Monks, Hall and Co

1916.

of Bedstead Works, Atherton's Quay, Warrington; of Mersey Tube Works, Warrington (1916)

1874 Company founded by Frederick Monks and Thomas Hall, trading as Frederick Monks & Co.

1878 Public company. The company was registered on 29 May, to acquire the business of iron and steel bar, hoop, and wire rod manufacturers of the firm of F. Monks and Co.

1897 Reconstruction took place on an enlarged basis, the present company being registered on 18 May.

1914 Iron and steel manufacturers. Specialities: steel ingots, iron and steel bars, hoops, wire rods and tube strips, tubes, rivets, bedsteads and mattresses. Employees 1,200.

1933 Jointly Lancashire Steel Corporation and Monks, Hall and Co purchased William Robertson (of Warrington), manufacturers of bright drawn products.

1935 See Monks, Hall and Co:1935 Review

1951 Nationalised under the Iron and Steel Act; became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain

1961 Manufacturers of iron and steel bars, wire rods, strips, light rails, rivets and mattresses. 500 employees.

1986 The No.5 rolling mill closed in February.

THE WORKS

The 1888/1893 O.S. map shows the works at Atherton's Quay, Sankey Bridges, onm the west bank of the River Mersey, connected to the L&NWR Garston and Warrington line. The 1905/1907 map, 1925/1927 map and 1937-1941 map show that the works had considerably expanded, and the iron works being joined by the Mersey Rivet Works, Mersey Tube Works, and Wire Mattress Works.

See here for a series of photographs taken in 1903. One of these, taken from high level and looking north, shows a 'C' shaped building surrounding another building, the space between housing a number of chimneys and cylindrical vessels. Similar vessels and chimneys are seen in the foreground. They can also be seen in the 1905/1907 map. The cylindrical vessels are Rastrick boilers, which recover heat from the puddling furnaces to produce steam.

The southern half of the large site is now occupied by housing, while industry survives at the northern end, in the form of Warrington Fabrications, who occupy 4.5 acres.

1903 REPORT

The following article is transcribed from the Warrington Guardian, 12 December 1903. Most references to Figures have been omitted.

'THE ENTERPRISE OF MESSRS. MONKS, HALL AND CO.
NEW ROLLING HILLS AND POWER PLANT. The “Coal and Iron Trades Review” of November 27 contained an illustrated article on gas-driven rolling mills and power at the works of Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company Ltd., Warrington. The article stated:—lt is now generally felt that the solution of the problem of further cheapening the cost of power must, for the next few years, largely rest with the gas engine prime mover. Many factors have hitherto militated against the general adoption of gas engines for power purposes. ln the first place, it is only quite recently that engines of large size have been placed on the market; and, secondly, the only practical method of employing large engines to use some form of cheap producer gas made on the premises, town gas being altogether too expensive, the engine has had to wait the advent of producing processes such those designed by Dr. Mond and Mr. Duff. The experience of the past two or three years having placed gas power in an assured position, speedy extension of the internal combustion engine for large power plants may be looked for.

‘Some three years ago Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company, the well-known iron makers of Warrington, with foresight which experience has since amply confirmed, decided upon the erection of gas plant for applying power to their large works. In their case the conditions were different to those that had usually obtained in such installations. It was necessary that the gas should be suitable not only for power, but also for heating furnaces, and, further, a large portion of the power was to be used for driving rolling mills, to which purpose gas engines had not at that time been applied. A rolling mill has such wide fluctuations in the load factor that gas engine driving had not met with much favour. It was decided, however, to use it for this purpose, and to adopt the well-known Mond system of producing the gas.

‘At the same time contracts were placed for a new 10-in. bar mill to roll rivet rods and merchant iron in much longer lengths than had hitherto been attempted. A general plan the gas plant and new rolling mill is shown Fig. 1.
The contract for the Mond gas plant was placed with the Power Gas Corporation, Limited, and work was begun upon it in May, 1901, the constructional work being built by Messrs. Ashmore, Benson, Pease and Company, Limited, of Stockton-on-Tees. The plans were drawn up on such a scale that, if found satisfactory, the plant could be extended to supply gas power for the whole of the rolling mills, as well as for the puddling and heating furnaces and other operations in the manufacture of malleable iron. Further purposes to which the gas may be applied are the manufacture of tubes and rivets, which is a large industry in these works, and the generation of electricity for power and lighting purposes.

‘THE PLANT.
As it is at present, the plant is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. It will be seen to consist of two producers, room being left for another eight if required. Each of the producers is of 2,000 h.p. capacity, or a total of 4,000 ; but the second producer is kept in reserve, so that the plant is only at present worked at 2,000 h.p. The consumption of coal in the Mond plant is approximately 1 ton for each 100 h.p. per day, so that, for the 2,000 h.p. plant, the consumption is about 20 tons of slack per diem. ….details of gas analysis ….

‘The details of construction of Mond gas plant are now pretty generally known. The waggons carrying the slack are brought along a siding elevated some 3ft. above the general ground level, and specially put in for the purpose. The waggons are tipped into elevator boot, ….. [coal bunkers]….
So far as the generation of the gas is concerned, the claim is made for the Mond producer that it works at a low temperature, and so gives an increased yield of ammonia. This is secured by the introduction of hot air and steam. If the ammonia is not to be recovered, about one too steam required for each ton of slack. If, however, the ammonia is to be recovered, about two and a-half times as much steam is introduced as slack. The producer blast is furnished by a No. 7 Roots blower, built by Thwaites Brothers, Limited, of Bradford, and running at 100 revolutions per minute.

‘BLAST SUPERHEATER.—
The gas passes out of the top of the producer through the blast superheater, which consists of set of double pipes, the hot gas passing up the inside pipe, and heating the air blast, which passes down the outside one. There are three superheaters to each producer. The air blast, before entering the producer is raised to temperature of approximately 360 degrees Cent, while the gas, which issues at 500 degrees Cent, on to mechanical washer, and is reduced to 350 degrees Cent. A certain deposition of tar takes place in the superheater; but this is more noticeable when the plant is first started, when everything is hot there is practically no condensing action of this kind, and only small quantity of dust is deposited. When the plant is at full swing fine dust is deposited here.
The air blast, before entering the producer, is thus raised to approximately 366 degrees Cent., while the gas, which issues at 500 degrees Cent., is reduced to 85[?] Cent., and passes on to mechanical washer where the temperature is still further reduced, as is explained below.

‘MECHANICAL WASHER. The gas from the superheater passes into 5ft. gas main, and thence to a mechanical washer. This is a rectangular iron chamber, provided in duplicate in case of breakdown. The gas is washed free of dust and soot by water thrown up into a fine spray by system of rapidly rotating dashers. At the side of the washer is an arrangement of lutes, which taper to deep sump at one end, and permit the dust to be removed by being raked to a sloping platform. The dashers, of which there are three to each washer, run at 196 revolutions per minute, and keep up a constant circulation of water from the front to the back end. The duplicate washers are side by side, and are driven from a steam engine by belts and countershaft, which was adopted as less liable to break down than electric motors. The washer, and, in fact, all the cleaning plant, is of sufficient size to deal with the' gas from a complete plant of eight producers. A certain amount steam is generated in the washer, but the gas leaves thoroughly cooled to 78 to 88 degrees Cent.

‘AMMONIA RECOVERY. In a large plant the gas would pass from the washer to the ammonia recovery plant, but it hardly pays to recover, unless 4,000 h.p. is generated. The ammonia yield is estimated 90lb. per ton of slack, so that at Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company’s works the recovery for 2,000 h.p. would only about 180lb. of sulphate per day. The ammonia plant has, therefore, not yet been set to work. Should the further extensions of the plant be taken in hand, the ammonia would, of course, be recovered in the usual way. The principle is that the gas passes through an acid-tower, in which the ammonia is washed out by a weak solution of sulphuric sold.

‘GAS COOLING TOWER.— The gas now goes direct to a cooling tower. This tower is filled with chequered tiles, and the gas meets a downward flow of water, which further cools it, and removes the tar. The temperature of the gas entering the gas cooling tower is about 75 to 65 degrees Cent, and leaves 48 to 50 degrees Cent. ‘AIR HEATING TOWER.— The water coming from the gas cooling tower is hot, and the heat it contains is used for warming the air blast for the producers. A Cameron double 16in. ram pump, with 16in stroke, and running at 20 revolutions, picks up the hot water, and forces to the top of an air heating tower- The water comes down, heats the air, and is itself cooled, the blast leaving the heating tower at 70 to 80 degrees C., and being further heated by admixture of exhaust or live steam to 80 degrees or 85 degrees Cent, it enters the superheaters.
Another Cameron pump of the same size as that mentioned above forces the water back to the gas cooling tower, and thus it completes a cycle of utility. These pumps, and the Root's blower for supplying blast to the producer, are shown in Fig. 8. The tar from this water is deposited in tar settling tanks, and from them run into a tar egg, from whence it is forced by steam to a tar separating plant, which is an arrangement of two circular tanks on end, with steam coils for evaporating the contained water, and stirrers for keeping the tar and water mixture moving continuously. The water is steamed off, and the tar barrelled or run into tank waggons.

‘SAWDUST SCRUBBER.
After leaving the gas cooling tower, the gas is divided into two portions. That portion to be used in the heating furnaces is led direct from the cooling tower. The gas for the engine is, however, taken to a small holder, from whence it forced by a fan in which by means of water injection the bulk of the impurities are washed out through a sawdust scrubber, of which two are provided, but only one is needed, the other being a stand-by. The scrubbers are square, and are of 1,000 h.p. capacity each. From the sawdust scrubber the gas goes to the gas engines.

‘NEW ROLLING MILL.
Close to the Mond gas plant, Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company have erected a large new rolling mill building, measuring 500 ft. long by 60ft. wide, in the main bay. with 15ft. lean-to on either side. The building is steel, constructed by the Horsehay Company, with timber boarded sides. The roof is slate, and Helliwell’s system of glazing has been adopted, which gives a bright and light appearance to the mill. In this building there have been installed two 15-ton heating furnaces, designed Mr. J. H. Darby of Brymbo, and heated gas (Fig. 10). The furnaces are 20ft. long by 5ft. 6in. wide, and have six doors each. The scrap and the puddled bar from the forge come in at the top end of the building. Here there are a series of crocodile shears. A 2-ton electric overhead travelling crane, by Messrs. J. Spencer and Son, Holllnwood, spans the mill building, and enables the material to be stocked wherever desired. The iron is sheared to length, weighed, piled, stocked on bogies, and run on narrow gauge rails up to the furnace door and charged in the usual way overhead tramway, from the furnaces to the rolls, has a series of six turn-outs, one opposite each door of the charging furnace. The pile is taken from the furnace by means of tongs suspended from a light steel carriage on ball bearings, running on the inside flange of the I-joists which form the overhead tracks and run down the cogging rolls without loss of time or cooling the underside as when dragged down.
It may here be opportune to remark that, as regards Mond gas for heating purposes, the Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company works goes to show that the gas is quick in action and requires care and skill in working. The necessary temperature may be obtained without difficulty.

‘THE COGGING AND FINISHING MILLS.
The new mills built comprise a 16-inch cogging and a 10-inch finishing train. The housings for most of these mills were made by Messrs. Taylor and Farley, of West Bromwich. The finishing train has four stands of rolls and the cogging mill one; both cogging and finishing mill are driven by a 600 h.p. Premier gas engine. The driving of rolling mills even of this size by a gas engine is an innovation, for at the time the matter was decided Mr. Monks, there were certainly no rolling mills in existence driven by gas engines. Some time ago such a plant was, we believe, started in Germany, but, so far as this country is concerned, Messrs. Monks, Hall and Company are unquestionably the pioneers. The gas engine house is by the side of the roll trains, one of which is parallel to and behind the other. The cogging train driven is direct off the crankshaft carrying the rope-grooved flywheel, 15ft- diameter, and the finishing train driven off a 6ft 6in. pulley driven from the latter. Between the pulley the train a Lindsay coil clutch is placed, so that the train can readily be thrown in and out of gear. From the finishing mill the rods go to a cooling bed 12ft. by 85ft., which is of the hollow floor type. There is in addition saw for cutting 4in. by 1in. flats, which are occasionally rolled: also smaller cooling beds, compressed air branding machines, shears, stopper gear, and the usual appliances for weighing, bundling, and loading the rods.

‘THE GAS ENGINE
The gas engine, as stated above, is of 600 h.p., and was constructed by Premier Gas Engine Company, Limited, of Sandiacre, near Nottingham, on the now well-known positive scavenger principle. The engine has two motor cylinders, each 28 3/4in. diameter by 30in. stroke, the pistons of which are connected by slide rods and crosshead, as follows: —The front piston is of the differential type, and has a large front end, which works in the bored part of the bedplate, and the smaller back end in the front cylinder. The space between these ends forms an air pump, 43in, diameter by 30in. stroke, into which air is drawn each out-stroke and compressed each back-stroke. Towards the end of the back-stroke the admission valve of the cylinder, which is making its exhaust stroke, is opened, and the compressed air rushes through the combustion chamber, clearing out the burned gases, and leaving it filled with pure air. The valve gear is arranged so that explosions alternate; thus there is impulse at each out-stroke of the pistons, and each back-stroke is an exhaust stroke in either one cylinder or the other, the scavenging action takes place at every back-stroke.
The back piston is connected to the front one by two side-rods attached to crosshead, and passing forward alongside the front ends to the large end of the front piston, The air is admitted by grid valve above the air pump, operated by an eccentric on the crankshaft. The flywheel is 15ft. in diameter, and weighs 27½ tons. It is grooved for 15 1¾ in. ropes, and as already stated, drives the cogging mill direct, and the finishing mill through a 6ft. 6in. pulley.
The crankshaft is fitted with cast-iron balance weights, and another bearing supports the end beyond the flywheel. As there is compression at each back-stroke of the pistons, the connecting-rod bearings are in constant thrust, and the engine runs smoothly, even though there may be some slack in the brasses. The admission valves are placed above the cylinders, and the exhaust below, all opening direct into the combustion chamber. The scavenger air keeps the admission valve cool, and also helps to cool the internal surfaces of the cylinder, but the exhaust valve, cylinders, and pistons are water-jacketted. The governor is driven direct from the crankshaft, and is of the high-speed spring-loaded type, fitted with ball-bearings; it controls the speed by cutting out the admission of gas and so number of ignitions when the load is light.
The ignition is by electricity, fitted in duplicate to each cylinder, and is arranged so that any pair of firing points can be taken out and cleansed while the engine is at work. The spark can either be obtained from the lighting circuit through a coil or a Sim’s Bosch apparatus. The starting is effected by compressed air, a small gas engine being provided which drives an air compressor. This plant was also supplied by the Premier Company. In starting, the back piston is worked by compressed air, until the gas is working on the front and sufficient speed obtained, when the air can be cut off and gas admitted to the back piston. For barring round, a small barring engine, driven by compressed air, is attached to gearing on the inside rim of the fly-wheel. This engine, working at 120 revolutions on Mond gas, is capable of developing 650 hp. The speed of the engine is varied, however, from 90 to 120 revolutions to suit class of iron being rolled

‘THE LIGHTING PLANT.
Close to the new rolling mills a substantial brick power house has been erected, where at present current for lighting the works is generated from Mond gas. The engine selected for this purpose is a 200 h.p “Stockport” engine, built by J. E. H. Andrew and Company, Limited, of Reddish. As matter of fact the power is present insufficient for lighting the works in winter, but ample room has been left for extension. The engine which runs at 100 revolutions per minute, is fitted with a 9ft. diameter flywheel, weighing 10½ tons, and 21in. wide on the face for eight 1 5/8in. ropes. The two cylinders, which develop 100 h.p. each, are arranged vis-a-vis, shown in Fig. 15. The ignition is of the magneto-electric type, the engine being started by means of a hand pump or compressed air supplied from the plant in the mill engine house. The engine, which is fitted with a ball governor, is designed on the scavenging principle, the valves being water-cooled and positive lifting. Another feature is that the piston is built up, the grooves being formed by placing a loose intermediate solid ring between each piston ring, the whole being held In position by the end junk ring, which is bolted to the piston. In this way the rings placed into position without any force being applied; they can be ground to make a fit sideways, and the grooves can be adjusted for wear. The engine drives on to a 4ft. 2in. pulley, to which is direct-coupled British Thomson-Houston generator, running at 425 revolutions, and giving 570 amperes at 230 volts.
Above the engine house a large cast-iron tank, built by Horsehay Company, Limited, is mounted, which supplies the cooling water.

‘RUNNING OF THE PLANT.
In conclusion, it may be added that the plant, so far, has run very satisfactorily. The worksclose at the week ends, the producer being banked and the gas plant shut down on Saturday and started up again on the Monday morning, when a satisfactory quality of gas is obtained in about 15 minutes.'

Note: A Premier gas engine of a similar type to that described above was described and illustrated in The Engineer, 1 August 1902.

Notes

Generator. Exhibit at Anson Engine Museum.

See Also

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