Alfred Herbert Ltd
From GracesGuide
of Coventry, Warwickshire. Telephone: 8781. Telegraphic Address: "Lathe, Coventry". (1937)
Alfred Herbert Limited were machine tool makers in Coventry founded by Alfred Herbert.
1887 Alfred Herbert became the manager of Coles and Matthews.
1888 The firm was offered to Alfred Herbert for the price of £2,375. He immediately entered into partnership with a former school friend and fellow apprentice, William Hubbard, under the name of Herbert and Hubbard, making boilers and general engineering equipment. The fathers of each of the two men provided their sons with a capital of £2000 each. Initially, production concentrated on ploughing tackle and steam rollers but moved very swiftly to making machine tools and tubing directed at the cycle trade.
1889 Pill picking and sorting machine. [1]
By 1894 Herbert had bought out Hubbard, who left the business, which was turned into a limited liability company Alfred Herbert Ltd. Alfred became the managing Director while his older brother was Chairman of the company.
1894 Became private company.
1894 Catalogue of Horizontal and Vertical Milling Machines, Universal Cutter Grinder, Sensitive Drills, Capstan Lathes for general and repetition work, Universal Grinding Machine, Special Machinery for Cycle manufacturers.
1900 Taper Screwing attachment. Article and description in 'The Engineer'. [2]
1912 Directory. As machine tool makers of Butts and Ironfounders of Canal Road, Edgewick. [3]
1914 Listed as machine tool makers. Specialities: hexagon turret lathes, capstan lathes, automatic turning machines, automatic screw machines, milling machines, ball bearing drilling machines etc. Employees 2,000. [4]
1919 Labour saving machine tools. [5]
1920 February. Issued catalogue entitled 'The Turret Lathe and its Work'. [6]
1920 June. Capstan Lathe with Rotating Multiple Stops. Photo and article. [7]
1920 June. Small surface grinding machine. [8]
1920 September. Exhibited at the Machine Tool and Engineering Exhibition at Olympia with ten stands of machinery, tools and other equipment. [9]
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history
1937 British Industries Fair Advert for Pulverised Fuel for Furnace Firing. The Atritor Coal-Pulverising and Distributing System applied to the firing of several small furnaces for the metallurgical industries. A similar measure of control to gas or oil firing is demonstrated. (Engineering/Metals/Quarry, Roads and Mining/Transport Section - Stand No. D.409). [10]
1937 Machine tool makers. [11]
1944 Became public company.
1961 Tool makers, mechanical engineers, importers and factors of machine tools, components and small tools. 4,700 employees. [12]
1968 By this date they also owned Holbrook and Sons and Churchill Machine Tool Co. [13]
By the early 1970's the workforce was around 12,000 nationally, but redundancies had begun.
In 1980 Tube Investments took over the firm, but with debts 3 years later of some seventeen million pounds led to the firm's collapse.
1983 Sale by Auction in October 1983 of the entire stock. At the time of the auction the workforce numbered 400, approximately the same as when Alfred Herbert declared it a private limited company in 1894.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer of 24th May 1889 p446
- ↑ The Engineer of 23rd November 1900 p516
- ↑ Spennell's Annual Directory of Coventry and District, 1912-13 p793
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1919. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p97
- ↑ The Engineer of 27th Feb 1920 p234
- ↑ The Engineer of 18th June 1920 p632
- ↑ The Engineer of 25th June 1920 p657
- ↑ The Engineer of 17th September 1920 p269
- ↑ 1937 British Industries Fair Advert p630; and p374
- ↑ 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Engineer of 19th January 1968 p135
- Machine Tools by James Weir French in 2 vols. Published 1911 by Gresham
- [1] Coventry Historians
