Title
File of loose price lists
Reference
2021-1665/4/3
Production date
1878 - 1912
Creator
- David Moseley & SonsBiographyBiography
Established in 1833, David Moseley & Sons of Manchester manufactured a range of india rubber and gutta percha goods. The company is notable as one of the first in Britain to be involved in telecommunications.
In November 1877 Charles Moseley recruited the engineer William Fereday Bottomley, who had worked for the Magnetic and Indo-European Telegraph Companies. The company began providing private telephone services to local customers as a telephone agent. Wishing to connect his premises on Dantzig Street and Shudehill by telephone, hardware merchant Thomas Hudson became the first customer.
The next step for David Moseley & Sons was to become telephone manufacturers. Alexander Marr joined the company as head of the construction department, patenting a granular carbon transmitter in 1879. The company began supplying apparatus to the Post Office, railway and private companies. Marr soon developed another granular carbon transmitter especially for the transmission of opera, which was used in Manchester theatres in 1880 to 1881.
In 1880, Charles Moseley, William Bottomley and William Edwin Heys (local consulting engineer and electrician), patented a system for erecting telephone wires, called the ‘twist’ system, which was designed ‘to diminish or prevent the results of inductive action’. Although the patent was never enforced (Professor Hughes having previously described the same principle), the ‘twist’ system was adopted universally in Britain. Moseley patented another three types of telephone apparatus in 1881 and 1882. As well as in-house designs, the company also made telephone equipment under licence, such as the Gower-Bell wall telephone.
David Moseley & Sons advertised plans to open a telephone exchange at its offices and warehouse in New Brown Street. The business received a licence in August of that year, but by October the Lancashire & Cheshire Telephonic Exchange had bought the licence to head off its competitor. Moseley & Sons continued to trade as telephone constructor and erector until around 1890, but by 1897 its entry in the Manchester street directory no longer listed these activities.
The Moseley company maintained its original business of manufacturing india rubber and gutta percha, branching out into plastic products.
David Moseley & Sons moved to the Chapelfield Works in Ardwick in 1845, and kept a warehouse in New Brown Street. From 1906 to 1961 there was also a separate waterproof clothing factory on Dolphin Street in Ardwick.
In 1964 David Moseley & Sons was taken over by Avon Rubber and was renamed Avon-Moseley in 1968. In 1981, economic recession led Avon Rubber to rationalise its operations, and the Avon-Moseley factory was closed.
- F Reddaway & CoBiographyBiography
Originally established in 1874 as F Reddaway, the company changed its name to F Reddaway & Co in 1892, following a merger with Kerr & Jubb of Halifax and an issue of public stock. The company manufactured machine belting, canvas hose and india rubber goods and, from around 1899, was famous for its Camel Brand belting. From 1914, the company also manufactured rubber hosing. By 1961, F Reddaway & Co was listed in Dun & Bradstreet's Key British Enterprises as belting and hose manufacturers, specialising in camel hair power transmission belting, rubber and textile conveyor belting and high pressure hydraulic hoses.
Scope and Content
Loose price lists and other trade literature removed from the front of the bound volume catalogued at 2021-1665/4/2.
The items include:
1 F Reddaway & Co illustrated and descriptive price list, 1878.
2 B Birnbaum & Son price list of single texture tweeds, 1890.
3 B Birnbaum & Son price list, 1890.
4 The Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd leaflet for patent pneumatic vehicle tyres, c 1890.
5 The India Rubber, Gutta Percha & Telegraph Works Co notice of reduction in prices, 20 November 1891.
6 The Byrne Bros India Rubber Company wholesale price list, April 1895.
7 Fold out leaflet showing women's dusters, c 1895.
8 Rossendale Belting Company, Glossop price list for hair belting (2 copies), c 1895.
9 Handwritten price list for yarn, July 1912.
Extent
9 items
Physical description
Fair. The leather binding has discoloration and deterioration of the leather, and the front cover is coming loose at the top edge of the spine. The inserted price lists have torn edges, creases, surface dirt. Some of the inserted sections have worked loose from the binding. Some items protrude from the edge of the volume.
Language
English
Level of description
FILE
Repository name
Science and Industry Museum
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.