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The Electric Construction
Corporation
When the new Corporation was formed, it purchased
and amalgamated the following companies and their patents:
| 1).
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Elwell-Parker, Limited. Employing 400 people with
a large order-book. |
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2). |
The Electrical Power Storage Company Limited, and
their Millwall factory, together with the company's many
electrical power storage patents. |
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3). |
The Railway Electrical Contractors Limited, and
their patents and contracts for train lighting. |
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4). |
The Julien Patents for Electric Traction, the
Sprague Patents for Electrical Traction and the Transmission of
Power. |
The starting Capital of the Corporation was
£500,000 in 50,000 shares of £10 each. Numbers 1 to 100 inclusive
were Founder’s Shares. The new concern was incorporated on 7th
June, 1889, and it was decided to build a new works on the land
already purchased by Elwell-Parker at Bushbury, along with some
adjacent land. The new works were erected at a cost of £10,000 on
the 24.5 acre site. When the building work was complete, the staff
and machinery from Commercial Road were moved to the new site. On
16th June, 1890 the Commercial Road factory was sold to the Electric
Construction Corporation. Presumably the E.C.C. continued to use the
works for some time, as the factory remained in the company's
ownership until 12th March, 1895 when the buildings were sold to
Thomas Brotherton and Francis Simms.
A description of the new works appeared in the Midland
Counties Express, on Saturday, 9th August, 1890, part of
which is as follows: |
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The Electrical Works at Bushbury
Elwell-Parker machinery can be found in
every civilised country in the world, specially adapted to the
requirements of the transmission of power and electro-chemical
purposes. Elwell-Parker Limited is now part of a syndicate
called the Electric Construction Corporation. The business of
the firm recently assumed such immense proportions that it was
found necessary to acquire more commodious premises in which to
carry out the work of the concern.
Land was acquired in Showell Road,
Bushbury, and a new factory was built there. It is due to be
completed next month and will employ a large number of people.
There is one man above all others to whom the credit must be
given for introducing and developing this trade, and raising
Wolverhampton to a position of importance in the commercial
world, which this town would otherwise not have attained, but
for his skill and enterprise, and it is to Mr. Thomas Parker. |
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It was resolved in 1887 to erect new premises in
Bushbury, and a portion of the land was purchased for that purpose,
however, when the concern was taken over by the present company, the
Electric Construction Corporation, Limited, it was resolved to build
on the site first proposed but on a larger scale. Employment is
found in the present works for about 600 hands. Large orders are in
hand, and work assured which will fully occupy the new works, and it
is expected that 2,000 hands will soon be employed. In this concern
Mr. Parker holds the position of chief engineer and works director.
Honours have also been thrust upon him. In 1885 he was made a member
of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and in 1889 a member of
the Institute of Civil Engineers. |
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At the new works the machinery is bolted down
into the concrete foundation and upper columns carrying the roof
trusses have a specially designed head, which allows the
rainwater from the roof to flow down the columns to a drain at
the bottom. A siding from the L.N.W.R. is brought into the
works, and runs across the shops at the top end, so that the
electric overhead travelling cranes can deposit goods upon the
trucks for removal from one shop to another, or for sending them
away. There will be two 10 ton travelling cranes in a 45 ft. bay
and two identical ones in the foundry. The remaining five bays
of the main shop are fitted with 5 ton cranes worked in the same
way. The siding is also taken to the foundry cupolas and boiler
house. The office windows overlook the shops and yard and there
is an enquiry and a timekeeper’s office in-between the workmen’s
entrance and the main entrance, so that the timekeeper can see
everyone who enters or leaves the premises. There are two
waiting rooms for the offices, one for the works, and a
consulting room adjoining Mr. Parker’s office. There are three
large offices for the secretary, electrician and chief
draughtsman. There is a strong room lined with fire brick and
fitted with Chubbs’ patent fire and thief-proof door, which
opens from the secretary’s office.
There is a large board room, telephone room,
storeroom and typewriter room close to the clerk’s desk. There
is a photographic room for copying drawings, a pupil’s room,
which is entered from the works, separate lavatories, a cloak
room and a clerk’s dining room. The drawing office and clerk’s
office are each 32ft. by 34ft. 6 inches and are partly lit from
the roof. There is a corridor leading from the clerk’s office to
the works so that instructions can be given to workmen and
enquiries for drawings etc. can be made without disturbing the
main office. A covered passage also leads from the offices to
the warehouse. The engine house, which is 35ft. square and the
boiler house, which is 78ft. by 45ft are built on the east side
of the main shops.
The boiler house is 7ft. 9 inches below the
level of the main yard and contains seven Babcock and Wilcox
boilers. Projecting from this and under the yard are coal
bunkers with a siding passing over them so that coal can
immediately be shot-down to the level of the boilers. The
circular chimney stack is 120ft. high and 8ft. internal diameter
at the bottom, tapering to 6ft. 8 inches internal diameter at
the top, with a large moulded cast-iron cap. The laboratory, on
the left-hand side of the gateway into Showell Road measures
56ft. 6 inches by 20ft. and consists of chemical and physical
departments, separated by a glass screen. There is a small 20ft.
by 10ft. room which is used for rough work and the storage of
batteries. The laboratory has a number of porcelain sinks,
specially designed tables and fume closets.
The pattern shop and storeroom each measure
100ft. by 33ft. 6 inches and extend along Showell Road, just
above the laboratory, and have suitable workbenches for the
construction of patterns. The iron foundry measures 160ft. by
82ft. 2 inches and the brass foundry measures 62ft. 2inches by
40ft. They stand on the opposite side of the siding to the
pattern shop and are similarly constructed to the large shops,
with columns, girders and cranes etc. and have temporary ends so
that they can be extended if required. Three large drying stoves
are provided with specially designed furnaces and there are two
of Thwaite’s patent rapid cupolas with a lift and charging
platform, each capable of melting 5 tons per hour.
The blacksmith’s shop, built alongside the
iron foundry measures 84ft. by 30ft. and is designed for 12
forges, and the latrines and water tower and tank are built
between the main shops and the foundry. The water tank is 20ft.
6 inches above the ground and holds 35,700 gallons. Water is
pumped into it from the brook, which runs through the site. It
will be used for supplying the boilers, sinks, lavatories etc.
The mess rooms consist of two large dining
rooms, one 70ft. by 40ft. for men and another 40ft. by 30ft. for
women. In between is a kitchen, measuring 25ft. 3 inches by
32ft. 3 inches. It is fitted throughout by the Coalbrookdale
Company, with a large range and grill, vegetable steamers, and a
hot closet so that workpeople can bring their own food and have
it warmed-up. There are lavatories on each side of the entrance
and each person will have his or her own place and number with a
coat-hook.
The site occupies about 24 acres, with yards
paved in tarmac covering about 4.25 acres. The bricks for the
general work came from the Tibbington brickworks, the blue
bricks came from Hockley Hall Company and the facing bricks for
the offices and mess rooms were supplied by Messrs. Partridge
and Company of Kingswinford.
Over the main entrance to the offices is an
ornamental clock tower, with stone dressings. The pilaster and
moulded pediment over the entrance doors, and all exterior
stonework are executed with white Hollington stone. The office
roofing tiles were obtained from the Hockley Hall Company and
the other roofing tiles are of best Bangor slate. A large
proportion of the roofing area is glazed on the simplex system
and the main shops are paved with patent granitic flooring. The
laboratory floor is made of wooden blocks set on a concrete
foundation and the office corridors are laid with Ebner’s
Terrazzo Mosaic with a coloured glazed brick dado with moulded
capping four feet high. Most offices are heated by open
fireplaces, but the large drawing and clerk’s offices are warmed
by hot water on a low pressure system, the boiler being placed
in the basement in a separate room. The mess rooms are also
heated on the same system. The large shops will be heated by the
exhaust steam from the engines, carried in 4 inch pipes between
the columns. |
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| An attempt was made to make Thomas Parker a
director of the new concern6,
but this was defeated and he had to be content with the post of
Works Manager.
The Corporation got off to an excellent start under the
chairmanship of Sir Henry Mance. The works were operating at
full capacity and orders flooded in, including a further order
from the Birmingham tramways, following the successful running
of the Elwell-Parker prototype. In the battery-powered vehicles,
the accumulators were placed under the passenger's seats, and a
portion of the gross profit was absorbed in the settlement of
claims from passengers, whose clothing had been splashed by
acid.
Many of Thomas Parker's designs were ahead of
their time. In the 1880's a number of power stations were built
for electricity distribution. They all used D.C. because of the
difficulties involved in running A.C. generators (alternators),
in parallel. When a number of alternators are connected in
parallel, each one must be synchronised to the others, so that
all of the outputs are in phase. This was first achieved
experimentally by Dr. Hopkinson in 1886, but was not put into
practice until 1891. This is an essential requirement for modern
electricity distribution. The first two installations using this
technique were at Bournemouth, using Mordey alternators and at
West Brompton using Parker machines. Another year passed before
A.C. generation came into general use.
A newspaper cutting in Thomas's cuttings book includes the
following article about phosphorus production by electricity.
Unfortunately I don't know where the cutting came from.
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8th
June 1891
Phosphorus Making by Electricity.
In the late 19th century phosphorus
was used in several industries. It was used in matches,
in the production of saccharine, in weapons and as a
poison. It was usually produced by a labour-intensive
chemical means and so was relatively expensive to
manufacture, but this was all about to change.
Dr. Readmean of Edinburgh took out a
patent for producing the substance using electricity and
his patent was bought by the E.C.C. Mr. Thomas Parker
and Mr. A.E. Robinson, F.C.S. (E.E.C.’s chemist) began
experimenting with the process and took out a patent for
a revised process, early in 1890. The resulting process
worked extremely well and the E.C.C. built a phosphorus
works at Wednesfield by the side of the Birmingham
canal, near to the railway station.
The process operated on a small scale
using several electric furnaces, which were driven by a
triple-expansion marine steam engine, delivering 700
horse power. Steam was fed from three Babcock and
Wilcock’s boilers, which were fed with heated water to
reduce the cost of producing steam. The engine drove an
alternator that was 8ft in diameter and produced 400
units of electricity. Intense heat for the furnaces was
produced by powerful carbon arcs, a technique that was
invented by Thomas Parker to produce a small and compact
design.
The furnaces were 8ft. square and
each was fitted with a hopper at the top which allowed
phosphates and coke to be poured in without any heat
vapour escaping. The furnaces were air-tight and so no
smoke was generated and the whole of the ingredients,
except for a little slag, produced the phosphorus, which
was drawn from the furnace using a tapping principle,
similar to that used in a blast furnace. The resulting
liquid was passed through pipes and condensers, where
extremely pure phosphorus was deposited. It required a
minimal amount of refining and was formed into circular
cakes.
| The charge for the furnace was
carried in buckets and tipped into the hopper at the
top. It consisted of coke and an already calcined
mixture of Redonda stone and tar. Each furnace
operated from a single phase A.C. supply and was
constructed of firebricks mounted in a framework of
cast iron plates. The horizontal carbon electrodes
were 12" square and received 80KW through iron
connection forks. They were tamped everywhere with
carbon strip, ground coke and pitch.
Care had to be taken to ensure that there was
always enough material between the carbons to
maintain electrical contact. |
A Wednesfield furnace
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A
later type of furnace.
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A circular furnace was also built
which performed better and was more reliable. The
firebrick hearth was replaced by a gas carbon retort
strip and it had a vertical electrode. The hopper
was moved to one side to make way for the vertical
electrode. This became the standard design and
remained unchanged for some time. |
The production costs were far less than with any
other system and the process was so successful that
after several month’s production, plans were made to
enlarge the works. The patents and the works were
acquired by the Phosphorus Company Limited and it was
hoped that they would be able to produce 1,000 tons a
year, which amounted to half the world’s production. |
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| The phosphorus furnace became known as "The Wednesfield
Furnace" and appeared in many school textbooks. In the earlier
process, phosphorus was distilled in earthenware retorts and
handling these was extremely dangerous due to the fire hazard.
The Parker Robinson process eliminated this hazard, making the
manufacturing process much safer. The phosphorus was transported
from the works in 50lb. blocks placed in a tank of water. The
patents and the works were later sold to Albright and Wilson of
Oldbury for £16,000. Certain conditions were applied to the sale
including a guaranteed consumption of not more than 8 units of
electricity for every pound of phosphorus produced, and a
minimum yield of 75 per cent. At that time the measurement of
electric current was in its infancy and so it was difficult to
verify the consumption of the furnaces. Sir Alexander Kennedy,
an eminent engineer, was appointed as assessor and he brought in
the greatest electrical engineer of the day, Lord Kelvin. The
most accurate instrument at the time for measuring electric
current was the Kelvin balance and Lord Kelvin applied this
apparatus to the task in hand. The sale conditions were duly met
and the sale went ahead. The Wednesfield works continued in
operation for a further two years until a new factory was built
at Oldbury, which opened in 1893. The Wednesfield factory was
gradually shut down and production soon ceased.
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E.C.C. also developed an overhead-wire, tram
system, which was put to use in 1893 when the company
electrified the South Staffordshire Tramways and a little
while later the Hartlepool tramway. Thomas Parker laid-down
a section of tram-line at the works, which he hoped would be
largely copied in London for direct tram-driving. |
The South Staffordshire Tramways
generating station.
The following description of the tramway is from the Railway
Engineer, volume 14, number 1, January, 1893:
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The South Staffordshire Tramways have an aggregate
length of about 23 miles. They connect Darlaston,
Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Handsworth, Great Bridge,
Dudley Port, Dudley, Walsall, and Bloxwich with each
other, and last year 4,000,000 passengers were
carried.
About nine miles-viz., from Darlaston and Wednesbury to
the Pleck, thence to Walsall Bridge, where the line
again separates, one branch going to Bloxwich and the
other to Lichfield Road - has been fitted to work by
electricity upon the over-trolley wire system.
The installation has been carried out entirely by the
Electric Construction Corporation of Wolverhampton. The
sub-contractors for the cars were the Lancaster Carriage
and Wagon Co., and Brown, Marshalls & Co., for the
stationary engines and boilers of 150h.p. Messrs.
Musgrave & Son, of Bolton, and the posts to carry the
overhead wire were divided between Messrs. James Russell
& Sons and Messrs. John Russell & Co.
The motors are of the Elwell-Parker type. The posts are
placed at the side of the road, and the bracket arms
carrying the trolley wire stretch out over the road 7 to
10ft., but give a clear height of 21 ft. By a kind of
universal joint the collector is allowed a variation of
several feet, so that it is not necessary for the
trolley wire to be directly over the middle of the line.
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Another order was for an 800 ampere-hour battery, for the
Whitehall Court in London, and possibly the most important order
was for the electrification of the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
This was the earliest and only example of an elevated electric
railway in the country. The project was a great success, and in
1900 the company undertook the re-electrification of the City
and London Railway.
Read about the
Liverpool
Overhead Railway |
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Another important order was the planning and installation of
the Oxford Electric Company's Works, which was so successful
that it became known as "The Oxford System" of electrical
transmission. The E.C.C. specialised in direct current high
tension, and their "Oxford System" included a central generating
station, supplying 2,000 volts D.C. into sub-stations, where
motor-generators stepped the voltage down to 200 volts. The same
system using a central supply of 1,000 volts was used at
Birmingham, Charing Cross, Chelsea, Sydenham and Shoreditch.
| Read about some of Thomas
Parker's railway locomotives |
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Within four years the new company found itself in deep trouble
and was voluntarily wound up in July, 1893. It seems that there
was a lot of dissension amongst the Board of Directors, one of
whom was later convicted of fraud. It was immediately
reconstituted as the Electrical Construction Company under the
chairmanship of Sir Daniel Cooper.
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The E.C.C. works in about 1902.
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The Financial Times of 6th
July, 1893 mentions that the debenture holders and shareholders
agreed to reconstruct the Electric Construction Corporation into
the Electric Construction Company. The capital will be
written-down from £879,260 to £650,000 as the assets are now
considered to be less than was previously stated. The ordinary
shareholders will receive two £2 fully paid shares in the new
company for each fully-paid £10 share in the old Corporation.
Preference shareholders will receive five fully paid, seven
percent, cumulative preference shares of £2 each (£10), for each
£10 fully-paid seven percent cumulative preference share, of the
Corporation. Holders of Founder’s shares are to receive two £2
fully paid ordinary shares in the new company, for each £10
Founder’s share in the Corporation. It will be seen that the
heaviest loss falls on the ordinary shareholders, but the
apparent loss of capital makes no real difference, because the
£10 shares are barely re-saleable at 30s.
| The E.C.C. dynamo
at Cragside.
It is pure Thomas Parker,
looking just like an Elwell-Parker product.
Courtesy of Robin Wright,
Engineering Warden, Cragside. |
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The Electrical Power Storage Company, one of
the founder members of the Corporation was originally purchased
for £150,000 and later sold to the Foreign and Colonial Power
Storage Company for £75,000 in shares.
Sir Daniel Cooper was greatly disliked by Thomas Parker and
five of his senior staff from Elwell-Parker. They all resigned
within a year of Cooper's chairmanship, and at the first A.G.M.
in September, he referred to Thomas Parker in such a way that
suggested that there was no love lost between them. Thomas
Parker himself referred to the directors as "all that coterie,
about whom the less said the better".
Read about the
presentations
made to Thomas's senior
staff on their departure from
the E.E.C. |
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The Express & Star newspaper of 11th April, 1894, contains an
article about Thomas Parker's resignation from E.C.C. It
includes the following paragraph:
We understand that a new company will be promoted with Mr.
Parker as one of its members, for the carrying out of works of a
similar character in this district, which will be of such
dimensions as will add considerably to the manufacturing
interest of the neighbourhood.
Thomas's resignation was also reported in the May 1894 edition of
The Railway Engineer as follows:
Mr. Thomas Parker, M.Inst.C.E., who designed and carried out
the electrical plant and motors of the Liverpool Overhead Railway,
has resigned his position as works director to the Electrical
Construction Company, Ltd. Mr. Parker had entire charge of the works
at Wolverhampton since the formation of the Electrical Construction
Company. He has registered a new Company - Thomas Parker, Limited,
and has secured a very fine site for his works at Wolverhampton. We
are informed that Mr. A. B. Blackburn, M.lnst.C.E.
(lately with Messrs. Mather and Platt Ltd.), has been appointed to
the position vacated by Mr. Parker.
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Return to
the 1890s |
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Return to the beginning |
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Proceed to the
General Election |
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