Timeline: Sugar Machinery
1785 James Cook established a small workshop in Glasgow for the production of sugar mills.
1837 A. and W. Smith and Co was founded.
1840 P. and W. McOnie was established by the 3 brothers McOnie to manufacture sugar machinery in Glasgow.
mid-1800s David Cook and Co was the successor to James Cook; supplied sugar-making machinery to every part of the world. Chief designer was Robert Harvey.
When David Cook retired, Harvey established a new firm Robert Harvey and Co which took over the Cook company.
By 1848 the McOnie's concern had manufactured fifty engines and fifty mills. In that year the partnership was dissolved, William and Andrew McOnie formed W. and A. McOnie
1848 Peter McOnie joined with James Buchanan Mirrlees, forming McOnie and Mirrlees.
Between 1851 and 1876, W. and A. McOnie constructed 820 steam engines, 1650 sugar mills, 1200 steam boilers, 117 water wheels and 169 evaporating pans.
When Peter McOnie died, William Tait became partner in the renamed firm Mirrlees and Tait which spawned a number of other concerns including Watson, Laidlaw and Co; also Pott Cassells and Williamson. The output from these firms was prodigious.
1883 McOnie Harvey and Co was formed by the amalgamation of Harvey's and McOnie's.
As the industry in Glasgow expanded in the late nineteenth century, other firms began to build sugar machinery, notably Blair, Campbell and McLean, Duncan Stewart and Co and A. F. Craig and Co.
By 1908 McOnie Harvey and Co had become Harvey Engineering Co Ltd, specialising in the Harvey's patented design of evaporator.
1914 Another Glasgow company making sugar machinery was John McNeil and Co
After the Second World War, most of the surviving firms in Glasgow were taken over by A. and W. Smith and Co (now part of the Tate and Lyle group), with the exception of A. F. Craig and Co (which has recently ceased trading), and Duncan Stewart and Co (whose sugar business is now owned by Fletcher and Stewart of Derby).
A. and W. Smith and Co are heirs to most of the sugar manufacturing businesses that flourished in Glasgow from the early nineteenth century.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Usines Sucrieres de Mayotte (Sugar Refineries/Plant)
- The Times, 11 November 1908
- David Napier by David Napier and David Bell: Note 13