| C.
W. Benson was the first chairman, and other original directors were
Westinghouse and Bannister the Hon. R. Clere Parsons (consulting engineer
and brother to the turbine inventor), Joseph Lawrence, and J. Annan
Bryce. The registered office was at 63 Cornhill, and the auditors—unchanged,
except in style, to this day—were Deloitte, Dever, Griffiths
and Company.
 But
perhaps the most impressive name on the prospectus was that of the
technical adviser, Lord Kelvin. For the best part of fifty years
he had been the acknowledged leader of British science, mathematical
and physical, besides being renowned for inventions in telegraphy
and for his magnetic compass and sea-sounding apparatus.
The
Company was formed "for the purpose of establishing works for
the production of every description of electrical machinery and
appliances". An agreement with the Westinghouse Electric Company
of America provided for the complete interchange of technical information
and patents on electrical equipment for the British Empire (except
Canada), an arrangement that lasted for over twentyfive years.
A further
agreement with the Westinghouse Machine Company was reached three
weeks later, covering the manufacture of steam and gas engines.
This step was taken on Kelvin's advice that there would be advantages
in combining the manufacture of prime movers and electrical machines
in the same works.
There
had been much discussion in this country on the decline of British
engineering, and the formation of the new company was hailed with
satisfaction by the public, if not within the industry. The Electrical
Review in a carefully worded leader. The Stranger within our Gates',
concluded:
"it would be wrong to regard the
British Westinghouse Company in a hostile spirit: even if
it were more foreign in character one could hardly wish it
otherwise than a permanent success. It enters the electrical
field at a time when the demand is greater than the supply;
it will supply machinery of undoubted excellence, and its
affairs will be managed by men of experience. Under these
conditions it is difficult to see why it should fail". |
The closing words were to sound over-confident before many
years were out.
BUILDING THE WORKS
Before forming the B.W. Company, Westinghouse had been negotiating
for a site for the new factory, and his choice fell on Trafford
Park, the first of the industrial trading estates. The Park, which
was mentioned in the Domesday Book, had been sold by Sir Humphrey
de Trafford to E. T. Hooley, the financier, in 1896, two years after
the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. After toying with the
idea of a racecourse and public park, Hooley was persuaded by Marshall
Stevens, general manager of the Ship Canal Company, to agree to
the development of an industrial area.
|
