Robinson Thwaites (1807 – 22 October 1884) was a nineteenth-century mechanical engineer and mill-owner in Bradford, Yorkshire. His companies included at different times Robinson Thwaites and Co, Thwaites and Carbutt and Thwaites Brothers.

Companies

Robinson Thwaites' father Thomas was a master plumber. Robinson trained as a plumber to follow in his father's business, and started to practice as a plumber. But instead, by 1848 he founded the

Vulcan Iron Works Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several iron foundries in both England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular n ...

at Bradford, as shown in an 1858 lithograph in the Illustrated Commerce Guide. His firm, Robinson Thwaites and Co, later (1862) in partnership with

Edward Carbutt Sir Edward Hamer Carbutt, 1st Baronet (22 July 1838 – 8 October 1905) was an English mechanical engineer and a Liberal politician. He served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Biography Carbutt was the youngest son of ...

as Thwaites and Carbutt, and (in 1880) Thwaites Brothers, acquired a high reputation for its machinery used in the production and manufacture of iron and

Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation ...

steel. Robinson Thwaites and Co grew from a firm of "3 seniors, 50 men and 6 boys" in 1851 to "130 men and 13 boys" (as Thwaites and Carbutt) by 1871. Thwaites Brothers continued in production until at least 1914.

Products and patents

In 1862, Thwaites and Carbutt exhibited a selection of machine tools at the

London Exhibition London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a maj ...

. These included a seven hundredweight double-action self-acting

steam hammer A steam hammer, also called a drop hammer, is an industrial power hammer driven by steam that is used for tasks such as shaping forgings and driving piles. Typically the hammer is attached to a piston that slides within a fixed cylinder, but ...

; a four hundredweight double-action single standard hammer; a pillar radial drilling machine; a six-inch centre slide and screw cutting lathe; a "very powerful" planing machine; and a ten-inch centre double-geared slide

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to ...

. In 1866, Thwaites and Carbutt Vulcan Works manufactured three locomotives "of 0-6-0 type" for Boulton. In 1869, Thwaites and Carbutt supplied the engines for a reversing rolling mill at Landore steel works. In 1877 Thwaites and Carbutt supplied a rolling mill engine (see illustration) for the

Eston Eston is a Village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. The ward covering the area (as well as Lackenby, Lazenby and Wilton) had a population of 7,005 at the 2011 census. It is part of Greater Eston, which i ...

Ironworks of

Bolckow Vaughan Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramatic growth of Middlesbrough and the prod ...

and Co. It had a 36-inch (91.44 cm) bore, and a 54-inch (137.16 cm) stroke.Grace's Guide, Thwaites and Carbutt of Vulcan Works, Thornton Road, Bradford http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Thwaites_and_Carbutt That same year, the firm produced a coke crusher to prepare carbon for ironmaking. The pioneering engineering work of Thwaites and his partners is evident from the numerous patents they took out. One was for improvements to steam hammers. Another patent, taken out by Robinson's son William Henry Thwaites in 1877 with help from

was for mine ventilation equipment, as installed at Chilton Colliery (see illustration). The Roots ventilator had two 25 foot diameter rotary pistons, each 13 foot wide. They were driven by a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

whose cylinders had a 28-inch diameter and a 48-inch stroke. The firm exhibited an "air blowing machine" at the St Petersburg Exhibition of New and Improved Mechanisms, Devices and Tools in 1875, alongside a similar one by Roots. In 1891,

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

published "illustrations of a Thwaites suspension pneumatic power 1/2 cwt. hammer of a new design, for planishing pipes and plates, for which we are indebted to ''Engineering'' agazine. The machine could deliver "500 blows per minute". In 1893, the foundry at the

Consett Iron Works The Consett Iron Company Ltd was an industrial business based in the Consett area of County Durham in the United Kingdom. The company owned coal mines and limestone quarries, and manufactured iron and steel. It was registered on 4 April 1864 a ...

was using a Roots blower made by Thwaites Brothers. File:Thwaites and Carbutt 1877 Rolling Mill Engine for Bolckow Vaughan's Cleveland Steel Works, Eston.jpg, Thwaites and Carbutt Rolling Mill for

's Eston Ironworks, 1877 File:Thwaites and Carbutt Mine Ventilator, The Engineer June 15, 1877.jpg, Thwaites and Carbutt Mine Ventilator, 1877

Family firm

William Henry Thwaites, Engineer of Bradford

Thwaites' work as a mechanical engineer was continued by three of his sons, Thomas Hirst Thwaites, Arthur Hirst Thwaites, and Edward Hirst Thwaites, all of whom became engineers in the firm. A fourth son who also worked at the Vulcan Iron Works, William Henry Thwaites, married Mary Ann Stuttard of Colne, Lancashire on 23 October 1879, but died in 1882 aged 32. From being purely a family firm, Thwaites Brothers had a professional managing director by 1895, Arthur Devonshire Ellis. Thwaites Brothers were still in business as Engineers in 1914, continuing to make steam hammers, "Roots' blowers" (to ventilate mines) and assorted foundry equipment.Grace's Guide: Thwaites Brothers
sourced from 1914 Whitakers Red Book. Retrieved 1 April 2012. Thwaites' eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth Thwaites, married the Chief Clerk to

Bow Street Magistrates' Court Bow Street Magistrates' Court became one of the most famous magistrates' court in England. Over its 266-year existence it occupied various buildings on Bow Street in Central London, immediately north-east of Covent Garden. It closed in 2006 and ...

, John Alexander.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thwaites, Robinson 1807 births 1884 deaths English inventors Industrial machine manufacturers English mechanical engineers Mining equipment companies British ironmasters Businesspeople from Bradford