Ransomes, Sims and Head
of Orwell Works, Ipswich. Agricultural Engineers
Genealogy of the Company
- 1779 Thomas and Robert Ransome
- 1785 Ransome and Co
- 1808 Ransome and Son
- 1818 Ransome and Sons
- 1825 James and Robert Ransome
- 1829 J. R. and A. Ransome
- 1836 Ransomes and May
- 1852 Ransomes and Sims
- 1869 Ransomes, Sims and Head and Ransomes and Rapier
- 1880 Ransomes, Head and Jefferies
- 1884 Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies
General
1869 Ransomes and Sims became Ransomes, Sims and Head
1869 Four engineers J. A. Ransome, R. J. Ransome, R. C. Rapier and A. A. Bennett left the company by agreement to establish a new company, Ransomes and Rapier, on a site on the River Orwell to continue the business of railway equipment and other heavy works.
1871 The manufacture of their food-preparing machines was taken over by R. Hunt and Co, of Earls Colne, which allowed room for the expansion of the main sections of the business.
1872 A lawnmower works was opened.
1877 Trademarks were registered for the company, which at that time was known as Ransomes, Sims and Head of Orwell Works, Ipswich.
1877 Exhibitor at 1877 Royal Agricultural Show.[1].
1878 'THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. The arrangements for lighting the Victoria Embankment by means of the Jablochkoff candle have been carried out with very encouraging results. The experiment originated by the Metropolitan Board of Works, by whom an agreement for a period of three months was entered into with the Société Générale d'Electricité, the latter undertakirmg to supply the electric machines and fittings requisite for maintaninig 20 Jablochkoff lights along the line of the Embankment. The plan on which the entire trial is to be conducted has been devised by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer to the Metropolitan Board, and Mr. Keates, the consulting chemist. The carrying out of the prelimitnary operations has been superintended by M. J. A. Berly, tie engineer to the French Company. The steam engine has been supplied to the Board free of charge by Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Head, of Ipswich, to whom was also entrusted the general arrangement of the machinery. The contract for the electrical machines and wires was esecuted by Messrs. Wells and Co., of Shoreditch. The engine and the machinery employed in the production of the electric current are placed in a temporary shed, 70 feet long by 18 feet wide, erected on a piece of ground close to the Western side of the Charing Cross Railway Bridge. The engine is semi-portable, of the locomotive type, and is of a kind specially designed by Messrs. Ransomes and Co. for the driving of machinery connected with electric lighting, being provided with a patent automatic expansive governor, which regulates tlhe speed to the greatest nicety. The engine is nominally of 20-horse-power, capable of working up to 60 or 70 horse-power indicated. It is, therefore, suficiently powerful to drive two dynamo-electric machines, each sustaining 20 Jablochkoff candles. ..... [2]
1880 Around this time the name was changed to Ransomes, Head and Jefferies and presumably John Jefferies became a partner
1881 John Head died
1884 Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies was registered on 12 May, to acquire the business of Ransomes, Head and Jefferies agricultural engineers[3]