The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. After initial problems, the company was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom. The company prospered through its development and production of a new short-range and short-barrelled naval cannon, the carronade. The company was one of the largest iron works in Europe through the 19th century. After 223 years, the company became insolvent in 1982 and was later acquired by the Franke Corporation, being rebranded Carron Phoenix.
Clocktower entrance to the Carron WorksFragment of the first blast furnace in the clocktower of the Carron WorksCylinder fragment of Watt's first operational steam engine at the Carron Works
The factory of "Roebuck, Garbett and Cadells" was established on the north bank of Carron Water, two miles north of Falkirk. Taking iron ore from Bo'ness and water from the Carron, they decided to use the new method pioneered by Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale, using coke from coal mines in the vicinity as fuel rather than the usual charcoal.[3][4] The works helped to push other less technologically advanced ironworks, such as the Wealden iron industry based in the Weald, out of business.
Cadell's young son, also William, was appointed manager, and the company's financial position was precarious in its first few years. It took time and a considerable investment to create the necessary infrastructure and for the largely unskilled workforce to develop the techniques of iron working. The first blast furnace became operational on 26 December 1760, producing pig iron. However, when the factory started to produce cast iron goods, they were of a generally poor quality. Nevertheless, in 1764, the Board of Ordnance granted the company a lucrative contract to supply armaments to the British armed forces. The company also cast parts for James Watt's steam engine in 1765.[5]
The company's fortunes had begun to improve as a result of Charles Gascoigne becoming a partner in 1765. Gascoigne was a grandson of Charles Elphinstone, 9th Lord Elphinstone and had married Samuel Garbett's daughter in 1759. Gascoigne introduced many improvements in the company's techniques of production, and devoted considerable effort to increasing the quality of its work, and he took over the management of the works from William Cadell Jr, in 1769.[6]
The company's strict control over its supply of resources, including use of coal miners under conditions of life bondage, gave rise to disputes, with troops being called out to quell conflict on more than one occasion in the 1760s and 1770s.[7]
The company received a royal charter to incorporate as the Carron Company in 1773.[8]:139 However, despite Gascoigne's efforts, the quality of company's products had remained low, and the company's contracts to supply the Royal Navy were cancelled in 1773, with the company's cannon being removed from all naval vessels. A representative of the Royal Artillery, Captain Blair, inspected the Carron Works in 1774 and reported ongoing problems with quality and handling of the guns: "on the death of [Carron Guns partner Ebenezer] Roebuck the Carron Guns had through the carelessness of the workmen very much deteriorated, and the firm lost ground."[9] Despite this negative assessment, the report noted with approval that Charles Gascoigne was attempting to revive the firm.[9]
Gascoigne pushed forward the development of a new type of cannon, originally known as the "Gasconades" but better known by its later name, the "Carronade". It was shorter and much lighter than a long gun of the same calibre, meaning that more could be carried, and it was also quicker to load and required a smaller crew. On the debit side, carronades had a short range.[10]
Some warships - mainly small ones - were equipped with carronades as their main or only armament, but such vessels were vulnerable to opponents armed with long guns. The carronade's principal use was on the upper decks of warships, where batteries of carronades replaced smaller numbers of long guns. This greatly increased firepower at the close ranges at which contemporary naval battles were usually fought, without impairing stability or sailing qualities.
The carronade was a considerable success, and remained in production from 1778 to the 1850s. The company established such a reputation for quality that the Duke of Wellington remarked in a letter to Admiral Berkley in 1812[11] that he only wanted cannon manufactured by the Carron Company in his army. The company also made ammunition, including some invented by Henry Shrapnel.[12]
The company supplied armaments to governments outside the UK, including weapons supplied to the embryonic United States which were used against Britain in the War of 1812. The British government tried to prevent the company from supplying plans and equipment to the Russian Empire, intended to improve Catherine the Great's weapons foundry at Petrozavodsk; nonetheless, Gascoigne delivered the Russian's orders, and travelled to Russia in May 1786 to supervise the works.[8]:141–144 He remained in Russia for 20 years, dying in July 1806 in Kolpino near St. Petersburg as Actual State Councillor Karl Karlovich Gaskoin.[13]
Prosperity and fall
By 1814, the Carron Company was the largest iron works in Europe, employing over 2,000 workers, and it attracted many innovators. William Symington[14] was an engineer for the Carron Company in the early 19th century, and the company made engines for his steamboats, the Experiment and the Charlotte Dundas. John Smeaton was a consultant for the company. Henry Cort[15] experimented on methods to produce malleable iron, anticipating the puddling process. Benjamin Franklin visited the factory,[16] leaving works and is said to have left a design for a stove called 'Dr Franklin's stove or the Philadelphia stove'.
The company was taken over and operates today under the name of Carron Phoenix, part of the Franke corporation. Like its predecessor, The Carron Company, Carron Phoenix's headquarters are at the Carron Works in Falkirk.
Carron Phoenix produces stainless steel, ceramic and granite moulded sinks which are sold around the world but some areas of production have been moved to China and Slovakia.
Gallery
An iron oven manufactured by Carron Company Scotland
The words "Carron Company Stirlingshire" appear near the base of many UK pillar boxes
A detail from the famous MV Panagiotis shipwreck (aka Navagio), situated on a beach of the island of Zakynthos, Greece.
A carronade is a short smoothbore cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective.
The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allowed navigation from Edinburgh on the east coast to the port of Glasgow on the west coast. The canal is 35 miles (56 km) long and it runs from the River Carron at Grangemouth to the River Clyde at Bowling, and had an important basin at Port Dundas in Glasgow.
John Roebuck of Kinneil FRS FRSE was an English industrialist, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physician who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and who is known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulfuric acid.
Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, 23+1⁄2 miles northwest of Edinburgh and 20+1⁄2 miles (33 km) northeast of Glasgow.
Grangemouth is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Falkirk, 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Bo'ness and 13 miles (20.9 km) south-east of Stirling. Grangemouth had a resident population of 17,906 according to the 2001 Census. Preliminary figures from the 2011 census reported the number as 17,373.
John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson was an English industrialist who pioneered the manufacture of cast iron and the use of cast-iron goods during the Industrial Revolution. He was the inventor of a precision boring machine that could bore cast iron cylinders, such as cannon barrels and piston cylinders used in the steam engines of James Watt. His boring machine has been called the first machine tool. He also developed a blowing device for blast furnaces that allowed higher temperatures, increasing their efficiency, and helped sponsor the first iron bridge in Coalbrookdale. He is notable for his method of cannon boring, his techniques at casting iron and his work with the government of France to establish a cannon foundry.
Larbert is a town in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town lies in the Forth Valley above the River Carron which flows from the west. Larbert is three miles from the shoreline of the Firth of Forth and 2+1⁄2 miles northwest of Falkirk. Stenhousemuir lies directly east of Larbert, with both settlements being contiguous and sharing certain public amenities with one another.
Charles Gascoigne (1737–1806) was British industrialist at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Gascoigne was an architect, mechanic, inventor, businessman and industrialist. He spent the final twenty years of his life in the Russian Empire, gaining fame as an engineer-inventor, entrepreneur, and specialist in production.
General Robert Melvill LLD was a Scottish soldier in the British Army, antiquary, botanist, inventor, and slave plantation owner. He was owner of the Melville Hall (Dominica) and Carnbee (Tobago) estates.
Charles Baird was a Scottish engineer who played an important part in the industrial and business life of 19th-century St. Petersburg. His company specialised in steam-driven machinery and was responsible for Russia's first steamboat.
The Carron is a river in central Scotland, rising in the Campsie Fells and flowing along Strathcarron into the Firth of Forth. It has given its name to several locations in Stirlingshire, as well as a type of cannon, a line of bathtubs, two warships, and an island in the Southern Hemisphere.
Carron may refer to:
The historic site of Abbotshaugh Community Woodland, located on the south bank of the River Carron, has witnessed many changes over the past 500 years. The recently planted woodland hopes to recreate a naturally regenerating mature woodland within an area consisting of a mosaic of planted woodland, remnant hedgerows, grassland and saltmarsh. The woodland provides a year-round home for many species including Roe deer, foxes, buzzards and kestrels.
William Archibald Cadell of Cockenzie (1708–1777) was a Scottish industrialist, one of the pioneers of the industrial revolution on the Firth of Forth. He was a member of a merchant family involved in the import of iron from Russia and Sweden.
Carron is a village in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is in the Forth Valley, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Falkirk, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Grangemouth and 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) southeast of Stenhousemuir. Carron is contiguous with village of Carronshore to the east.
Events from the year 1982 in Scotland.
Samuel Garbett was a prominent citizen of Birmingham England, during the industrial revolution, and a friend of Matthew Boulton. Historian Carl Chinn argues that he:
stood alongside Boulton as one of the key figures responsible for Birmingham's rapid expansion into one of the world's leading industrial towns.
William Archibald Cadell FRS FRSE FGS MWS (1775–1855) was a Scottish industrialist and mathematician, also known as a travel writer.
Events from the year 1759 in Scotland.
The Clyde Iron Works was a Scottish-based ironworking plant which operated from 1786 to 1978.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.35–39. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.49–108. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Duncan, Robert (2005). The Mineworkers. Birlinn. pp.49–52. ISBN9781841583655.
1 2 Norris, John (1958). "The Struggle for Carron: Samuel Garbett and Charles Gascoigne". Scottish Historical Review. 37 (124). Edinburgh University Press: 136–145. JSTOR25526479.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.74–85. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water! A New History of Carron Iron Works, 1759-1982. John Donald. pp.298–299. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water! A New History of Carron Iron Works, 1759-1982. John Donald. pp.118–119. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Stewart, A. F. (1913). Scottish Influences in Russian History. Glasgow, Maclehose.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.116–118. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.102–103. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.63–64. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.305–326. ISBN9780859765053.
↑ Watters, Brian (1998). Carron, Where Iron Runs Like Water!. John Donald. pp.345–346. ISBN9780859765053.
Further reading
Where Iron Runs Like Water! A new history of Carron Iron Works 1759–1982, Brian Watters, John Donald, 1998.
Campbell, R.H. Carron Company (1961) Oliver and Boyd
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