Fielding and Platt
Fielding and Platt, hydraulic engineers, of Atlas Ironworks, Gloucester.
Note: A superb history of the company, with numerous illustrations, is available online [1]
formerly Samuel Fielding was in partnership with John Gillett at the Atlas Ironworks
1866 Company founded by Samuel Fielding and James Platt.
1871 Sole manufacture of Tweddell's hydraulic riveting machines,
1873 Made the first hydraulic portable riveting machinery for the Primrose Street Railway Bridge of the Great Eastern Railway at Bishopsgate Street Station, London, which proved a great success.
1875 Maker of Tweddell's hydraulic rivetter
1880 Produced their first gas engine with sizes from 3hp to 8hp
1881 Produced the Uniflow engine
1884 Rope-driven overhead crane produced [2]
1889 Paris Exhibition. Hydraulic plant. [3]
1892 Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition. 8-hp and 14-hp horizontal gas engine based on Otto principle. [4]
1894 Coupled Horizontal Tandem Pumping Engines for Castle Eden Colliery. Article and illustrations in 'The Engineer'. [5]
1894 June. Took part in the Royal Agricultural Society’s Competitive Trial of Oil Engines. 8.0 bhp fixed engine and a portable engine. Article in ‘The Engineer’. [6]
1894 Antwerp Exhibition. Awarded Gold Medal for Large Mechanical Constructions.
1895 Private company.
1895 After the death of Mr. Tweddell the company took over all the rights connected with his hydraulic machinery.
1898 Introduced a lampless oil engine
1908 Producing the Safety oil engine in sizes up to 60 bhp (single) and 120 bhp (twin)
1908 Gas engines and gas producers
1911 Manufacturer of Flanging Presses (Tweddell's System); Forging Presses; Hydraulic Machinery for the Railways.[7]
1911 Gun-straightening machine for Italy. [8]
1911 Smithfield Club Show. Exhibited gas and oil engines plus a suction gas plant and a combined engine and pump. [9].
1912 A low-pressure heavy oil engine introduced
c1928 A range of vertical high-speed engine introduced producing 50 hp (twin), 100 hp (four) and 150 hp (six cylinder) versions
1937/8 The company was taken over by Brush; the engines part was merged with Petters
1939 Heenan and Froude acquired the remaining assets of Fielding and Platt[10], essentially the hydraulics business.
1961 Engineers, specialising in hydraulic machinery, presses, pumps and accumulators. 620 employees. [11]
1965 Supplied high-energy rate drop forging machines (the first in Britain) made under licence from General Dynamics of USA[12]
1968 Hydraulic extrusion press for the UKAEA. [13]
1968 Formation of Redman Heenan International.
1978 Sole UK licence holder for USI-Clearing of Chicago, the largest manufacturer of metal and plastic forming processes in the world[14].
1982 Disposal of Fielding and Platt by Redman Heenan International anticipated[15].
1986 Fielding & Platt enters voluntary receivership. Clayton, Son & Co. (Holdings) Ltd. bought the company from the Receivers.
1994 Motherwell Bridge Group took over the Clayton Group.
1999 Fielding & Platt name dropped in favour of MB Material Handling Systems incorporting MB Nuclear and FPI (MB = Motherwell Bridge).
2000 End of manufacturing at Gloucester. An office was retained.
2003 Gloucester office closed.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ [1] Fielding & Platt History website
- ↑ Engineering 13th June 1884 p523
- ↑ The Engineer of 10th May 1889 p396
- ↑ 1892 The Practical Engineer
- ↑ The Engineer of 9th March 1894 p194-5 & p197
- ↑ The Engineer of 22nd June 1894 p540
- ↑ Bradshaw’s Railway Manual 1911
- ↑ The Engineer of 25th August 1911 p213
- ↑ The Engineer of 8th December 1911 p594
- ↑ The Times, 23 November 1939
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times, Dec 01, 1965
- ↑ The Engineer of 5th January 1968 p10
- ↑ The Times, 17 April 1978
- ↑ The Times, 16 December 1982
- The Engineer of 6th July 1894 p9 & p25
- The Engineer of 2nd November 1894 p387