Vulcan Iron Works
Encyclopedia
Since Vulcan
was the Roman god of fire and smithery, the name was an obvious choice for an iron foundry or mechanical engineering
works in the nineteenth century, both in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution
, and in the United States.
, numerous entrepreneurs independently founded factories named Vulcan Iron Works in England, notably that of Robinson Thwaites
and Edward Carbutt
at Bradford , and that of Thomas Clunes at Worcester, England.
was a spacious and handsome factory. It was described in Industries of Yorkshire as the largest of their kind in Bradford, and the centre and headquarters of an industry of magnificent dimensions and condition throughout. The works cover about four acres of ground... The buildings are all of stone, and the mechanical equipment could not be surpassed in efficacy at the present day, for it includes the latest and best improvements in all kinds of apparatus that can be advantageously brought to bear upon such an industry as that here engaged in. The working staff numbers about 200 men; and the perfection of order and system prevails in each and every department.
was founded in 1857 by Thomas Clunes (b. 1818, d. 28 September 1879). The firm started out as "Engineers, Millwrights, Iron & Brass Founders, Plumbers etc", according to the listing in Kelly's Directory
. The works had a single tall tapering square chimney, a covered area with open sides, and a handsome main building on a largely open site on the west side of the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
By 1861, Clunes, a former "Plumber and Brass Founder" from Aberdeen
, Scotland
living in St Martin's, Worcester, with nine children, was a "Master Engineer employing 104 men and 10 boys"; his son Robert at age 11 was an "Apprentice to Engineer". In 1861, Clunes was joined by two former railwaymen, McKenzie and Holland, and the firm moved into railway signalling
equipment. Clunes retired to Fowey, Cornwall, and his name was dropped from the company's name in the 1870s. The entry in the Worcestershire Post Office Directory for 1876 is simply "RAILWAY SIGNAL MANFRS. McKenzie & Holland, Vulcan Iron Works, Worcester."
produced ironwork for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
, as well as locomotives (see :Category:Vulcan Foundry locomotives).
Vulcan Iron Works, based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
, manufactured railroad locomotive
s such as those shown in the illustration. The company was established in 1849 by Richard Jones; was producing both steam and diesel locomotives, as illustrated (right) in 1944; produced locomotives such as the Berlin Mills Railway 7
in 1911; and ceased operation in 1954.
units (each weighing 25 tons or more) came out of Vulcan's shops between 1938 and 1954. Its largest unit was a 70-ton B-B unit built for Carnegie Steel Company
in 1944. It built the TCDD 56301 Class
for the Turkish State Railways
in 1947.
Vulcan also built a large number of gasoline powered locomotives with mechanical drives, such as the Maumelle Ordnance Works Locomotive 1 built in 1942.
. The factory occupied the block bounded by Fremont, Mission, Howard, and First Streets. The factory maintained the name through a number of owners building boilers, steam engines, mining machinery, sawmills, and some relatively primitive steam locomotives for 19th century California railroads. It built the Oregon Pony
in 1861. The factory was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
, but steel fabrication activities resumed on the site after the quake.
, South Carolina
in 1865.
and street railways on the Puget Sound
.
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
was the Roman god of fire and smithery, the name was an obvious choice for an iron foundry or mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
works in the nineteenth century, both in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, and in the United States.
England
During the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, numerous entrepreneurs independently founded factories named Vulcan Iron Works in England, notably that of Robinson Thwaites
Robinson Thwaites
Robinson Thwaites was a nineteenth century mechanical engineer and mill-owner in Bradford, Yorkshire. His father, Thomas Thwaites, was a master plumber...
and Edward Carbutt
Sir Edward Carbutt, 1st Baronet
Sir Edward Hamer Carbutt, 1st Baronet was an English mechanical engineer who was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Liberal politician....
at Bradford , and that of Thomas Clunes at Worcester, England.
Thwaites & Carbutt, Bradford
The Vulcan Works at Thornton Road, BradfordBradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
was a spacious and handsome factory. It was described in Industries of Yorkshire as the largest of their kind in Bradford, and the centre and headquarters of an industry of magnificent dimensions and condition throughout. The works cover about four acres of ground... The buildings are all of stone, and the mechanical equipment could not be surpassed in efficacy at the present day, for it includes the latest and best improvements in all kinds of apparatus that can be advantageously brought to bear upon such an industry as that here engaged in. The working staff numbers about 200 men; and the perfection of order and system prevails in each and every department.
McKenzie, Clunes & Holland, Worcester
The Vulcan Iron Works at Cromwell Street, WorcesterWorcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
was founded in 1857 by Thomas Clunes (b. 1818, d. 28 September 1879). The firm started out as "Engineers, Millwrights, Iron & Brass Founders, Plumbers etc", according to the listing in Kelly's Directory
Kelly's Directory
Kelly's Directory was a trade directory in the United Kingdom that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses of local gentry, landowners, charities, and other facilities. In effect, it was a Victorian version of today's...
. The works had a single tall tapering square chimney, a covered area with open sides, and a handsome main building on a largely open site on the west side of the Birmingham and Worcester Canal.
By 1861, Clunes, a former "Plumber and Brass Founder" from Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
living in St Martin's, Worcester, with nine children, was a "Master Engineer employing 104 men and 10 boys"; his son Robert at age 11 was an "Apprentice to Engineer". In 1861, Clunes was joined by two former railwaymen, McKenzie and Holland, and the firm moved into railway signalling
Railway signalling
Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...
equipment. Clunes retired to Fowey, Cornwall, and his name was dropped from the company's name in the 1870s. The entry in the Worcestershire Post Office Directory for 1876 is simply "RAILWAY SIGNAL MANFRS. McKenzie & Holland, Vulcan Iron Works, Worcester."
Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows
The Vulcan FoundryVulcan Foundry
Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...
produced ironwork for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
, as well as locomotives (see :Category:Vulcan Foundry locomotives).
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
, manufactured railroad locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s such as those shown in the illustration. The company was established in 1849 by Richard Jones; was producing both steam and diesel locomotives, as illustrated (right) in 1944; produced locomotives such as the Berlin Mills Railway 7
Berlin Mills Railway 7
Berlin Mills Railway 7 is a steam locomotive at Steamtown National Historic Site. It was built in 1911 by the Vulcan Iron Works for the Berlin Mills Railway, an industrial line in Berlin, New Hampshire. Number 7 worked there as a switcher until November of 1944, when it was sold to the Groveton...
in 1911; and ceased operation in 1954.
War-time service
In February 1944, before the 'D-Day' Normandy landings, the company claimed "Today, hundreds of Vulcan locomotives are rendering vitally important war-time service, both at home and overseas, and our shops are working at top speed to complete urgent orders for Army, Navy and defense plant requirements. Tomorrow, more and larger Vulcan locomotives will be available to help rebuild a war-torn world. Our manufacturing facilities are being enlarged and improved...".Locomotives
Vulcan produced its first internal combustion locomotive in the 1920s; a total of 54 diesel-electric switcherSwitcher
A switcher or shunter is a small railroad locomotive intended not for moving trains over long distances but rather for assembling trains ready for a road locomotive to take over, disassembling a train that has been...
units (each weighing 25 tons or more) came out of Vulcan's shops between 1938 and 1954. Its largest unit was a 70-ton B-B unit built for Carnegie Steel Company
Carnegie Steel Company
Carnegie Steel Company was a steel producing company created by Andrew Carnegie to manage business at his steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the late 19th century.-Creation:...
in 1944. It built the TCDD 56301 Class
TCDD 56301 Class
The Turkish State Railways 56301 Class is a class of 2-10-0 steam locomotives known as "Skyliners". They were built by Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. The 88 locomotives in this class were numbered 56301-88...
for the Turkish State Railways
Turkish State Railways
The State Railways of the Turkish Republic or TCDD is the government owned, national railway carrier in the Republic of Turkey, headquartered in Ankara...
in 1947.
Vulcan also built a large number of gasoline powered locomotives with mechanical drives, such as the Maumelle Ordnance Works Locomotive 1 built in 1942.
San Francisco
A Vulcan Iron Works was established at 135 Fremont Street, San Francisco in 1850 during the California gold rushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. The factory occupied the block bounded by Fremont, Mission, Howard, and First Streets. The factory maintained the name through a number of owners building boilers, steam engines, mining machinery, sawmills, and some relatively primitive steam locomotives for 19th century California railroads. It built the Oregon Pony
Oregon Pony
The Oregon Pony was the first steam locomotive to be built on the Pacific Coast and the first to be used in the Oregon Territory. The Oregon Pony, a geared steam 5' gauge locomotive with 9"X18" cylinders and 34" drivers, was used in the early 1860s to portage steamboat passengers and goods past...
in 1861. The factory was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, but steel fabrication activities resumed on the site after the quake.
Charleston
There was a Vulcan Iron Works on Cumberland Street, CharlestonCharleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
in 1865.
Seattle
The Vulcan Iron Works in Seattle had Jacob Furth as its president. Furth ran the Vulcan Iron Works along with the Puget Sound Electric RailwayPuget Sound Electric Railway
The Puget Sound Electric Railway was an interurban railway that ran between Tacoma and Seattle, Washington in the first quarter of the 20th century...
and street railways on the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
.