Henry Watson and Sons
of High Bridge Works, Walkergate, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Engineers, iron and non-ferrous founders.
c.1847 Newcastle Cranage Co commissioned Henry Watson's High Bridge engineering works to construct the hydraulic cranes designed by William Armstrong[1]
By 1862 the range of products included[2]:
- Brass and copper rolls for paper mills.
- Jullion's patent pulp regulating elevator.
- Gun-metal cocks, valves, water and steam gauges, hydraulic rams, etc.
- Large brass castings, brass and copper work for marine, locomotive, and other engines.
- Safety lamps
- Sir William Armstrong's hydro-electric machines, for the production of electricity from steam.
- Frames of brass or wood, with brass mountings, made to order.
c.1896 Torben Christian Billetop joined the company and subsquently became MD
1910 Supplied the direct-driven circulating pump for tug boats built by Cox and Co, of Falmouth. [3]
1912 Ernest Theodore White and Reginald Christie retired from the firm which was continued by the remaining partners Henry Burnett Watson and John Stanley Watson[4]
Post-WWI: Watsons launched a 3.5-4.5 ton bonneted truck with a four-cylinder engine; the engine and the gearbox were mounted in a subframe.
They built the British Berna bus.
1925 The Brass Foundry was able to cast large solid manganese bronze propellers; the Iron Foundry was mainly making cylinders for motors; the Machine Shop made a varied products, including marine auxiliary machinery, such as pumps, condensers, evaporators, heaters and coolers.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris