Thomas Firth & Sons

[nabs]

following recommendations on this forum to get a copy of Sheffield Steel by KC Barraclough I noticed that some of the pictures were from a promotional leaflet produced by Thos Firth and Sons, and this led me to this high quality scan on archive.org.

In case you have not seen it, the leaflet contains dozens of additional photographs (undated, around 1900 according to Barraclough):

https://archive.org/stream/thosfirthson ... 8/mode/2up

 

[AndyT]

Seconded!

Some more sample pics here

sheffield-steel-thomas-firth-1900-t76848.html

 

[nabs]

doh! sorry andy I must have missed that one - I should have searched here first

in case this adds a bit of colour to the pictures (forgive the pun), one of the things I found when digging about following my reading of 'Sheffield Steel' was this court case from 1884, where the owner of the famous Leufsta mine in Dannemora, Sweden - the fabulously titled Baron Louis de Geer - objected when Brades and co tried to register a trademark using de Geer's 'hoop L' leufsta trademark.

Brades, in their defence, pointed they had been routinely sourcing cheaper Swedish bar-iron with which to make their blister steel, only to grind off the 2nd quality trademark from the bars (the stamps survived the cementation process) and then replacing it with a Leufsta stamp in order to increase the resale value. Their argument was that this was okay since they had been doing it for at least 50 years and knew of at least 30 other business doing the same!

Anyhow the court proceedings say that de Geer granted Firth and Sons sole import rights for the no1. quality Leufta iron in 1880 (before that the right belonged to William Jessop and sons)

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NEt ... th&f=false

(copy here in case you can't see it https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_6WZ ... lVhSHVaZ3M)

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Thanks chaps - I've just lost an hour browzing all that!

Comparing early 1900s technology with today's, it's truly amazing what was achieved with very basic tools and equipment, and a LOT of muscle power and sheer skill.

------

By the way, for those concerned with the steel in their tools, Mr Barraclough's book has an interesting photo of a circular issued by Daniel Doncaster and Sons about 1880, showing the 'recipes' for the three main grades of cast steel. The three grades listed are Number 1, for saw files etc, giving steel having a carbon content of 1.5%. Number 2 is for tool steel for turning etc, having 1.16% carbon, and number 3 is for saws, table knives etc having carbon content of 0.75%.

It did cause me a wry smile that 1880's saws were of about 0.75% carbon steel. There does seem to be a modern belief that nothing less than 1% (AISI/SAE 1095) will do, and that Flinn's - who use modern CS80 (AISI/SAE 1080) only make rubbish (they don't, by the way), but surviving 19th and early 20th century saws are all wonderful!

 

[nabs]

Here is another one that might interest to steel fans (I did bother to check this time and I don't think it has been shared already!)

a black and white silent film taken at Edgar Allen in 1939 (apologies I think it is may not be viewable outside of the UK). Lots of interesting processes shown, including welding of blister steel to make sheer steel; teeming of crucible steel and the use of an electric crucible.

Keep on going so as not to miss the 500 ton press and also a bit later (around 15 mins) the hair raising use of something called a Tropenaz steel convertor.


https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wat ... play-film=

 

[AndyT]

Great stuff, but it makes me feel tired watching it - the sheer hard graft of those jobs!

And don't worry about going over old ground - there's always something new or forgotten to enjoy.