Tyneside's Pioneers of Industry
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
TYNESIDE : WHERE MODERN TIMES BEGAN
The industrial revolution of the nineteenth century literally changed the world and paved the way for the astonishing technological developments in transport, communications and mass production which today we take so much for granted.
There is no doubt about which country this industrial revolution first occured - it was in Britain and more specifically in the northern part of England as all good scholars throughout the world will know. But here we may go further and say that there was one particularly small part of Northern England where so many early industrial developments took place that it could easily be described as the place `where modern times were born' we are of course talking about Tyneside.
The abundance of natural resources were what initially stimulated the growth of industry on Tyneside. Coal had been mined in the area since the fourteenth century and had directly stimulated the development of the world's earliest railways in the North East during the 1700s. Coal was also to play its part in the development of less obvious industries like chemicals. Alkali salts for example could be pumped out from the coal mines to be used in the production of glass and soap which were increasingly demanded by the growing population of industrial Tyneside.
But also significant for Tyneside was the local availability of iron ore which in conjunction with coal, provided the lifeblood for the giant nineteenth and early twentieth century industries of shipbuilding, locomotive engineering, civil engineering and armament manufacture.
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
INDUSTRIAL PIONEERS - MEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD
The expansion of such great industrial developments on Tyneside were only made possible by the investment and foresight of some of the greatest industrial pioneers the world as ever seen like George Stephenson, William Armstrong, Charles Parsons and Joseph Swan who were all Tynesiders by birth or adoption.
Some of these great industrial figures were great friends and would often meet to discuss their industrial and technological developments at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. One of the greatest local institutions of Victorian Britain the `Lit and Phil' still exists today as a private library with a very famous lecture hall. It was here at the Lit and Phil that Joseph Swan first demonstrated his electric light bulb and where George Stephenson first showed off the Miner's safety lamp which made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines thus ensuring that the industrial revolution on Tyneside would continue uninterrupted.
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
THE STEPHENSONS : GEORDIE AND ROBERT
Of all the great industrial pioneers of Tyneside George Stephenson (1781-1848) often referred to as the `Father of the Railways' is the most widely known. Stephenson was born at the village of Wylam on Tyne where his father was the engineman at the Wylam Colliery winding house. Aged fourteen Stephenson became an assistant to his father and later followed in his footsteps to become the engineman at Killingworth colliery to the north of Newcastle. It was here that Stephenson developed one of the earliest locomotives called the Blucher which ran on the Killingworth colliery railway in 1814. From the period 1814 to 1826 Stephenson was virtually the only man building and developing new locomotives - proof that he recognised that locomitives had not yet reached their full potential.
In 1819 Stephenson became involved in a project to build a railway for Hetton Colliery near Houghton le Spring in County Durham and here the colliery was worked by stationary engines and locomotives. This particular railway was in its time the largest in the world and served as a prototype for Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway of 1825 which was of course the world's first public railway.
In 1824 George Stephenson with his son Robert formed an engineering business and workshop in Forth Street Newcastle, specifically for the building of locomotives. A number were built culminating in the construction of Stephenson's most famous locomotive called the Rocket. This locomotive is famed for acheiving a world record speed of thirty six miles per hour at the famous Rainhill Trials held near Liverpool in 1829.
Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) was George's only son and played a very important part in many of the developments associated with his father including the construction of the `Rocket'. Robert is however better known for his work in the field of civil engineering. His best known achievements are the tubular bridges over the Menai Starits in Wales and over the St Lawrence River in Canada. Closer to home Robert constructed Royal Border Bridge near Berwick and of course Newcastle's own High Level Bridge.
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
WILLIAM ARMSTRONG - AN INDUSTRIAL GENIUS
If George Stephenson was primarily associated with steam engineering then William George Armstrong (1810-1900) by comparison was a `Jack of All Trades'. Armstrong was just as much a scientist as a scholar or an engineer but was also very much an enterprising industrialist with the advantage of an open enquiring mind as demonstrated by the following lines once quoted by the man himself;
"However high we climb in the pursuit of knowledgewe shall still see heights above us, and the more we extend our view, the more concious we shall be of the immensity which lies beyond."
Armstrong was born in the Shieldfield area of Newcastle on the 26 November 1810. His father was the proprietor of a corn merchants business on the Newcastle Quayside and had a strong interest in Natural History, Mathematics and was a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society.
Young William trained to be a solicitor and although he became a partner in a legal practice he had inherited similar interests to his father, particularly in the field of science and engineering. Armstrong gave knowledgeable lectures on these subjects at the Newcastle Lit and Phil and in 1842 he constructed a Hydro Electric generator. This was constructed with the knowledge gained following the accidental discovery of a discharge of static electricity from a colliery boiler by an engineman at a Northumberland coal mine.
Around 1846 Armstrong's interests shifted from Hydro Electricity to Hydraulics and he persuaded wealthy Newcastle men to back him in the development of hydraulic cranes for Newcastle which were powered with the assistance of the town's Whittle Dene Water Company. The scheme was such a great success that in 1847 Armstrong gave up his legal practice to establish the Newcastle Cranage company at Elswick which later became known as `Armstrong's Factory' as immortalised in the `Blaydon Races'
Following the Crimean War in the 1850s Armstrong became increasingly involved with the manufacture of armaments and his eighteen pound breach loadfing gun was one of many Armstrong weapons recognised as the best in the world. Such devices, often tested on the moors of Allendale, were ordered by armies and navies all over the the world from Russia and Japan to the United States. In fact Armstrong supplied both armies in the American Civil War.
From 1863 onward Armstrong became less and less involved in the day to day running of his company affairs and began to pursue other interests. He became particularly noted for his succesful pursuits in the field of landscape gardening. This was initially carried out in Newcastle's beautiful Jesmond Dene most of which he owned and where he had built a house for himself and his wife in the 1830s. Jesmond Dene was donated by Armstrong to the people of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1883.
The later years of Armstrong's life were spent in his magnificent parkland mansion of Cragside near Rothbury in Northumberland. Cragside was of course the first house in the world to be lit by Hydro Electric power
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons is another well known industrial pioneer of Tyneside. A son of the Third Earl of Rosse (a famous astronomer), Parsons, an adopted `Geordie' began his career as an apprentice to William Armstrong. Later he became a partner in the Tyneside firm of Clarke Chapman and it was here in 1884 that he developed the steam Turbine for the generation of electricty
The advantage of steam the Turbine engine was especially recognised for its potential use in the propulsion of ships. The first vessel to use such an engine was theTurbinia built by the Parson's Marine Steam Turbine Company at Wallsend in 1897. The vessel was put to the test in marine trials off Spithead in that year and acheived a record speed of 34 knots. Later ships to use the Parsons Turbine included the Wallsend built Mauretania of 1907, a liner which held the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic for twenty two years.
In terms of the history of shipping Charles Parson's Turbine plays an important part but it has an even greater place in history as one of the greatest steps forward in the development of electric power generators. When we consider that Power Stations using Parsons Turbines are still supplying heat, light and electic power to homes and industries throughout the world we can understand the justification for describing Parsons as `the man who invented twentieth Century.'
Read much more about the industrial history of the region in the Timeline
THE MAN WHO PERFECTED ELECTRIC LIGHTING
Another great industrial pioneer of Tyneside was Joseph Wilson Swan who was born in Sunderland on October 31st 1828 and began his career as an apprentice to a local chemist. In 1862 Swan moved to Gateshead and as a member of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophiocal Society he had a strong desire to research and experiment in the field of chemistry.
Some of Swan's earliest developments were in the field of photography where he perfected the carbon process of photographic printing and developed the rapid photographic plate. He also patented the first Bromide paper in 1879. His photographic developments were of immense importance as they turned photography into a practical passtime and greatly spurred on its popularity.
Swan is however better known for his development of the incandesscent filament electric lamp. This was the first practically usable electric light bulb and the first demonstration of this source of electric light was performed by Swan at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne on February 3rd 1879.
Swan's demonstration proved to be a success and at Benwell in the western subburbs of Newcastle he established the world's first electric light bulb factory. Later Swan went on to light up Mosley Street in Newcastle City Centre which became the first street in the world to be lit by electric light. By 1881Swan's light bulbs had arrived in London where 1,200 of them were used in the lighting the Savoy Theatre in front of an astonished audience. From the `Darkness' of the north, came light for London
Read much more about the North East's industrial history in the Timeline
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