Showing posts with label Engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Engineering. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 May 2025
Armstrong Products
Armstrongs produced a huge range of machinery at Elswick, including hydraulic engines, battleships, tankers, naval guns. tanks, field guns, small arms, shells, railway locos, railcars, motor cars & steam rollers! I hadn't realised until I glanced through Images of England - Newcastle West End by Ray Marshall & the Chronicle that they also built under contract a large number of Aveling-Barford steam road rollers, complete with Kentish white horse rampant on the smokebox:
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Learning & Enlightenment
Appendix 1 of the 1996 book Northumbrian Panorama indicates how learning spread in northern England in the 1800s:
The general population of NE England had very limited formal education before the late 1940s, but from the 1600s basic literacy spread through chapbooks, broadsheets & political pamphlets - Newcastle could be seen as second only to London. Lit & Phils were subscription-based private clubs & libraries for the up & coming merchant class and their leading engineers - expanding scientific & engineering knowledge alongside classics, languages, literature, etc. From the early 1800s self-funded Mechanics Institutes brought interchange of theoretical & practical learning to many developing engineers.
The earliest Institutes would have been established to spread knowledge of geology, mining, chemistry & metals, later railways, shipbuilding & shipping. It's easy to see that Middlesbrough (Ironopolis) developed massively alongside its Institute; South Shields' Marine School followed its Institute (while its public library took over the Institute building), Gateshead developed railway knowledge, while Newcastle covered every aspect of commerce & industry. I imagine that the other towns listed developed similarly, although I'm unsure why the Carlisle Institute was established so early compared to its railway centre (canals?).
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| The table shows Mechanics Institutes springing up across towns & cities. |
The earliest Institutes would have been established to spread knowledge of geology, mining, chemistry & metals, later railways, shipbuilding & shipping. It's easy to see that Middlesbrough (Ironopolis) developed massively alongside its Institute; South Shields' Marine School followed its Institute (while its public library took over the Institute building), Gateshead developed railway knowledge, while Newcastle covered every aspect of commerce & industry. I imagine that the other towns listed developed similarly, although I'm unsure why the Carlisle Institute was established so early compared to its railway centre (canals?).
Further reading:
Friday, 8 November 2024
The Last Ships
A blog post at the end of 2021 featured photos by Chris Killip, in particular the exhibition The Last Ships at the Laing Art Gallery. I'd recommend visiting this free exhibition of photos of the final tankers being built at Swan Hunter, showing Tyneside heavy industry & its workers 50 years ago.
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| Propellor being fitted to the Everett F Wells c1976 at Swans. with Hawthorn Leslie on the far bank |
Monday, 6 June 2022
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
Monday, 21 September 2020
Minor Railway Construction
The photos below are courtesy of Neville Whaler:
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| Contractors' trains at Andrews House c1988, while sorting materials - plant: Sambron forklift, Beamish crane, Derwenthaugh flats, Jones crane, Husky, welder on Shields pier bogie, Westoe wire waggon |
Monday, 14 September 2020
Monday, 6 July 2020
Saturday, 27 June 2020
Beamish Crane in Use
A 5 ton Smith rail-mounted crane was stored by Beamish at TR for many years, during which time it was used for several engineering jobs before we got a larger crane & Beamish collected theirs.
The photos below are courtesy of Ian Cowan:
The photos below are courtesy of Ian Cowan:
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| Philip steaming the crane in MH yard - no sign of sheds or shops |
Friday, 26 June 2020
Newcastle's Medieval Bridge
There have always been ferry crossings on the lower reaches of the Tyne, but with their need to move supplies & forces north across the river while integrating with port facilities, the Romans built Pons Aelius (the Aelian bridge). The site of this bridge has been reused over the millennia, but the one which lasted the longest was the medieval stone bridge completed in 1250. It wasn't the best built bridge, nor the best maintained, but it carried local trade & international commerce & travel for over 500 years. Its Georgian successor lasted less than a century.
Sunday, 17 May 2020
Doxfords
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| William (1812-1882) & Hannah Doxford with daughters c1840 |
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Saturday, 11 April 2020
Houghwell Burn Bridge
The photos below are courtesy of Derek & Andrew Knott:
After removing the rotten deck & original cast iron beams, the first reinstatement of Houghwell Burn Bridge by the Tanfield Railway took place during 1992.
After removing the rotten deck & original cast iron beams, the first reinstatement of Houghwell Burn Bridge by the Tanfield Railway took place during 1992.
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| Tommy Shield ready ..... |
