in. headstocks, by Bodmore [Bodmer], five hand lathes, with 6in. back-geared headstocks, cast-iron beds, and slide slide rests, by Muir and Co.; three break lathes, one by Bodmore, one 10in. back-geared lathe, packed to 15in. with cast-iron bed, 9ft. long, Collier and Co.; two planing machines, by a Muir and Co, one to plane 2ft. 6in. long 18in. by 12in. with quick return motion, one ditto, to plane 2ft. by 18in. by 12in.; one back-geared drilling machine, 15in. jib, Muir and Co.; one patent grindstone, to take two stones, 3ft. diameter, each with motion for keeping the stones perfectly true while in use; 70 vices, pair of 41in. prize bellows, new ; Loyd's patent portable forge with fan ; bright shafting, hangers, pulleys, and fixings, as to render the whole portable and independent of walls, a most complete arrangement; three of Weild's patent large coffee mills, splendidly ornamented; second-hand and small copying and embossing presses, and a variety of other useful articles.— Catalogues ....'

1859 'EXHIBITION OF INVENTIONS. .... Mr. Muir, of Manchester, exhibits an exceedingly compact and useful planing machine for the use of mathematical instrument makers, opticians, &c., designed at the suggestion of Mr. Andrew Ross.'. It was described and illustrated on p.361 here

1862 Screwcutting lathe exhibited at London Exhibition. Drawing here . The long leadscrew was provided with two intermediate supports. These were lowered out of the way of the passing carriage by the action of a rack and pinion arrangement.

1867 Partnership dissolved between William Muir, Charles Garnett, and Robert Garnett, Sherborne-street, Strangeways, Manchester, machine makers

1893 New Companies:
WILLIAM AND MUIR AND CO. (MANCHESTER) LIMITED.
This company was registered on the 10th inst., with a capital £80,000, in shares, to acquire and purchase the business carried on by Charles Garnett, Alfred Muir, and H. Garnett, at Strangeways, Manchester, and elsewhere, under the style of William Muir and Co. and to carry on the business of machinists, machine-tool makers, manufacturers, and mechanical engineers. The subscribers are:— [with number of shares].
C. Garnett, 34, Colville-terrace, Bayswater, W., machine-tool maker 1
A. Muir, Rookswood, Broughton Park, Manchester, machine-tool maker 1
H. Garnett, Valley Field, King's Lynn, machine-tool maker 1
F. H. Garnett, 34, Colville-terrace, W., late captain 15th Regiment 1
J. A. Farnworth, 132, Waterloo-road, Manchester, cashier 1
H. Muir, Rookswood, Broughton Park, Manchester 1
W. Muir, Sherborne-street, Manchester, machine-tool maker , 1
The first directors are:— A. Muir, H. Garnett, and F. H. Garnett; qualification, £1,000; remuneration, £100, exclusive of managing director. Registered Hinde, Milne, and Bury, solicitors, Manchester.'

1913 Muir made gear hobbing machines for C. A. Parsons and others for the production of high power, high speed marine reduction gearing. Controversy between Parsons and Muir & Co over the best way of minimising errors in hobbing. Muir & Co had patented machinery incorporating a master gear having a pair of wormwheels connected by planetary gearing.

1914 Machine tool makers. Specialities: machine tools for shipbuilders, armament works, engine works etc. Employees 450.

1922 Description and illustrations of Muir's machine for cutting turbine reduction gear wheels, from Paper by James Henry Melloy

Produced balancing machines for turbine rotors

1937 Company renamed Muir Machine Tools

1944 Acquired by David Brown and Sons.

See Also

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