Robinson Thwaites

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.[1]

But instead, by 1848 he founded the Vulcan Iron Works at Bradford, as shown in an 1858 lithograph in the Illustrated Commerce Guide.[2] His firm, Robinson Thwaites and Co, later (1862) in partnership with Edward Carbutt 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 steel.[3]

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.[4] Thwaites Brothers continued in production until at least 1914.[5]

In 1862, Thwaites and Carbutt exhibited a selection of machine tools at the London Exhibition. These included a seven hundredweight double-action self-acting steam hammer; 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.[6]

In 1866, Thwaites and Carbutt Vulcan Works manufactured three locomotives "of 0-6-0 type" for Boulton.[7]

In 1869, Thwaites and Carbutt supplied the engines for a reversing rolling mill at Landore steel works.[8]

In 1877 Thwaites and Carbutt supplied a rolling mill engine (see illustration) for the Eston Ironworks of Bolckow Vaughan and Co. It had a 36-inch (91.44 cm) bore, and a 54-inch (137.16 cm) stroke.[9] That same year, the firm produced a coke crusher to prepare carbon for ironmaking.[10]

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.[11][12]

Another patent, taken out by Robinson's son William Henry Thwaites in 1877 with help from Edward Carbutt was for mine ventilation equipment, as installed at Chilton Colliery (see illustration).[13] The Roots ventilator had two 25 foot diameter rotary pistons, each 13 foot wide. They were driven by a steam engine whose cylinders had a 28-inch diameter and a 48-inch stroke.[9][14] 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.[15]

In 1891, Scientific American 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 [magazine]". The machine could deliver "500 blows per minute".[16]

In 1893, the foundry at the Consett Iron Works was using a Roots blower made by Thwaites Brothers.[17]

• 
  Thwaites and Carbutt Rolling Mill for Bolckow Vaughan's Eston Ironworks, 1877
• 
  Thwaites and Carbutt Mine Ventilator, 1877

Ambrotype of William Henry Thwaites, c. 1875

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,[18] but died in 1882 aged 32.

From being purely a family firm, Thwaites Brothers had a professional managing director by 1895, Arthur Devonshire Ellis.[19]

Thwaites Brothers were still in business as Engineers in 1914, continuing to make steam hammers, "Roots' blowers" (to ventilate mines) and assorted foundry equipment.[20]

Thwaites' eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth Thwaites, married the Chief Clerk to Bow Street Magistrates' Court, John Alexander.