1888 (Shearing the rams) the hard work revolutionised by Wolseley1895
The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited was a London-based company involved in sheep shearing machinery. It was founded by Frederick Wolseley in Australia and was managed by Herbert Austin, who went on to manufacture Wolseley and Austin cars.
Frederick Wolseley's innovations to sheep shearing machinery revolutionised the entire wool industry.
The wool industry was much reduced by the advent of synthetic textiles. Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company was obliged to diversify into heating equipment then building materials. Its name and business has continued, supplemented since 1982 by Ferguson Enterprises, a large American supplier of building materials.
History
Origins
The English business was founded by Frederick Wolseley in London in 1889 and a company was incorporated there with a capital of £200,000 to better realise the potential of his sheep shearing invention patented in March 1877. Herbert Austin, who had worked on the product's development in Melbourne Australia from 1887, was appointed its manager and received a share of its equity.[1]
Wolseley, owner of a large sheep station, had set up a business of the same name in Sydney, Australia, in 1887. He manufactured the sheep shearing machinery largely by assembling bought-in components. Impressed by Austin, who managed one of the suppliers, Wolseley employed him at this business.[1]
His first sheep shearing machinery was driven by horse power replaced later by stationary engines. Following wide demonstrations in eastern Australia and New Zealand in 1887–1888, a woolshed in Louth, N.S.W., was set up with the machinery and was the first to complete a shearing with the machines. Eighteen more woolsheds were equipped with Wolseley's invention in 1888.[2] The Australian incorporation was wound up and the business's ownership transferred to the new London company in 1889 but operations were retained in Australia.[1]
During the early 1890s Austin studied Wolseley's shearing machinery in use on a large sheep station and patented several improvements. By 1893, however, they were facing a crisis when it was discovered they had sold a large amount of defective machinery, brought about by the failure of local suppliers to meet the required specifications. Austin was sent to England to open a manufacturing operation there. In November 1893 Wolseley and Austin arrived in England, where Austin managed the business from a small workshop in Broad Street, Birmingham. Wolseley, with his Australian pastoral interests, resigned in 1894 because of poor health.[1]
Wolseley Shearing Machine
Traditional sheep shears
Wool was clipped from the sheep's back by hand shears from time immemorial. Wolseley invented and developed the first satisfactory mechanical method using a power source away from the shearer's hand. The first power source was a horse gin connected by belt and pulley and a carefully designed driveshaft to a handpiece held by the shearer.
As well as relieving the shearer's hand of the cutting effort, the machine clips the wool at its full length, which often doubles or triples its value. It also removes the wool in a fleece instead of chopping it into small pieces like the shears.[3]
Diversification
Wolseley cars
Austin's first Wolseley car dated 1895 in this 1916 article
Seeking other suitable products Austin designed his first car in 1896 and for the next four years continued to develop and improve his designs. Though the board did allow Austin to purchase some machinery to build cars they decided around 1900, it was unlikely to be a profitable industry. In 1901, Wolseley's embryo car business was acquired by Vickers, Sons and Maxim.[1]
Wolseley-Hughes
In 1958, the business was merged with that of Geo. H. Hughes, a Birmingham-based manufacturer of wheels for prams and later wheels for industrial use, and was renamed Wolseley-Hughes in 1986.[4]
Prospectus: The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited of London
London, 12 October 1889
Capital —£200,000 in 40,000 shares of £5 each; 13,332 fully paid deferred shares will be allotted to the vendors leaving 26,668 shares of £5 each which are now offered for subscription.
The vendors (The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited of Sydney) who are the promoters of this company have fixed the price to be paid for all the patent rights and trade mark obtained and applied for at £75,000 cash and 13,332 fully paid deferred shares of the company.
Directors
James Alexander, (Redfern, Alexander & Co) director of the Bank of Australasia
Secretary and offices —Hugh E Mcleod, Crown Court, Old Broad Street, London
Agents
Victoria NSW and Queensland —Goldsbrough Mort
South Australia —Hon. Henry Scott MLC
New Zealand, Tasmania and S. Africa —Redfern Alexander & Co.
South America – O. G. Oliver-Jones
The company is formed for the purpose of acquiring and working the patent rights in Great Britain . . . and other countries for the Sheep-Shearing Machine and accessories invented and patented by Mr Frederic (sic) York Wolseley
It is estimated that the number of sheep in the countries for which patents have been obtained and applied for amounts to 400,000,000. This forms a magnificent field for operations . . .[5]
National Museum of Australia
There is a Wolseley brand two-stand portable shearing plant in the collection of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.[6] Manufactured in Birmingham, England, around 1930, the shearing plant is powered by a three horse-power single-cylinder petrol engine, mounted on a wooden trolley base with four cast iron wheels. The plant incorporated a revolutionary mechanised shearing handpiece, one of which is also in the museum's collection.[7] The engine is painted green and inscribed with the brand name Wolseley, and has a metal manufacturer's plate which reads: Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Ltd Birmingham England. The plant, weighing 550kg, was used on a sheep property named 'Emoh Ruo' in the Rockley-Black Springs area of New South Wales. It was used by Roy and George Keogh between 1948 and 1976.
↑ Walsh, G. P. (1 June 1976). "Wolseley, Frederick York (1837–1899)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol.6. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN978-0-522-84108-4.
↑ "The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine". The Times. No.32841. 28 October 1889. p.13. ISSN0140-0460.
↑ "National Museum of Australia: Australian Journeys - Wolseley shearing machine". National Museum of Australia: Australian Journeys. Canberra, Australia: National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 21 April 2012. The two-stand machine pictured here was manufactured in Birmingham in about 1930 and used on a sheep station in New South Wales.
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