Henry Bessemer and Co
of Bessemer Steel Works, Carlisle Street East, Sheffield
1813 Henry Bessemer was born in Hertfordshire.
1856 Henry Bessemer's most famous invention, a steel-making process called The Bessemer Process, was patented.
1858 Company established by Henry Bessemer, making the steel to which his name was given, at the Bessemer Steel Works in Carlisle Street, partnered by William Galloway, the Manchester engineer, Robert Longsdon, and William Daniel Allen. At first the output was insignificant, but gradually the magnitude of the operations was enlarged until the competition became effective, and steel traders generally became aware that the firm of Henry Bessemer and Co was underselling them. Many soon applied for licences but Bessemer and Longsdon refused a licence to Robert Forester Mushet of Coleford.
1877 The company was registered on 27 March, to take over the business of the firm of the same name, steel manufacturers.
1877 The Partnership was dissolved[1]
1888 Description and engraving of a hydraulic tube press made for Samuel Walker of Birmingham. 'Mr. Walker has this press in operation, and from a disc of steel 3 ft. in diameter, having a mean thickness of about 4 in., he has raised a tube or cylinder with a solid end to it 3ft. 6 in. long and 12 in. in diameter, of a uniform thickness of about 1 in., and sanguine hopes are entertained of producing greater results. Messrs. Bessemer and Co. are now making a larger press of similar construction.'[2]
1888 Letter to Engineering in reference to steel boilers made by Daniel Adamson and Co to Mather and Platt at an early date, pointing out that from Bessemer & Co, had supplied steel plates for boilers to Adamson in 1860[3]
1892 Re-registration of the company took place on 5 April. [4]
1891 Advert. [5]
1901 Railway Spring Manufacturers in 1901. [6]
1903 Acquired works in Bolton - previously of the Bolton Iron and Steel Co.
1914 Steel manufacturers. Specialities: railway and tramway tyres, axles, crank axles, crank shafts, marine and other forgings, shoes and dies for gold crushing, billets, bars, rails, angles etc. [7]
1924 Thomas W. Ward acquired, by arrangement, Messrs' Bessemer's Bolton Works with likely intentions to dismantle and sell in various directions.[8]
1926 - December. The company started to produce acid steel again having by the end of 1926, lit up two furnaces.[9]
1929 Acquired by John Baker and Co[10]. Name changed to John Baker and Bessemer
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, Jul 11, 1877
- ↑ Engineering 1888/01/20
- ↑ Engineering 1888/05/25
- ↑ 1908 The Stock Exchange Year Book
- ↑ 1891 Post Office London Trades Directory
- ↑ 1901 White's Directory of Sheffield and Rotherham p980
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ The Engineer 1924/08/08
- ↑ The Engineer 1926/12/24
- ↑ The Times, Jul 22, 1929
- Trademarked. A History of Well-Known Brands - from Aertex to Wright's Coal Tar by David Newton. Pub: Sutton Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-0-7509-4590-5