Title
Photographs - Machine Tools made by Sharp Stewart & Co. Manchester
Reference
YA2002.29
Production date
01-01-1855 - 31-12-1865
Creator
- Sharp Stewart & Co LtdBiographyBiography
In 1811 the firm Sharp, Greenleaves & Co had premises in New York Street with a Warehouse at Oxford Street Wharf in Manchester. c.1822 the Sharp offered Richard Roberts a partnership and the firm became Sharp, Roberts & Company, Engineers, Globe Works, Faulkner Street. In 1825 Roberts invented the self-acting spinning mule, and by 1833 the company's first locomotive was built for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
In 1843 Richard Roberts left and the firm became Sharp Bros. In 1852 John Sharp who was the senior partner of Sharp Bros. retired and Charles Patrick Stewart took over. The name of the company was consequently changed to Sharp, Stewart & Company, becoming a limited company in 1864.
Throughout the 1850’s – 1880’s, Sharp Stewart made locomotives, but also continued to make machines, tools and carry out foundry work. The company soon needed bigger premises as orders for locomotives increased significantly and the lease on their Atlas works site in Manchester was due to expire. By 1887 the Clyde Locomotive Company was for sale and Sharp Stewart decided to move its business to Glasgow where wages and rates were lower than in Manchester and where they would also have access to sidings and docks at the site of the Clyde Locomotive Works. Walter Neilson sold the Clyde Locomotive Company to Sharp Stewart who renamed the works the Atlas Works after their old premises in Manchester.
The move to Glasgow was completed by 1888 and within a short period of time, work in Glasgow began to exceed production levels Sharp Stewart had been achieving in Manchester. Orders for locomotives came in from all over the world, predominately from Asia, South Africa & South America, as well as the domestic market and industry.
When the company became part of the North British Locomotive Company in 1903, Sharp Stewart & Co Ltd employed 2000 people and was producing on average 150 locomotives per year. By this time Sharp, Stewart had produced over 5000 locomotives. The works retained the name Atlas Works at amalgamation.
Scope and Content
Each photograph is a professionally taken shot of one machine tool manufactured by Sharp, Stewart & Co of Manchester, whose name can clearly be seen on the machine. Embossed stamps on some of the prints show that at least some (and probably all) the photographs were in the possession of Henry Chapman, Engineer based in Paris. There are two addresses stamped on the prints, 27 Boulevart Des Italiens and 41 Boulevart Malesherbes. The photographs may have been taken by Sharp Stewart and sent on to Chapman to be used as promotional material. There is a handwritten listing of the machines (in French) which appears to be date from the same time as the photographs.
14 items.
Extent
0.25 linear metres
Language
English, French
Archival history
The photographic prints were purchased from a German auction house and have no provenance. The photographs date from about 1860. Embossed stamps on some of the prints show that at least some (and probably all) the photographs were in the possession of Henry Chapman, engineers, of Paris. The photographs may have been either taken by this company or been sent to them by Sharp Stewart as promotional material.
Level of description
TOP
Repository name
Science and Industry Museum
Associated people and organisations
- Sharp Stewart & Company
- Henry ChapmanBiographyBiography
Engineer active in Paris between 1858 and 1908 he was an Agent for Sharp Stewart & Co of Manchester before becoming a consultant engineer.
Henry Chapman was born on 14th March 1835 in Dieppe, France, where is father, George Chapman, was the long-serving British Vice-Consul.
He was educated at a private school at Lewes, where his skill in mathematics emerged, which drew him to choose a career in engineering.
At the age of seventeen he began a five years' apprenticeship in the works of Sharp, Stewart and Co., locomotive engineers, of Manchester, and went through all the departments. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship in 1857 he was chosen to represent the firm in Paris.
In 1858 he established a business as a consulting engineer, continuing to represent Sharp, Stewart, as well as other firms of machine-tool makers and general engineers. Many of the Continental railway companies employed him to provide designs and specifications for rolling-stock, and occasionally for bridges.
His obituaries credited him with introducing new inventions into France and other countries, including Tweddell's system of applying hydraulic power to machine tools.
Chapman was one of the promoters and a director of the Hull Hydraulic Power Co., predecessor of the London and Liverpool companies, of which he was also a director, and later the chairman. He was, too, the chairman of the Hydraulic Engineering Co., of Chester.
Chapman took an active part in the Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation, which was organized when the British Parliament first made employers responsible for accidents. He was a director, and in later years vice-chairman.
Chapman became a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1866. He was first elected to the Council in 1878, and continued until 1880; he was re-elected in 1899, and in 1907 became a Vice-president. He contributed a Paper in 1881 on "The Farquhar Filtering Apparatus." Chapman also served as honorary local secretary for the Iron and Steel Institute in 1889, taking a leading role in the Paris Exhibitions.
In 1878 France honoured Chapman with the title Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and he was promoted to the rank of Officer in 1889. He was a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of the Institution of Naval Architects, and a life Member of the Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France.
Henry Chapman 18th October 1908, at the age of seventy-four.
Subject
Conditions governing access
Open access.
Conditions governing Reproduction
Copies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions.
Related Archives
Engineering drawings from Sharp Stewart & Co., Dubs & Co. and Neilson & Co.YMS0299Collection of engravings, photographs and prints relating to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, including photographs of Sharp, Stewart locomotives.YA1983.9Collection of documents relating to Bury & Tottington District Railway Co. and to Sharp, Stewart & Co.YA1986.76/MS0323North British Locomotive Co. Ltd. Drawings. Includes general arrangement drawings by Sharp, Steward & Co.1962-132