Supply – Philip Hamlyn Williams

Tag: Supply

3 Posts

The story of American steel making begins in the wake of the Civil War. A number of academics take a start date of 1867 which coincides with the dramatic increase in US territory with the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Steel making though was to focus on the Commonwealth of Philadelphia where there were plentiful […]

Steel

I wrote in Vehicles to Vaccines about the passage of the steel industry since 1951 and how successive governments had attempted to make it more competitive. With the announcement of the closure of two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, I wanted to look again at this historically vital industry.I looked up some numbers. UK steel […]

Who else shaped the Manufacturing World – German steel

In Britain, the relatively large scale production of steel probably began in the mid eighteenth century with the discovery by Huntsman of a process for making crucible steel. This was some seventy years head of Germany and thrived on high quality Swedish ore. German steel making would become synonymous with the name Krupp and in […]

Who else shaped the Manufacturing World – The American System of Manufacturing

Continuing my quest to discover who else shaped the manufacturing world, not unreasonably, I turn to America. The image is of my mother and father together with the president of Chrysler at their WW2 tank factory which surely epitomised the American System of Manufacturing. You can read more of this by following this link. An […]

Derby and the Museum of Making

The city of Derby is a home of British engineering and of probably the first textile factory at the Silk Mill. This has been repurposed to tell Derby’s story. The image is of the mill with thanks to the museum. The Museum of Making takes the visitor through the astonishing array of manufacturing activity carried […]

Sales of British manufacturers to foreign purchasers.

In Vehicles to Vaccines I tell the story of how Britain went from exporting more vehicles than any other country in 1951 to having now a pharmaceutical industry that is up there with other world leaders. Between all this there are the tales of who came and who went. Who was bought and who withered […]

Overseas exhibitors at the Great Exhibition

Continuing my attempt to address the question of who else shaped the manufacturing world, I draw on a series of papers given to the Society of Arts in 1852 reflecting upon the Great Exhibition. One such had as its focus machines for working in metal and wood. The author looks first at what I suspect […]

Who else shaped the manufacturing world?

I was challenged by the reviewer in the Historian Magazine that How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World didn’t say much about other countries. I could counter by saying that my book’s title implied this. However, her point is important and I am undertaking some explorations to discover what was going on elsewhere. My starting point, […]

Linoleum

Tiles, wood, parquet, woven carpets and floorcloth were the most likely options for domestic flooring until the invention in 1860 by Mancunian Frederick Walton of the material that would become the world’s most popular floor covering until vinyl took its place a century later, essentially on the grounds of cost. The story as related by […]

Building products manufacturers

The British have a long and proud history of manufacturing products for building: cement, bricks, tiles; just thing of Rugby Portland, London Brick and Marley, but equally Blue Circle, Butterley Brick and Redland. We can add Pilkington Float Glass, MK electric plugs and sockets and much more. These companies worked long and hard to help […]