Products
During the Victorian era a number of factors led to large demand for cranes, particularly the number of major construction projects being undertaken and the large volumes of goods to lift in factories, railways and canals.
Railways, docks, canals and construction sites used large numbers of small steam cranes, either mounted on quays or on railway wheels so they could be moved around site, usually four wheels but occasionally more for larger cranes. A number of local firms in Leeds produced quite similar designs with the jib and boiler counterbalanced around a tall column pivot. These very stable machines are often refared to as 'Leeds Type' cranes.
Significant construction sites to use Booths cranes include the Tower Bridge, [3] as this had a great deal of metal framework many cranes were required in its construction. The steam cranes used in the Tower Bridge construction have been included in scenes from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. One less successful project to employ Booths cranes was the Wembley Park Tower project. The Wembley Park Tower was meant to be London's rival to the Eiffel Tower in Paris but was however dogged by financial problems. In 1902 the Railway Magazine commented "If the Wembley Tower Company could have raised the money as quickly as these cranes raised the girders, the growth of the tower would not have ceased so abruptly." A less glamorous project was the Northern Outfall Sewer in London [4] however company advertising of the time mentioned that their cranes could be seen at work here.
Some larger rail mounted cranes were produced for the railways for use as breakdown cranes and in the Civil Engineering departments. A particularly well known examples of these being the ten 8 wheel cranes supplied to BR's Western Region in 1958/59 as these became well known to many railway modellers as a result of the kit that was available from Airfix, Booths helped Airfix produce this model by supplying various plans to the firm. Other railway civil engineering cranes include those used to build the Lower Zambezi Bridge [5] From 1898 Booths were producing electrically powered cranes. [6] Producing the motors in house the components were also put to use in other products. Booths produced battery locomotives for mines and industry under the 'Union' brandname. [7] and battery trucks and tractors for factories. [8] As well as complete cranes the company produced winches and hoists which found many uses in the factories of the time [9] From 1875 onwards Booths made large numbers of overhead cranes for use in factories. The Sultan of Morocco had a Booths crane and this was put to use lifting the stills used for the production of perfumes for the palace harem. [10] In later years as the railways declined overhead cranes became the bulk of the business and sales of rail mounted cranes declined.
