Merryweather & Sons of Clapham, later Greenwich, London, were builders of steam fire engines and steam tram engines.
Contents
The founder was Moses Merryweather (1791–1872) of Clapham, who was joined by his son Richard Moses (1839–1877).
Merryweather & Sons of Clapham, later Greenwich, London, were builders of steam fire engines and steam tram engines.
The founder was Moses Merryweather (1791–1872) of Clapham, who was joined by his son Richard Moses (1839–1877).
The Merryweathers worked with the engineer Edward Field to fit his design of a vertical boiler onto a horse-drawn platform. They successfully applied it for use in their steam fire engine, thus improving water pressure and making easier to use once steam had been got up. It was reckoned that an engine could get up enough pressure to pump within ten minutes of a call out; the fire could be started before leaving the fire station so there would be enough pressure by the time they arrived at the scene of the fire.
Appliances were available in small sizes suitable for a country house, pumping about 100 gallons per minute, through to large dockyard models, rated at 2000 gallons per minute. A common size, popular with Borough fire brigades, was the double vertical boiler, that could pump between 250 and 450 gallons per minute. Merryweather also provided hydrants and mains water supplies for highly vulnerable sites such as theatres, where getting a strong enough supply of water could be a problem.
Dock fires were a particular problem, as the hand-operated appliances of the time had neither the reach nor the power to tackle a blaze on a boat or their large warehouses. After successfully demonstrating the improvement of the steam-powered devices fighting petroleum fires at Antwerp docks, Merryweather's appliances, with their distinctive crews wearing Merryweather helmets, soon became synonymous with firefighting in Britain and abroad, [1] alongside their rivals Shand, Mason. Merryweather also built specialist fireboats, such as a steam-powered fire-fighting barge for the port of Alexandria, [2] designed to pump 1,200 gallons per minute to a height of 200 feet.
In 1899, Merryweather produced the world's first successful self-propelled steam fire engine, the 'Fire King'; the first was dispatched to Port Louis on Mauritius. [3] The first motorised fire engine in London was a Merryweather appliance delivered to the Finchley Fire Brigade in 1904. It was commemorated in April 1974 by the issue of a 3.5 pence Royal Mail postage stamp. The actual vehicle is preserved in the reserve collection of the Science Museum at Wroughton in Wiltshire. Another notable survivor is the UK's oldest known aerodrome fire/crash tender, a 1937 Merryweather with a Commer engine and chassis, now preserved in running order at Brooklands Museum in Surrey.
Merryweather supplied the steam machinery for John Grantham's steam tramcar in 1873. Between 1875 and 1892 the factory produced about 174 steam tram engines, of which 41 were used in Britain, 46 in Paris, 6 in Kassel, Germany, 15 to Barcelona, 15 in the Netherlands, 11 in New Zealand and 15 in Rangoon. 6 engines of 1881 went to the Stockton and Darlington Steam Tramway Company. An example of a Merryweather tram engine is preserved in the Dutch Railway Museum at Utrecht, RSTM 2, built in 1881 (or 5?, built in 1882?).
From the 19th Century into the early 20th Century, Merryweather & Sons would produce 'Fireman Helmets' based on the Sapeur Fire Helmets. [4] These would be commissioned by the UK Fire Brigade to look more 'fancy' than to protect the firemen wearing them. They would fade in the 1940s after the National Fire Service was established. Making every personnel wear a Brodie.
At the 1904 Royal Horticultural Society Show in London, Merryweather received a gold medal for a range of petrol motor driven plant [5] including :
An unusual Merryweather product was a moving wall for the Royal College of Physicians.
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car;
The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a science and technology museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. It is located close to the Western Springs Stadium, Auckland Zoo and the Western Springs Park. The museum has large collections of civilian and military aircraft and other land transport vehicles. An ongoing programme is in place to restore and conserve items in the collections. This work is largely managed by volunteers but, since the passing of the Museum of Transport and Technology Act in 2000, has been supported by full-time professional museum staff. New public programmes and facilities now promote the collections.
A condensing steam locomotive is a type of locomotive designed to recover exhaust steam, either in order to improve range between taking on boiler water, or to reduce emission of steam inside enclosed spaces. The apparatus takes the exhaust steam that would normally be used to produce a draft for the firebox, and routes it through a heat exchanger, into the boiler water tanks. Installations vary depending on the purpose, design and the type of locomotive to which it is fitted. It differs from the usual closed cycle condensing steam engine, in that the function of the condenser is primarily either to recover water, or to avoid excessive emissions to the atmosphere, rather than maintaining a vacuum to improve both efficiency and power.
Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.
Greenwich Power Station is a standby gas and formerly oil and coal-fired power station by the River Thames at Greenwich in south-east London. Originally constructed to supply power for London's tram system, since 1988 it has been London Underground's central emergency power supply, providing power if there is partial or total loss of National Grid supplies.
The Sheppee was an English steam automobile manufactured in York by the Sheppee Motor Company run by Colonel Francis Henry Sheppee, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Faulkener Sheppee. After long service with the army in India, Colonel F.H. Sheppee created the Sheppee Motor Company in Thomas Street, York around 1902. The firm mainly made steam-driven commercial vehicles but in 1912 at least two passenger cars were made with 25 hp engines and flash boilers. In 1913, they announced they had got a site on the Birmingham Road near Worcester where they would build a new factory for production of their 3-ton steam wagons.
Thomas Green & Son, Ltd. were engineers who manufactured a wide range of products at the Smithfield Foundry, Leeds, United Kingdom
The Mekarski system was a compressed-air propulsion system for trams invented by Louis Mékarski or Louis Mékarsky in the 1870s. He worked in France, was born in 1843 in Clermont-Ferrand of Polish origin. Many references to him use the Polish name Ludwik Mękarski.
Léon Serpollet was a French engineer and developer of flash steam boilers and steam automobiles.
The Guernsey Railway opened as the Guernsey Steam Tramway on 6 June 1879 with two steam tram engines, more being added later. It was later converted to an electric tramway, which began working on 20 February 1892. The system closed on 9 June 1934. This leaves Alderney as the only Channel Island with a working railway.
Manors Power Station or the Tramways Generating Station is a former coal-fired power station located in the Manors district of the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear in North East England. The station's turbine hall and other remaining buildings are Grade II listed.
Pyronaut is a specialised form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208. Registered number 333833. She is owned by Bristol Museums and based at M Shed in Bristol's Floating Harbour.
Godiva Fire Pumps was an offshoot from Coventry Climax, directed by Charles Pelham Lee, son of Leonard Pelham Lee.
James Hall Museum of Transport is a transport museum that aims to preserve and promote the history of over 400 years of transport in South Africa in particular, and Africa in general. It is the largest transport museum in Africa. It is located at Pioneers' Park beside the Wemmer Pan in La Rochelle, Johannesburg, South Africa. It was established in 1964 by Jimmie Hall and the City of Johannesburg.
The Ultimo Power Station, or Ultimo Powerhouse, was an electricity generating plant located in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Ultimo, New South Wales. Commissioned in 1899, it was the first major power station in Sydney and was originally built to supply power for the electric tram network. Prior to this, a small installation had existed at Regent Street, which was brought into use on 15 June 1882. Additionally, experimental electric tram operations powered by small generators had been in intermittent use in Sydney since 1890.
The Sydney Steam Motor Trams were built for and operated by the New South Wales Government Tramways of Australia.
John Morris & Sons Limited of Cross Lane, Salford, Manchester, Lancashire, were manufacturers of all kinds of fire fighting equipment from fire engines, manual then motorised, fire retardant foams, and electrical fire alarms, down to firemen's axes and fire buckets.
The Penrith Museum of Fire is an Australian firefighting museum that contains heritage-listed former operating and stored for preservation fire service vehicles located in Penrith, Sydney, Australia. The provenance of the firefighting vehicles date from 1841 to 1998. The fleet of vehicles was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 25 February 2013.
Leicester power stations are a series of electricity generating stations that have provided electric power to the City of Leicester and the wider area from 1894. The first station, located within Aylestone gas works, supplied electricity for street lighting. The city's new electric tram system was supplied from 1904 by a station at Lero which operated until 1930. A large coal-fired power station was constructed at Freemans Meadow in 1922 and was operational until 1976. Finally a gas turbine power plant was commissioned in 1976.
The Grenville steam carriage was developed in 1875 by Robert Neville-Grenville, assisted by George Jackson Churchward. It was built around a boiler from a Merryweather & Sons fire engine, and could carry seven people including the driver, steersman and stoker.
