Cast iron you can bend double – and other manufacturing marvels
Post-war products of the Black Country
HERE we have a selection from the 1949 booklet Made in Oldbury, published by the town’s Local Employment Committee to boost the profile of local firms as the economy tried to get back to a new normal after the Second World War. Our thanks to Ian Bott for loaning us his copy.
It features many lost firms, and provides a fascinating glimpse of the industrial scene of the times. Here we’ve taken a look at three of the firms featured, beginning with Shotton Brothers Ltd. Under the heading Cast Iron You Can Bend Double, the booklet tells us:
“To most people, cast iron is brittle stuff which will break easily. But that was before Shotton Bros. got hold of it. From their works today stream castings which can be hammered until they bend double – but they will not break.
“Founded in Smethwick just over fifty years ago, Shotton Bros moved to Oldbury in 1916. They were one of the pioneers of the blackheart malleable casting, and are today in the forefront from the point of view of quality.
“Blackheart castings give a material which can be machined easily and at high speed. The more technically-minded may be interested to know that it involves working to very fine tolerances, both in the structure of the iron used –where limits go as close as plus or minus .03 per cent – and in the annealing process, where the castings pass through the latest continuous type of furnace under close laboratory control for from seven to nine days.
“During the annealing, the iron carbide is broken down, freeing the carbon in the form of nodular graphite, and the finished material has a structure composed of pure iron and nodular graphite, with qualities somewhere between wrought iron and steel.
“Shotton Bros. are carrying out extensive alterations and enlargements which will give a large increase both in capacity and numbers employed.
“A second 15-ton rotary furnace is being installed, and a conveyor system has taken out much of the old manual handling. Little of the output is exported directly, but indirect exports account for 80 per cent of production.
“The castings made are for commercial vehicles and cars, pit props for mining, flexible pipe joints, and for general engineering machinery.
“All castings are checked by gauges and templates or formed-up in die blocks before despatch to ensure that they are interchangeable in the machining jigs used by customers for repetition machining methods.”
Next up are London Works (Barlows) Ltd., under the heading Steel which speeds Production ... “The title deeds for the London Works date back to 1821, but the name by which they have been known has varied down the years.
“Originally the Ebenezer Ironworks, they were later better known as ‘Split the Liquor,’ supposedly from the custom of the men frying their breakfast bacon in a communal pan and then dividing the ‘liquor’ or fat. The name ‘London Works’ was brought from Smethwick in 1893.
“Today, the work comprises the re-rolling of steel only in a variety of qualities and to a large range of sections, such as rounds, squares, flats, T’s, hexagons, angles, etc.
“Angles for bedstead mattress frames are among the leading lines, and these are manipulated for the bedstead makers by bending, punching, slotting, etc. The plant, equipment and the staff were all put to good use in the production of the framework for Anderson shelters long before many manufacturers had prepared plans.
“Free cutting steel has been a speciality for more than thirty years, and black bars are supplied to the ‘bring-drawing’ industry.
“Much research work has resulted
The works was known as ‘Split the Liquor’, after the custom of frying breakfast in a communal pan
in the production of a class of steel specially suitable for the speeding up of automatic machines turning out component parts for motor cars, motor cycles, cycles, cotton spinning plant, etc. Some black bars are shipped abroad direct, but most of the output, by far, leaves the country as finished goods for which the London Works product has been the raw material.
“The output is at the rate of 2,000 tons per week, with a value of £2,000,000 a year.”
And finally, Reynolds Rolling Mills Ltd., whose heading was ‘Cheaper Now Than Pre-war’ ...
“Shortage of steel has hit many local factories, but for one of the newer Oldbury industries it has been the big opportunity.
“When Reynolds Rolling Mills opened at Broadwell Works in 1937, the market for aluminium was comparatively small; then came huge expansion to meet the demand for aircraft and munitions during the war.
“Now that aluminium and its alloys are available for general purposes, the advantages of it are becming more generally recognised. Users are attracted by its freedom from rusting, its light weight, and its attractive appearance. It is the only metal which is now cheaper than it was before the war.
“There are very few branches of industry where aluminium has not yet been established. In building for instance, corrugated aluminium is easier to erect and does not need painting. In transport, wherever goods have to be taken from place to place aluminium has cut out dead weight and put up the payload.
“In shipbuilding, it is now extensively used. Marine engineers have in the past been faced by the big problem of top weight; by using aluminium and aluminium alloys for super-structures, this top weight has been considerably reduced.
“Altogether, aluminium has a very bright future, and Reynolds Rolling Mills, of the new company in the Tube Investments group known as TI Aluminium Ltd., is certain to play a very important part in the industry’s expansion.
“Reynolds Rolling Mills now provide a range of TI aluminium alloys in the form of sheet, strip, corrugated sheet, circles and special types of finish to meet the requirements of industry where lightness, strength and non-rusting qualities are essential, and appearance is an asset.”