GKN
From GracesGuide
GKN plc is a British engineering company formerly known as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds and tracing its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the industrial revolution.
- The origins of GKN lie in the founding of the Dowlais Ironworks in the village of Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales by landowner Wyndham William Lewis.
- 1767 John Guest was appointed manager of the works in 1767. He discovered coal on Lewis's property and used it to replace charcoal for smelting.
- 1782 He became a partner in the business in 1782 with Lewis and salesman William Taitt who later became his son-in-law.
- 1787 Thomas Guest succeeded his father in 1787.
- 1795 Though there have been claims of steam power at Dowlais as early as 1753, it is more likely that it was Thomas who introduced steam for blowing the furnaces with a Watt steam engine in 1795.
- 1815 By the time John's grandson, John Josiah Guest became sole owner in 1815, the company was the largest iron and steel producer in the world, becoming the first organisation to license the Bessemer process for steel production.
- 1839 Built the Ifor Works at Dowlais as an expansion to the existing area.
- 1865 The first Bessemer steel was rolled.
- 1888 Construction of new works on this site.
- 1898 On John Josiah Guest's death, the works was administered by his trustees, G. T. Clark and Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare. After the death of the former in 1898, John Josiah's son, Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne, became active but was distracted by other interests and responded to an approach in 1899 from Arthur Keen.
- 1900 On 9th July 1900, the Dowlais Iron Company and Arthur Keen's Patent Nut and Bolt Co merged to form Guest, Keen & Co. Ltd, a public company.
- 1901 Listed as Guest, Keen and Co (formerly the Patent Nut and Bolt Co) of Birmingham and the Cwmbran Ironworks. [1]
- 1902 They purchased Crawshay Brothers and Co the company formed to continue steel production at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks.
- 1902 Nettlefolds was a leading manufacturer of fasteners and had been established in Smethwick in 1854 and was acquired in 1902 leading to the change of name to Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.
- 1911 Manufacturer of Bolts and Nuts for the Railways. [2]
- These mergers heralded half a century in which the name GKN became synonymous with the manufacture of screws, nuts, bolts and other fasteners. The company reflected the vertical integration fashionable at the time embracing activities from coal and ore extraction, and iron and steel making to manufacturing finished goods.
- They manufactured a number of steam locomotives for their own use:-
- 1906 Locomotive built at Ifor
- 1908 Locomotive built at Ifor
- 1911 Locomotive built at Cwmbran
- 1912 Locomotive built at Ifor
- 1914 Locomotive built at Cwmbran
- 1915 Locomotive built at Ifor
- 1916 Locomotive built at Dowlais
- 1917 Locomotive built at Ifor
- 1919 Locomotive built at Dowlais
- 1920 Locomotive built at Ifor. The last at these works and a total of nine engines.
- 1928 Locomotive built at Cwmbran
- 1927 See Aberconway Chapter XXI for information on the company and its history.
- 1927 See Aberconway Chapter XVII for information on the company and its history.
- 1927 See Aberconway Chapter XVIII for information on the company and its history.
- 1934 New works constructed at Dowlais.
- 1934 See GKN: 1934 Review.
- 1940 Advert. Nuts, screws and other fixings. [3]
- 1941 AA image on this page. [4]
- 1945 Advert. Hardened self-tapping screws under the name of Nettlefords-Parker-Kalon. From Birmingham. [5]
- 1945 Advert. Foundation bolts and locknuts from the Nut and Bolt section of Atlas Works, Darlaston.
- 1951 Advert. Hexagon socket cap and set screws. Self-tapping screws. (of Heath Street, Birmingham). [6]
- 1960 Advert for Wedglok fastenings and NPK socket screws from Heath Street. [7]
- 1961 Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Ltd are a holding company for 83 subsidiaries with 75,000 employees. [8]
- 1963 Motor Show exhibitor. Fastenings made by the Heath Street Division. [9]
- In 1966, in a programme of diversification, the company acquired Hardy Spicer of Birmingham a manufacturer of constant-velocity joints. Historically, such joints had had few applications, even following the improved design proposed by Alfred H. Rzeppa in 1936. In 1959, Alec Issigonis had developed the revolutionary Mini motor car which relied on such joints for its novel front wheel drive technology. The massive expansion in the exploitation of front wheel drive in the 1970s and 1980s led to the acquisition of other similar businesses and a 43% share of the world market by 2002.
- During the 1980s, GKN sought to invest its earnings from constant-velocity joints in developing other nascent technologies.
- In 1991, the company resolved to abandon further research and to re-divert its development efforts towards its constant-velocity joint business in which it was facing increasing competition from Japan. During the same period, the company finally withdrew from the manufacture of fasteners and from steel production. Changing its name to GKN plc, it diversified into military vehicles, aerospace and industrial services.
- In 1994, GKN acquired the helicopter manufacturing business of Westland Aircraft.
- In 1998, the armoured vehicle business was sold to Alvis plc, and subsequently incorporated into Alvis Vickers Ltd.
- In July 2000, Finmeccanica and GKN agreed to merge their respective helicopter subsidiaries to form AgustaWestland.
- In 2004 GKN completed the sale of its 50% shareholding in Agusta Westland to Finmeccanica.
- From the late 1990s, the company built a major global business in powder metallurgy, which operates as the GKN Sinter Metals group.
- GKN's turnover for the year ended 31 December 2004 was just under £3.5 billion.
[edit] See Also
[edit] Sources of Information
- [2] Wikipedia
- ↑ White's Directory of Sheffield and Rotherham, 1901 p979
- ↑ Bradshaw’s Railway Manual 1911
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1940. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p143-5
- ↑ [1] Image courtesy of Aviation Ancestry
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1945. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p177-9
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1951. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p178-9
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1960. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p41 and p105
- ↑ 1961 Guide to Key British Enterprises
- ↑ 1963 Motor Show
