United States or Lesotho ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The first Order came from Rushton and Eckersley of Bolton, who, by the way, had seen the first copy of my original design a few years before. The steam hammer I made for them was more powerful than my own. The hammer block was of five tons weight, and had a clear fall of five feet. It gave every satisfaction, and the fame of its performances went abroad amongst the ironworkers.
I noticed that there was a vast superiority in the soil on the north-west side of the hills; but saw none equal in richness to the five-mile patch at Mount Eckersley. The steep sides of a part of the valley of the Wannon, however, a few miles to the eastward of the Sugarloaf, are very fertile, and being clothed with patches of woodland, form extremely pretty scenery.
A wide-spread depression affected all conditions of industry Although I wrote to the heads of all the great firms, urging the importance of my invention, and forwarding designs of my steam hammer, I was unable to obtain a single order. Rushton and Eckersley, Bolton Ironworks; Messrs. Howard and Ravenhill, Rotherhithe Ironworks, London; Messrs.
They were much pleased, and I may add astonished, at its range, power, and docility. Besides showing them my own steam hammer, I took the deputation to the extensive works of Messrs. Rushton and Eckersley, where they saw one of my five-ton hammer-block steam hammers in full action. It was hammering out some wrought-iron forgings of the largest class, as well as working upon smaller forgings.
Thus he wrote and sent illustrative sketches of his hammer to Accramans and Morgan of Bristol, to the late Benjamin Hick and Rushton and Eckersley of Bolton, to Howard and Ravenhill of Rotherhithe, and other firms; but unhappily bad times for the iron trade had set in; and although all to whom he communicated his design were much struck with its simplicity and obvious advantages, the answer usually given was "We have not orders enough to keep in work the forge-hammers we already have, and we do not desire at present to add any new ones, however improved."
This was also the case near a hill just beyond it, called Mount Eckersley. where I saw Sir Thomas Mitchell's initials cut in a tree at the time when he explored this country, and found to his surprise that Mr. Henty had a station in Portland Bay. With the exception of the flats near the Crawford, twenty miles from the Fitzroy, the road lies through a poor country, until it approaches Mr.
Word Of The Day