F. H. Faulding & Co was a pharmaceutical company founded in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, Australia, in 1845 by Francis Hardey Faulding (23 August 1816 – 19 November 1868), a native of

Swinefleet Swinefleet is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south-east of the town of Goole on the A161 road from Goole to Crowle. It lies on the south bank of the River Ouse. According to ...

, near

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

in Yorkshire, son of Francis Faulding, a surgeon.A. F. Scammell
'Faulding, Francis Hardey (1816–1868)'
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, 1972, pp 159–160.

History

Francis Hardey Faulding arrived in Sydney on the ''Nabob'' in February 1842,F. H. Faulding
South Australian Medical Heritage Society Inc, www.samhs.org.au in the midst of an economic slump. He travelled on the brig ''Dorset'' to

in May, where he weathered the slump, and opened a pharmacy at 5

Rundle Street Rundle Street, often referred to as "Rundle Street East" as distinct from Rundle Mall, is a street in the East End of the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs from Pulteney Street to East Terrace, where it becomes Ru ...

on 9 May 1845. Around this time he had an assistant,

Joseph Bosisto Joseph Bosisto CMG, MLA JP (21 March 1827 – 8 November 1898), was a chemist and politician in colonial Victoria, Australia. Background Bosisto was the son of William Bosisto and Maria (née Lazenby), of Cookham, Berkshire, and was born on 2 ...

, who left for

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 1851, where he famously explored the commercial value of

eucalyptus oil Eucalyptus oil is the generic name for distilled oil from the leaves of ''Eucalyptus'', a genus of the plant family Myrtaceae, mostly native to Australia but cultivated worldwide. Eucalyptus oil has a history of wide application, as a pharmace ...

s as an antiseptic, and was elected MLA for

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in 1874. The pharmacy flourished, so he purchased a warehouse in Clarence Place in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and transferred the manufacturing and wholesale arms of the business there.An Adelaide Firm's Diamond Jubilee
''The Advertiser'' 2 April 1906 p.9 accessed 30 January 2011 In 1861 he entered into partnership with Luther Scammell (1826–1910). Scammell, also a Yorkshireman, received medical training at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

F. H. Faulding & Co. Manifold Activities
''The Advertiser'' 24 February 1923 p.10 accessed 30 January 2011 and arrived in Adelaide in 1849 to practice in the Burra mines, then subsequently set up business in

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

. Luther Scammell (1826–1910) married Lavinia Annette Bean ( –1904) in 1856 *William Joseph Scammell (1856–1928) married Catherine Matilda Samuel in 1889. An AEI student, he managed factory and warehouse in Sydney. *Luther Robert Scammell (1858–1940) married Elizabeth Alice Gray in 1888. *Lavinia Mary Scammell (1859–1915) *Henry Scammell (1860–1860) *Francis George Scammell (1861–1927) married Mary Alice Hannah Shannon in 1890. :Their daughters Mary Gwendoline ("Gwen", born 1893) and Ethelwyn Scammell (born 1897) were prominent musicians *Alfred Faulding Scammell (1863–1886) married Alice Mary Boswood Samuel (died 1944) in 1885 *Charles Balantyne Thomas Scammell (1864–1880) *Frederick James Stephenson Scammell (1864– ) *Ernest Arthur Scammell (1865–1946) married Minnie Elvira Fayers (died 1955) in 1904. *Annette Emily Scammell (1866– ) *Florence Euphemia Scammell (1868–1950) married Alfred Corker Minchin in 1888. *Sydney Taunton Scammell (1876– ) Faulding had numerous other interests: In 1847 he was one of the founders of the

South Australian Institute The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research li ...

(another was business competitor William Bickford (1815–1850)). On 16 December 1864 he was elected councillor for the Hindmarsh ward of the

Adelaide City Council The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council, is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia. It is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...

. He was a director of the

Bank of Adelaide The Bank of Adelaide was an Australian bank founded in 1865 in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was incorporated by an act of the Parliament of South Australia. The original directors of the company were Henry Ayers Sir Hen ...

and trustee of the

Savings Bank of South Australia The Savings Bank of South Australia was a bank founded in the colony of South Australia in 1848, based in Adelaide. In the early 20th century it established a presence in schools by setting up a special category of savings accounts for schoolch ...

. He was also an active member of the South Australian Free Rifle Corps. On 16 September 1852 he married Eliza Macgeorge at her home "Urr Brae" later "Urrbrae", the famous home of

Peter Waite Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

. (His sister Eliza (1824 – 2 February 1907) married Thomas Waterhouse a week previously.) In 1857 they left the residence on Stephens Place corner of North Terrace for an extended stay in England. He died without issue in 1868, aged 52 at his mansion "Wooton Lea" near

Glen Osmond Glen Osmond is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Burnside which is in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills. It is well known for the road intersection on the western side of the suburb, where the South Eastern Freeway (National ...

. On 1 December 1869 the widowed Eliza Faulding married family friend Anthony Forster but they divorced six years later. Scammell became sole owner on the founder's death in 1868. He immediately appointed Philip Dakers as the company's London buyer, and in 1876 built a prominent warehouse in King William Street later expanding to James Place which became the front office address. He was forced to retire in 1889 when the Bank of Adelaide threatened foreclosure after a series of failed mining and pastoral speculations.Peter Donovan
Scammell, Luther Robert (1858–1940)
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, pp 182–183. Accessed 30 January 2011 Two of his sons, Luther Robert Scammell FCS LSA (20 March 1858 – 8 April 1940) and William J. Scammell (26 October 1856 – 19 April 1928) acquired the manufacturing and wholesaling operations, and the business name, in 1888; the retail shops were sold to John White to reduce the debt to the bank. Scammell Snr. was also involved in politics and, with

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

and Sir Samuel Davenport, was a pioneer of South Australia's

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

industry, producing its first oil in 1864. The company expanded under the two brothers. In 1890 they founded a branch in rented premises in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, and from 1894 under the management of Walter Wesley Garner, it thrived and expanded, later setting up a warehouse and laboratory in Murray Street. A Sydney branch was founded in 1899 in O'Connell Street under J. P. Gold, and in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

under J. P. F. Gwynne. Later W. J. Scammell took charge and a factory was built in Redfern. Alfred F. Scammell & R. G. Scammell (sons of L. R. Scammell), and Rupert Boswood Scammell & George Vance Scammell (born 1903) (sons of W. J. Scammell), became directors of the company, the latter two at the Sydney branch. The former two moved to Sydney in 1911. In June 1921 Faulding & Co. became a private company, with L. R. Scammell as chairman and managing director. He continued to run the firm's affairs until 1935. Day-to-day management then passed to his elder son Alfred, but Luther remained chairman of directors until his death in 1940. In 1971 Faulding's purchased Jasol Chemical Products, an Adelaide manufacturer of unsophisticated but effective and popular sterilising and cleaning agents. Dr. Ed Tweddell was appointed managing director in 1988 and entered into a joint venture with

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

to develop new drugs under

Keating government The Keating government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Paul Keating of the Australian Labor Party from 1991 to 1996. The government followed on from the Hawke government after Paul Keating replaced Bob ...

's "Factor f" scheme, and later the Pharmaceutical Industry Investment Program. In 1999, Fauldings were promised $40 million in federal funding over five years in return for industry development. Faulding Pharmaceuticals expanded its northern hemisphere operations and in 2001 the Mayne Nickless group (as Mayne Pharma) took over the company, whereupon Tweddell resigned from the board. Mayne Pharma was bought out in 2007 by the US

Hospira Hospira was an American global pharmaceutical and medical device company with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois. It had approximately 19,000 employees. Before its acquisition by Pfizer, Hospira was the world's largest producer of generic in ...

conglomerate, which in turn was acquired by

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...

in 2015. Despite initially announcing plans to invest in the manufacturing facility at Thebarton in 2016, in February 2017 the corporation announced its intention to close it by the end of 2021.

Manufacturing and laboratory facilities

Two of the Faulding company's major innovations were a process for distillation of

, and a test for determining the eucalyptol content of the oil. Faulding's success was founded on eucalyptus oil, which formed the basis of an antiseptic marketed as "Solyptol" (for soluble eucalyptus oil). The test became the industry standard, and the

British Pharmacopoeia The ''British Pharmacopoeia'' (''BP'') is the national pharmacopoeia of the United Kingdom. It is an annually published collection of quality standards for medicinal substances in the UK, which is used by individuals and organisations involve ...

standard method in 1898. Other well-known products were Milk Emulsion (a pleasant alternative to cod-liver oil), Solyptol Soap, (which won a gold medal at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908), Solyptol disinfectant, junket tablets, cordials,

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the ...

s for perfumery and reagents such as

Epsom salts Epsomite, Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, is a hydrous magnesium sulfate mineral with formula . Physical properties Epsomite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system. The normal form is as massive encrustations, while acicula ...

, most produced in its factory in

Thebarton Thebarton ( ), formerly Theberton, on Kaurna land, is an inner-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of West Torrens. The suburb is bounded by the River Torrens to the north, Port Road and Bonython Park to the east, Kintore St ...

on the land once occupied by Bean Brothers' tannery. In 1962 Fauldings were listed as having factories and laboratories in the area bounded by Holland St, Winwood St, Reid St and Beans Rd (now Dew St.), Thebarton. Faulding Laboratories(GN15036).jpg Faulding Laboratories(GN15038).jpg Faulding Laboratories(GN15037).jpg Faulding's Laboratory (GN15034).jpg Faulding's Laboratory (GN15035).jpg

''Faulding's Journal''

From 1906 to 1919, a monthly magazine ''Faulding's Journal'' was published covering a similar range of topics to today's ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a popular science magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organ ...

''. The editor was journalist W. J. P. Giddings.

X-ray experiments

In 1896,

Samuel Barbour Samuel Barbour (1860 – 3 June 1938) was an Australian chemist, photographer and X-ray pioneer in the colony of South Australia. In Australia, the medical men of the day took a slow approach in the adoption of the new science that involved X-ray ...

, Faulding's chief chemist, and W. T. Rowe, who had studied at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

under Sir William Bragg, experimented with an

X-ray tube An X-ray tube is a vacuum tube that converts electrical input power into X-rays. The availability of this controllable source of X-rays created the field of radiography, the imaging of partly opaque objects with penetrating radiation. In contras ...

brought back from England by Barbour. The first results were rather modest as the

induction coil An induction coil or "spark coil" ( archaically known as an inductorium or Ruhmkorff coil after Heinrich Rühmkorff) is a type of transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current (DC) supply. p.98 To create the ...

used was only capable of a two-inch spark (around 50kV). Much higher energies were achieved when they borrowed a twelve-inch spark unit (around 190kV) from

Sir Charles Todd Sir Charles Todd (7 July 1826 – 29 January 1910) worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory 1841–1847 and the Cambridge University observatory from 1847 to 1854. He then worked on telegraphy and undersea cables until engaged by the govern ...

. Rowe ran the X-ray clinic for Fauldings in 1896 and 1897 when Barbour sold the unit to Sir

Joseph Verco Sir Joseph Cooke Verco (1 August 1851 – 26 July 1933) was an Australian physician and conchologist. Early years Verco, born at Fullarton, South Australia, was a son of James Crabb Verco. Both his parents came from Cornwall, UK. He was educ ...

Dental, veterinary and scientific products

Faulding acted as manufacturers' agents for such equipment as dental appliances and chairs as well as stocking hundreds of thousands of artificial teeth. They also sold a wide range of scientific glassware and laboratory equipment.

Bibliography

*''A Century of Medical Progress 1845–1945'' F. H. Faulding & Co. Ltd, Adelaide 1945 *Camel, L. R. ''A History of F. H. Faulding & Co. Ltd'' 1931 *Donovan, Peter; Tweddell, Ed ''The Faulding Formula. A History of F. H. Faulding & Co. Ltd.'' Wakefield Press, South Australia 1995

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faulding, F. H. Pharmaceutical companies of Australia Pharmaceutical companies established in 1845 Manufacturing companies based in Adelaide History of Adelaide