Thomas Smales
Thomas Smales (c1865-1934) of the Staveley Coal and Iron Co
1934 Obituary [1]
THOMAS SMALE5 had been connected with the Staveley Coal and Iron Company, except for a period of about seven years with other firms, since 1880, when he became an apprentice at their Chesterfield shops.
He was a native of Staveley, and after the completion of his apprenticeship in 1887 he remained with the firm for a further seven years.
In 1895 he became superintendent in the shops of Messrs. Markham and Company, Broad Oaks Iron Works, Chesterfield.
In 1898 he was appointed engineer at the works of the Holwell Iron Company at Ashfordby, near Melton Mowbray, and was engaged in the construction of new pipe foundries and blast furnaces, and in their subsequent maintenance.
He returned to the Staveley Coal and Iron Company in 1906 as engineer at their Devonshire Works, and superintended the construction of blast furnaces and coke ovens and the associated plant. For a number of years he was engineer for the company's collieries, and constructed the engines used for sinking the shafts for the Yorkshire Main colliery.
In 1919 he was transferred to the New Works, where he took charge of the reconstruction of the foundries, and of the new sand-spun pipe plant. He brought out two patents, one in connexion with boilers, which he sold to Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox; the other concerned a type of flexible pipe-joint, suitable either for water or gas, which is now used by the Staveley Coal and Iron Company.
Mr. Smales was elected a Member of the Institution in 1908.
He died at his home at Barrow Hill, near Chesterfield, on 8th May 1934, at the age of 69.