Society talk is very popular

THE topic for the November meeting of Sutton Bonington

Local History Society was ‘Brush - The man and his legacy’ by Hugh Griffiths. This was definitely local history and saw a significant increase in attendance, mainly by former employees of the various branches of the Brush Company.

Charles Francis Brush (1849-1929) was a talented American with antecedents from Nottinghamshire. He did well at school and by 1876 was building generators, experimenting with Arc lights and producing the first viable electric street lighting system, cheaper and better than gas , and installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

He sold the system around the world but it was eventually overtaken by the filament bulb and he sold the company to Thompson Houston.

He retired at the age of 41. He lived on millionaires’ row in Cleveland, in a mansion with a church organ, a laboratory and an enormous wind turbine in the garden. The neighbours must have been very forgiving.

He had an enquiring mind and suggested the existence of Gravity Waves before Einstein. He also established the Union Carbide Company and left $4.5 million dollars when he died.

The British branch of Brush had an office in Hatton Garden, London with a factory where the London Eye now stands. He provided lighting for the houses of Parliament and other notable buildings.

The business was profitable and the dividends generous. However costs in London, and the rates, were both high (does nothing change?) and the business moved to Loughborough when Brush took over Henry Hughes a manufacturer of locos, trams and carriages.

This site grew to 84 acres at its maximum, building turbines, generators, switch gear, control gear and fuses as well as locomotives. The last steam locomotive was built in 1912 but examples still exist at the museum on the Great Central Railway, Mountsorrel and on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. From 1912 to the present all the locomotives built have been either diesel or electric, with the 1000th loco being named Charles Francis Brush.

The works have changed over the years and the emphasis is now on electrical generation and control gear which can be found on trains, boats and power stations all over the world, including on the Queen Mary II. Parts have been sold off or transferred abroad and far fewer people work at the Loughborough factory now than 50 years ago. It has had many owners in recent years, Hawker Siddeley, FKI, BTR and currently Melrose. Rolling Stock is still modified and repaired/ rebuilt but now under the ownership of Wabtec who are the descendants of the early Brush American company. What goes round comes round. This was a well illustrated and entertaining talk.

The next talk is on Wednesday December 11, 7:30pm, at the Methodist School Rooms, Main Street, Sutton Bonington.

Peter Hammond will talk on Joseph Woolley:The Diary of a Framework Knitter.

This should be of interest to many as hardly anybody with roots in the East Midlands does not have a frame work knitting ancestor. All welcome.