Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.

Allgemeines

FirmennameFairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.
OrtssitzGlasgow
OrtsteilGovan
StraßeGovan Road 1048
Art des UnternehmensWerft u. Schiffsdampfmaschinenfabrik
AnmerkungenAm Clyde; benannt nach der ehemaligen Fairfield Farm. [Fabrikschild (1930)]: Firma mit vorgestelltem "The ...". In Gowan und Glasgow-Fairfield. Urspr. "Randolph & Company" (s.d.) und nach zweifachem Namenswechsel bis 1885/86 (je nach Quelle): "John Elder & Co." (s.d.). [http://www.lillesand-sjomannsforening.no] nennt für die "Askeladden" (1920) als Hersteller der Maschine: "Govan Forth Shipbuilding Co. Ltd." - sonst nicht nachweisbar und vmtl. "Fairfield Shipbuilding" gemeint. Spätere Eigner: Upper Clyde Shipbuilders; Kvaerner Govan Ltd.; BAE Systems (British Aerospace).
Quellenangaben[Matschoß (1908) I, 137; II,514] [Kudas: Gesch dt. Passagierschiffahrt III (1988) 235] [Glimpses of old Glasgow (Internet)] http://www.search.com/reference/Govan
Hinweise[Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1895) 502]




Unternehmensgeschichte

Zeit Ereignis
1834 Gründung des Ursprungsunternehmens durch Charles Randolph und R. S. Cunliff als kleines Mühlenbauer-Geschäft in der Centre Street unter der Firma "Randolph & Co."
1886 Umwandlung der Vorgänger-Firma "Randolph, Elder & Co." in eine private company und Änderung der Firma in die vorliegende Form. Eigentümer: Sir William Pearce.
1887 Bau des NDL-Dampfers "Lahn" mit einer 5-Zyl.-Dreifachexpansionsmaschine von 9000 PS
1888 Sir William Pearce (*1833) stirbt. - Er erwarb seine Kenntnisse im Schiffbau bei Robert Napier. 1885 wurde er Mitglied des Parlaments für Govan. Seine Erinnerung in der Stadt wird durch die Verbindung mit der "Pearce Lodge" in der Glasgow University wach gehalten. Sein Denkmal steht gegenüber dem Pearce Institute in Govan. Dort wird die Statue wegen der Farbe der Bronze "Black Man" genannt.
1888 Der Nachfolger des verstorbenen Wm. Pearce wird sein Sohn, Sir William G. Pearce. Diese Wechsel bei den Teilhabern entwickeln weitere Fähigkeiten und Unernehmergeist, so daß die Firma weiter zu Bedeutung wächst und die Anzahl der Arbeitskräfte steigt, bis in Fairfield Tausende von Menschen arbeiten. Beispiele dafür sind die großartigen Cunard-Schiffe "Campania" und "Lucania".
1888 Die Werft ist größter Aussteller auf der "Glasgow Exhibition".
1889 Umwandlung in eine public company
1892-1893 Bau der Cunard-Dampfer "Campania" u. "Lucania" mit 5-Zylinder-Dreifachexpansion von 25.000 PS (1892/93)
1894 John Carmichael (*1858 in Govan; seit 1873 als Lehrling bei Fairfield) wird Betriebsleiter
1898 Die Fabrik baut 1898 Schiffsmaschinen mit zusammen 74300 indizierten Pferdestärken.
1899 Die Fabrik baut 1899 Schiffsmaschinen mit zusammen 51650 indizierten Pferdestärken.
1900 Die Fabrik baut 1900 Schiffsmaschinen mit zusammen 37180 indizierten Pferdestärken.
1900 Bau des späteren Seebäder-Raddampfers der HAPAG "Cobra"
1907 Sir William G. Pearce stirbt, und Alexander Gracies wird leitender Direktor. Gracie richtet sein Augenmerk auf die stetige Modernisierung der Werft.
1909 Alexander Cleghorn wird Betriebsleiter.
1919 Die "Northumberland Shipping Company" erwirbt einen großen Teil der Geschaftanteile, und so beginnen Northumberland-Gruppen in der Schiffsbau-Szene zu wachsen.
1920 Zusammen mit der "Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co." und einer Gruppe von privaten Investoren Kauf der Chepstow-Werft und Bildung der "Monmouth Shipbuilding Co."
1934 Abbruch der Werft Fairfield West
1935 Ãœbernahme durch die "Lithgows Ltd.", Port Glasgow
1944 Das Werftgelände Fairfield West wird von der amerikanischen Armee zum Bau von Landefahrzeugen genutzt
1961 Bau einer Serie von acht Dampffähren für den Bosporus
1965 Das Unternehmen geht bankrott
1966 Die Werft wird nach dem Bankrott mit Regierungsgarantien umorganisiert. Der Geddes Report empfiehlt, daß die Werft mit fünf anderen verschmolzen werden sollte, und die Fairfield-Werft wird die Govan-Werft der UCS. Die anderen größeren Werften am oberen Clyde - "Alexander Stephens & Sons", "Charles Connell & Co.", "Yarrow Shipbuilders" und "John Brown & Co." - werden zu "Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS)" zusammengeschlossen.
1971 UCS bricht zusammen, und Fairfields wird in die "Govan Shipbuilders" verwandelt und verstaatlicht als Teil von "British Shipbuilders". Bei der Reprivatisierung von "British Shipbuilders" wird die Fairfield-Werft an die Kværner-Gruppe verkauft als "Kværner (Govan)".




Produkte

Produkt ab Bem. bis Bem. Kommentar
Schiffe 1886 Umfirmierung 1961 für Bosporus-Fähren  
Schiffsmaschinen 1886 Umfirmierung 1961 für Bosporus-Fähren  
Schraubendampfer 1961 in Istanbul [Gündling (1996)] 1961 in Istanbul [Gündling (1996)]  




Personal

Zeit gesamt Arbeiter Angest. Lehrl. Kommentar
1895 5000        




Produktionszahlen

von bis Produkt im Jahr am Tag Einheit
1898 1898 Dampfmaschinenleistung 74300   PS
1899 1899 Dampfmaschinenleistung 51650   PS
1900 1900 Dampfmaschinenleistung 37180   PS




Firmen-Änderungen, Zusammenschüsse, Teilungen, Beteiligungen


Zeit = 1: Zeitpunkt unbekannt

Zeit Bezug Abfolge andere Firma Kommentar
1886 Umbenennung zuvor John Elder & Co. 1886 als private; 1889 als public company




Allgemeines

ZEIT1888
THEMABeschreibung
TEXTApproaching Glasgow from the sea the first indications of the great industry for which the Clyde is famed throughout the world present themselves at Greenock. The shipbuilding yards at the east end of this town at once attract the attention of anyone voyaging up the river by the lofty posts and stagings so characteristic of the industry, and so notable in its great centres. And in addition to this the continuous and peculiar rattle of the hammers proclaims unmistakably the nature of the work being vigorously carried on on all sides. After passing Greenock, Port Glasgow is speedily approached, and manifests even a more striking evidence of activity in the prevailing industry, together with a still louder clang of the ever-ringing hammers. Soon, too, Dumbarton is passed, but the yards here being on the River Leven, a little inland from the Clyde, the largest of them are not within view from the latter river. Still, a quick ear can readily catch the distinctive sounds of the shipbuilding craft, and in this way the traveller is reassured that no appreciable gap exists in the long array of yards lining the banks of the great waterway of Western Scotland. And then in quick succession appear and drop astern the yards of Bowling, Dalmuir, Whiteinch, Renfrew and Linthouse ; and it is safe to say that for twenty miles before reaching Glasgow the "sound of the shipwright's hammer is almost continuously to be heard, for no sooner does the din of one yard grow faint and fainter behind, than the murmuring hum of another becomes increasingly audible ahead. The climax, however, both in noise and manifest activity, is reached when Govan and Partick are approached, for on both sides of the Clyde at this point are yards of large extent, and between these in the busy seasons the incessant clangour and clatter are simply tremendous.
It is here, on the south bank of the river, that the immense shipbuilding yards and engineering works of the renowned firm of Messrs. John Elder & Co., now styled the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, are to be found. This universally famous organisation, the largest shipbuilding concern in all the great Clyde district, and indeed in the whole world, dates its remarkable career from the year 1834, when the business was founded by Charles Randolph and R. S. Cunliff, under the title of Randolph & Co. It is recorded that the first year's operations of this firm indicated work done to the value of about £2,650, the outlay for the same period in wages paid being £1,000 in round numbers. This affords a basis for a most striking parallel between past and present, or rather for a comparison of the one with the other, and draws attention to the fact that the outlay of the industry of this house, in its now existing form, has amounted, for wages alone, in one year to as much as £375,000. Indeed, in the "palmiest" days of their mighty yards, when Sir William Pearce, Bart., was sole proprietor, Messrs. Elder?s wages payments have risen to the vast figure of £23,000 in a single fortnight. In 1837 Mr. John Elliot joined the founders, and the firm became known as Randolph, Elliot & Co. In 1841 Mr. Elliot retired, and the business continued for a time in the hands of the original partners.
In 1852 an event took place which marked an epoch of the greatest moment in the history of this eminent concern. That event was the accession of Mr. John Elder to the co-partnership, resulting in the name of the firm being changed to Randolph, Elder & Co. Sixteen years later this co-partnery expired ; Messrs. Randolph & Cunliff retired, and Mr. Elder remained sole principal of the house till his death a few months afterwards, in September, 1869. Mr. John Elder was a native of Glasgow, where he was born in March 1824, and in the city of his birth he received, under his father's supervision, the education and training which so well fitted him for his subsequent career as a shipbuilder and engineer. His fame and celebrity in these two branches of industry have hardly had a parallel in modern times; and by his early death in 1869 the combined sciences he exemplified and developed in such a masterly manner, suffered a loss which, if not actually irreparable (for it would be idle to describe even the greatest of men as absolutely indispensable), was in the highest degree acute. After Mr. Elder's decease a new co-partnery was formed, embracing Messrs. John P. Ure, John K. L. Jamieson, and William Pearce, under the style of John Elder & Co., and by these gentlemen the process of development in the business which had been inaugurated and vigorously pushed forward by Mr. Elder, was continued and carried to a magnificent issue. In 1878 Mr. Ure and Mr. Jamieson retired from the firm, leaving Mr. (now Sir William) Pearce the sole proprietor.
Sir William Pearce was born in 1835 at Brompton, Kent, and has during the whole of his life assiduously devoted himself to the engineering profession and shipbuilding industry. In the latter he has had a thoroughly sound practical training, and has filled many eminently important managerial and surveying posts in connection therewith. From all this he has acquired a large and valuable fund of experience and practical resource, and these he has brought to bear in a spirit of admirable energy and enterprise upon the conduct of the great business of which he is now the president. In January, 1885, Mr. Richard Barnwell was taken in as a junior partner, and twelve months later the concern was constituted, for business purposes, a limited liability company, under the designation of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited.
The Fairfield works and yards are unique in their extent and magnitude of operation, and possess the advantage of having been planned and laid out in these later times with all the skill and judgment gained) in the long experience of former years. On entering the main gateway the immensity of the place, its buildings, its wondrous activity, its manifestly splendid facilities, and its obvious perfection in detail and generality, combine to produce a striking impression upon the visitor, and stamp the whole establishment at once as a veritable leviathan among all others of its kind. At the gateway is a large lodge, and here all who enter the premises must inscribe in the record provided for that purpose their names and the object of their visit. On the right, after passing the lodge, is the drawing office of the engine department. Passing on and keeping to the right, the general offices of the Company are reached, situate in a two-storey building, and comprising the private rooms of the principals, the main counting-house, and all incidental departments associated therewith. Here also is situate the drawing office of the shipbuilding department, measuring two hundred by fifty feet, and beautifully fitted up and arranged, having models of all the principal vessels built by the firm placed round and round on every side. In beauty of form and finish, and in minute accuracy of detail, these models are quite works of art, and are produced in a special model-makers? shop attached to the drawing office. Beyond the offices is the vast machine shed, covering an area of one thousand by one hundred and fifty feet ; and here also is the moulding loft, three hundred by fifty feet, and the brass foundry, of similar dimensions.
On the farther side of these buildings are the stocks, upon which there are, at the present time of writing, six or seven large steamers in process of building, two of them being belted cruisers for the British Government. There is also being completed a very large steam yacht for the private use of Sir William Pearce, and it is purposed that this shall be one of the most superb and stately crafts of its kind ever floated, every improvement that ingenuity can devise or industrial skill can accomplish being lavished on her construction. The yacht, when finished, will be a model in form, a marvel in speed, and a perfect desideratum in matters of comfort and elegance. Here, where the ships are built, the works have a frontage to the river of fully one thousand two hundred feet. During the building process the bows of the larger ships are almost in contact with the machine shed above referred to, where most of the heavy steel work is done, while their sterns are quite close to the river bank. At the west end of the stocks is a large and roomy tidal dock, wherein vessels are floated after being launched from the stocks ; and here they are fitted with their engines, and with all the thousand and one accessories that go to complete the equipment of a first-class ocean steamship of to-day. In the centre of the ground occupied by the yards and works stand three buildings. of especial magnitude. The middle one is the smithy, and to the east and west of it are the pattern and joiners' shops, and the engineering and boiler-making shops respectively. The latter department is one of the best and most complete in the world. It is three hundred feet long, three hundred feet wide, and fifty-nine feet high, and is substantially built of brick. The interior is simply marvellous in the wealth of its mechanical facilities, and is quite beyond description within the limits of this sketch. If the works in their collective entirety have been planned with skill, only a genius could have properly arranged the wondrous array of powerful and precise machines that here perform daily prodigies of industrial labour that would astound and silence many a preacher against the so-called "monopoly of machinery". Bending rolls, planing apparatus, drilling machines, huge punching machines, squeezers, shearers, and counter-sinkers, all of mighty power and giant size, work here with smoothness and perfect harmony, and perform their various operations with an accuracy and infallible precision that prove the perfection of their active principles and automatic efficacy. The whole plant is driven by two powerful steam engines. The smithy is three hundred feet by one hundred feet and has a hundred fires and a splendid equipment of steam-hammers of all sizes. The pattern-shop is the same size as the smithy, and has all the usual plant of the newest, quickest-working, and most effective description. The works and yards altogether cover an area of about seventy acres, an extent of ground not easily realisable from mere mention on paper, but perhaps better illustrated by the statement of the fact that it represents an expanse of more than half the dimensions of Glasgow Green. At present the Fairfield Company employ about three thousand hands, but in their busiest days, before the recent depression in the shipbuilding trade, they have afforded steady work for long periods to as many as seven thousand hands at a time.
It was the late Mr. John Elder who claimed to be the originator of the double-expansion engine, which has paved the way for the modem triple-expansion engine, now very largely manufactured by the present company, and admitted to be the perfection of the marine engine. Sir William Pearce has followed boldly and enterprisingly the path of progress traced out by his distinguished predecessor, and has pursued that course to the attainment, for himself and for his house, of a name and fame that are to-day a matter for national pride and a subject of universal renown. Since 1852 the entirety of the firm's output in tonnage and monetary value has been enormous, and this has been especially true of the period during which Sir William Pearce has been connected with the business. In seventeen years of that period the gross tonnage turned out from the Fairfield yards has been considerably in excess of 400,000 tons, representing an indicated horse-power of commensurate magnitude ; and of those seventeen years the greatest in point of achievement was 1883, when the out-turn was 40,115 tons gross, with a horse-power (indicated) of 56,995.
The great success of the firm under Sir William's auspices is simply the logical outcome of his spirited policy of administration, whereby every available improvement in process and operation has been engrafted upon the industry he controls. It is a "far cry" truly from the Comet of Henry Bell, the first steamer whose paddle-wheels churned the waters of the Clyde, to the lordly and magnificent Etruria, the last addition to the splendid Cunard fleet. It is recorded that the working capacity of the Comet represented the employment of the stupendous aggregate of three horse-power! and her size and tonnage were doubtless proportionate. Still she was a glorious archetype - an experiment full of the promise that has since become a fulfilment, and her trial trip in 1812 marked the dawn of a mighty revolution in the methods of the world?s navigation. The Etruria's tonnage, horse-power, and speed per hour are respectively 7,718 tons, 15,504 horse-power, and 20-18 knots, and she represents the latest, and as yet unchallenged, triumph of the Fairfield yards. Her latest passage across the Atlantic in six days one hour and forty-seven minutes, corrected time, has exceeded in speed all her competitors.
The contrast subsisting between the vessel of 1812 and the steamship of three-quarters of a century later indicates sufficiently the wondrous advancement of the intervening period. The epochs of change and development have been from paddle to propeller, from wood to iron, and latterly from iron to steel. It is more especially to vessels of the type of the modem "Atlantic greyhounds" that Sir William Pearce has devoted his time, thought, and energies, and by them he has established and will maintain his world-wide repute as a shipbuilder and an engineer.
The firm of the Fairfield Shipping and Engineering Company Limited, are almost continually building for the British Government, and have built for the Cunard Steamship Company, the British and African Company, National Line, North German Lloyd, Sir Donald Currie's Castle line, and have also constructed steamships of the highest power and capacity for the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Orient Steamship Company, and other notable concerns. At Fairfield the Stirling Castle was built, which vessel may be said to have made a complete revolution in the tea races from China. Here also was produced the Arizona and Alaska of the Guion Line, the former being the first fast steamer in the Atlantic trade, and the first vessel fitted with a built crank-shaft. The speedy paddle steamers of the Zeeland Shipping Company running between Flushing and Queenboro; the now famous Victoria and Empress, of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company between Dover and Calais ; the fleet of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company between Newhaven and Dieppe; and the Queen Victoria and Prince of Wales, of the Isle of Man, Liverpool and Manchester Steamship Company - the fastest paddle boats in the world, compassing the passage from Liverpool to Douglas, a distance of seventy-four knots, in three and a half hours - are all the product of the eminent firm to whom this sketch refers. Vessels from the Fairfield yards are to-day ploughing the ocean wave in every quarter of the globe.
Sir William Pearce is chairman of the Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company, and being member of Parliament for the thriving burgh of Govan, he is necessarily much in London. In his absence, however, he is ably represented by his capable colleague, Mr. Richard Barnwell, who has the chief management of the various departments at the works and yards, and who is well and favourably known in Govan and all over Glasgow. Sir William, too, is persona gratissima in the neighbourhood, and during the "hard times" that have recently prevailed has done much to alleviate the distressed condition of the industrious populace of his district. Everybody in Govan has a good word to say for the distinguished head of a house so closely associated with the industrial interests of the burgh, and in all the vicinity there is no one held in deeper or more worthy respect. Nor have his good works been confined to Govan, as witness the following. When the old college in High Street, dating from the time of Charles II., was being demolished for the extension of the College Railway Station, Sir William Pearce, in order to preserve a memento of this old-time and interesting seat of learning, had, at his own expense, all the stones of the central part of the ancient pile numbered and removed to the new college grounds on Gilmorehill. There they were re-erected at one of the entrances in the form of a lodge, and no more artistic piece of structural work of its kind exists in Glasgow today. It admirably exemplifies the quaint and massive style of the time in which the old college was built, and forms a most effective contrast to the more modern style of structure as designed by Sir Gilbert Scott for the New University.
We cannot close this brief notice of a world-renowned industry without a word of mention of the fine park given in perpetuity to the inhabitants of Govan by Mrs. John Elder, widow of the great shipbuilder. The park is admirably situated on the opposite side of the Govan Road from the Fairfield Works. It is very nicely laid out in all its parts, is spacious and excellently suited to purposes of popular resort, and fittingly bears the name and will perpetuate the memory of one who, amid all the responsibilities of active business life, never forgot the grand canon of humanity, that the happiness and contentment of the people is quite as much a factor in, as an outcome of, a nation's industrial and commercial prosperity.
QUELLEhttp://www.glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/1888_Book/Fairfield_Shipbuilding_&_Engineering_Co_Ltd.htm


ZEIT1895
THEMABeschreibung
TEXTThe first vessel constructed here was the Macgregor Laird, of 966 tons and 200 built for the African Royal Mail Co. The first four years' operations in shipbuilding were carried on in the yard now occupied by Messrs. Mackie and Thomson, Govan; but, owing to the increasing demands for space, the ground at Fairfield was acquired and laid oust in 1864. The first vessels built at Fairfield were four blockade runners for Messrs. A. Collie and Co., of London. Mr. Elder's great idea was to add to the efficiency of the marine engine by reducing friction of the parts, increasing the power, and at the same time decreasing the consumption of fuel. He applied the compound principle of expanding the steam in two cylinders.

From 1878 a great advance was made; boiler pressures had increased from 60 lbs: to 90 lbs. per square inch, coal consumption was reduced by nearly 30 per cent., and speed materially increased. The transatlantic service has always been regarded as indicating the progress made in shipbuilding, and in this contest the Fairfield Works have taken a prominent part. From the building of the Guion liner "Arizona" in 1879, they have never for any length of time held any other than the first place in speed across the Atlantic. The other vessels built here for the same line were the "Alaska," and "Oregon," the latter making the outward run in 6 days 10 hours 9 minutes. Their latest vessels built for the Cunard line, the "Campania" and "Lucania," have now reduced the out ward run to 5 days 7 hours 23 minutes and 5 days 8 hours 38 minutes homeward.

In addition to the Atlantic steamers built here, seventeen have been constructed for the North German Lloyd Co., of Bremen, and recently the twin-screw steamer "Normannia" for the Hamburg-American line. For the Orient line a number of splendid vessels have been built, including the "Orient," "Austral" and "Ormuz"; and most of those belonging to Sir Donald Currie's South African line, including the "Tantallon Castle," and the "Arundel Castle."

Several notable paddle-steamers have been constructed for the Isle of Man service from Liverpool, for the Channel service from Dover to Calais, including the "Calais-Douvres," for the Newhaven and Dieppe, the Ardrossan and Belfast, and the Queenborough and Flushing routes.

At present there arc three paddle-boats in course of construction for the night service of this last route, which will be considerably accelerated. Several yachts have been built here, notably the "Livadia" for the Emperor Nicholas of Russia from designs by Admiral Popoff; and three for the late Sir William Pearce, each named "Lady Torfrida." The total number of vessels constructed from 1870 to the end of 1894 was 237, their gross tonnage in the twenty-five years being over half a million.

Amongst the work now in construction here are the hulls and machinery of two second-class wood-sheathed protected cruisers "Venus" and "Diana" for the royal navy, each 5,600 tons displacement and 9,600 I.H.P.; also hulls and machinery of three torpedo-boat destroyers, "Handy," "Hart," and "Hunter," the speed of which is to be 27 knots; hulls and machinery of three fast paddle-steamers for the night service of the Queenborough and Flushing route, two screw-steamers for the China trade of the Scottish Oriental Steamship Co., a large mail steamer for the Australian service, and extensive overhaul to two steamers.

The new offices extend along the Govan and Renfrew Road, 335 feet westward from the main entrance to the yard, and are in the Italian style. The drawing offices are on the first floor, that of the shipbuilding department having a large model-room at its east end. On the second floor is a large space with glass roof fitted up for photographic purposes. At the east end of the buildings, adjoining the yard entrance, are the gate-house and weighing office, and the general entrance for clerks, whose offices are at the back of the building.

The most attractive room is the model-room, containing a number of interesting relics and many artistically finished models of the most notable vessels. Amongst the former are models of one or two frigates, the old Irish packets, and the turret ship " Hydra," built in 1871. The increase in size of ocean-going vessels is conspicuous in the models, which are nearly all made to inch scale, and have formed attractive features at various exhibitions, securing awards of merit, notably the Grand Prix of the Paris Exposition in 1889.

The works cover 50 acres, and comprise ship-yard, boiler works, engine works, and tidal basin. The shipbuilding department is under the management of Mr. Edmund Sharer; and, entering from the Govan Road, among the first places to attract attention are the large sheds in front of the slips, where all the principal work in connection with ship construction is done, excepting that carried on in the angle-iron smithy.

The brass-finishing and founding shops and smithy are on the east boundary of the road; here castings are made up to 15 tons, including propellers of manganese bronze. In this foundry there are seven pit fires and two reverberatory furnaces of 10 and 5 tons capacity. Amongst the tools are the usual bending and levelling rolls, some of large size; a large power bending- machine for plates of fiat keels, large angles, crease work, &c., bunching and shearing presses, small rolls for mast making, plate- edge planing machines, and a machine for cutting elliptical holes. The engine that drives the shop is placed at one end, and here is also a Brush machine for supplying the eighteen 2,000 candle-power lamps used in lighting this shop and the ships in progress.

In the machine-shed is a set of plate-bending rolls, constructed entirely of steel, the end frames and gearing being of cast steel and the rolls of forged steel, each drawn down from a single ingot; there are also four large lever double-punching and shearing machines, capable of punching 1.5-inch holes through 1.5-inch steel plates, and having a gap of 42 inches, as that plates up to 7 feet broad may have every hole punched in them. At present there are two planing machines, and a third is shortly to be added, each capable of taking plates up to 36 feet long.

A large hydraulic keel-plate bending machine has been supplied by Messrs. Hugh Smith and Co., Glasgow; all the working parts are of steel, and the weight, without engine, pumps, &c., is about 150 tons. The furnaces for bending the frames and plates, which are all of the Gorman kind, have been remodelled, and are now fired by gas-producing furnaces with most satisfactory results.

The engine works have a separate organisation from the yard, and are under the management of Mr. Andrew Laing. Recent improvements have been carried out by the extension and strengthening of the present wharf at the wet clock, and by the erection of a set of 130-ton sheerlegs in place of the former 80-ton sheers. A new boiler shop has been built, and large additions have been made to the machinery.

The main building, which is about 300 feet square, is divided into four bays, with two-storey galleries for small tools between each. The bay to the extreme west forms the erecting shop for machinery; in the two adjoining bays the numerous parts for marine engines are produced; and the remaining bay is used for boiler work.

Running parallel with the engine works at a distance of about 68 feet is a smithy, 300 feet long by 100 feet wide, having forty fires and eight steam-hammers, besides other tools of the usual kind. The intervening space provides additional room for boiler work. The new building is much higher than the old structure, so as to provide sufficient headroom for lifting the largest boiler above any other by means of the overhead crane. At a height of 43 feet 9 inches from the ground are longitudinal girders carried on columns, with rails for the 100-ton travelling crane.

Against the north gable of the boiler shop is a new flanging shed, containing Tweddell's hydraulic flanger supplied by Messrs. Fielding and Platt. This can work a flange 4 feet by 5 feet on a plate 1.5 inch thick, with 800 lbs. water pressure per square inch. The new machines in the engine works are so arranged that work entering from the flanging shed at the north end will pass in order to each successive machine, leaving the shop at the south end as a complete boiler, and passing thence on rails to the fitting-out basin.

In this department is a horizontal flange-drilling and countersinking machine, supplied by Messrs. Campbell and Hunter, which drills and countersinks the rivet holes of flanged plates at one setting, and can drill holes in furnace mouths from 2 feet 9 inches upwards. A 140-ton hydraulic riveter made here is used for shell-riveting, with a. special 40-ton crane erected overhead, by which the plates are suspended with the axis of the boiler vertical. The vertical plate-bending rolls, by Messrs. Thomas Shanks and Co., Johnstone, are capable of bending cold steel plates 1.5 inch thick and 12.5 feet wide. Another special machine in the new shop is one for drilling rivet- holes inside furnace-mouths, by Messrs. G. and A. Harvey, Govan.

The engine shop contains along with other numerous tools a planing machine, which will admit 8 feet square under the cross-slide, and will take a cut 20 feet long. Each of the bays is served by a travelling crane, two of which are rope-driven and were made by Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co.; the others were made on the works, and are driven by separate engines through steel wire-rope. There is a large treble-geared face-lathe, made in the works, which will turn 22 feet in diameter.

Next to this is a large machine, also made in the works, for surfacing heavy work, and consisting of a large annular chuck 161 feet diameter, carrying sixty cutters near the outer edge; it is worked by spur gearing, and the chuck can be traversed 21 feet. In this part are also a large screw-cutting lathe 41i feet in length, a large slotting machine, and a large shaft-lathe. A novel tool for planing piston-rings and pistons is also used, which was designed by the late Mr. Randolph. In this shop are six galleries in two tiers, where the smaller machine-tools are placed; and on one of the top galleries brass finishing is done.
QUELLE[Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1895) 502]