Cornelius Whitehouse

Luckily for us Frederick William Hackwood, Wednesbury's late19th century historian wrote several articles chronicling Whitehouse's life. This short version is based on his article in the 1898 Ryders Annual, and his "Wednesbury Workshops" from 1889.

Cornelius Whitehouse was born in Oldbury on 22nd July, 1795. His father Edward became an expert sword maker, producing high quality swords at a time of high demand during the Napoleonic Wars. One day his products were inspected by a corrupt War Office inspector who said they were not up to standard. Edward lost his temper with the man and forced him to hold an approved sword at arm's length. He then cut the sword in two with a single blow from one of his own swords. From then on they were Government approved.

Cornelius and his brother worked for their father in his Birmingham workshop and became expert sword makers and gunsmiths in their own right. Cornelius became a recognised craftsman and was offered a job as a Government sword inspector, but turned it down.

After the Napoleonic Wars the demand for guns and swords fell and so the family moved to Wyrley where they worked for Gilpin, the edge tool maker. Four years later Cornelius moved to Wednesbury Forge to work for Edward Elwell making edge tools. He married Lucy Aston, the widow of Richmond Aston of Bescot Hall.

Cornelius Whitehouse.

While working at the forge his thoughts turned to tubes, and he began experimenting with new ways of producing them. At the time there was a great demand for gas pipes, which were made by an expensive and labour intensive process requiring very skilled workmen. Tubes were formed from an iron strip, or skelp, which was heated in small sections, a few inches at a time, in a conventional open hearth forge. After hammering each section into shape, each side of the seam was overlapped and hammered to form a weld. Many heatings were required for each length of tube which had a maximum length of 4 feet. The industry couldn’t keep up with the demand and so there was a lot of interest in increasing productivity and also reducing the manufacturing costs.

Cornelius's solution, developed in 1824 and 1825 consisted of heating the whole strip in one go, in a hollow fire of the type used by the edge tool makers at the forge. The strip was then shaped and welded in one operation by drawing it out of the furnace by a chain attached to a drawer bench, and passed through a pair of semi-circular dies. The process produced an accurately shaped tube with smooth inside and outside surfaces. It is believed that he first offered it to Edward Elwell who suggested that he should take it to James Russell. With Russell's help he took out a patent for the process which was granted on 26th February, 1825.

Russell agreed to employ Whitehouse and pay him the sum of £25 annually for 14 years, the life of the patent. He soon increased the sum to £50 when Whitehouse assigned the patent rights to him.

The new tubes were twice as long and half the price of the older ones, and could withstand a higher pressure. Russell built a new factory at a cost of £14,000 and invented a way of screwing tubes together. Large numbers of tubes were produced, but success came at a price. From 1830 until 1845 Russell was constantly in litigation with rival manufacturers who tried to infringe his patent. By 1838 the legal expenses amounted to approximately £4,000.

The new revolutionary process was seen as a threat by the traditional tube makers and Russell and Whitehouse went in fear of their lives. On one occasion Whitehouse even shot at the legs of a gang of men who were about to attack his house.

In 1842 he took out a patent for an improved process with one of Russell's sons; Thomas Henry Russell. Unfortunately Whitehouse had a disagreement with one of the sons which resulted in him leaving the company.

From then on he entered into a number of unsuccessful business ventures. The first, in partnership with a Mr. Chubb was a tube making factory at Globe Works, Wednesbury Bridge. In 1845 he took out another patent, this time for the construction of welding and hammering machines for the manufacture of tubes and gun barrels. Unfortunately the business at Globe Works was not successful and resulted in Whitehouse loosing much of his capital. He then went into partnership with Edwin Dixon who had a tube factory at Monmore Green. Although the partnership lasted for 20 years it was not financially successful.

Whitehouse's final venture, in a holloware manufacturing business at Birmingham ended prematurely in 1863 when a workman was crushed by a falling piston.

Whitehouse died on 7th August 1883. Although he had no children, two of his nephews worked in tube manufacturing. They both worked for him at Russells and at Monmore Green, and one of them John Brotherton founded Brotherton Tubes at the Imperial Tube Works in Wolverhampton and later became the town's mayor. The other, Thomas Pritchard founded the South Staffordshire Tube Works at Wednesbury.