The Scottish Boiler Insurance and Engine Inspection Company
The Scottish Boiler Insurance and Engine Inspection Company, 141, Buchanan Street, John D. Young, Managing Director.—
Very few fields of human activity are there into which the element of insurance has not been introduced in some form. Among the most interesting and important features of the system introduced in Scotland in comparatively recent years is that represented by the Scottish Boiler Insurance and Engine Inspection Company. The company was formed in 1881 with the object of bringing within the reach of Scottish steam users the same advantages of boiler insurance that had been enjoyed by their contemporaries in England for the past quarter of a century ; or, in other words, to admit Scotch inspectors connected with a native company having the power to insure, or declare eligible for insurance, boilers and engines, which have heretofore been under the survey of English engineers, who have not the same acquaintance with the requirements of Scottish steam users.
The result of the operations of the company during the past six years has fully justified the expectations of its promoters and shareholders, as may be deduced from the following tabular statement of dividends paid each year subsequent to its inception:—1882, five per cent. ; 1883, five per cent.; 1884, seven and a half per cent.; 1885, ten per cent.; 1886, ten per cent.; 1887, ten per cent. Under such auspices it may safely be predicted that the sphere of operations of the company will become widely extended.
Apart from the actual business of insurance, the company take the place very much of technical advisers or experts in all matters relating to the safe and economical use of steam-power, their clients have the advantage of this, and are invited to consult with their chief engineer, Mr. R. D. Munro, in any difficulty. They supply specifications for all descriptions of boilers and machinery, and inspect the same during construction.
Within the last few weeks this company has acquired the business of the English and Scottish Boiler Insurance Company, of 58, Fountain Street, Manchester. They are, therefore, now established in England with an already widely-formed connection. Recognising the importance of keeping close touch with the insurers, they have retained as their head office for England the premises of the late English and Scottish Company, and all business relating to the inspection and reporting upon boilers there will be conducted from that centre with the same energy and perseverance as has characterised them in the North. We have no doubt that the Company will be equally successful in this much larger sphere among the steam users of the South.
The managing director of the company is Mr. John Drummond Young, on whom devolves the active conduct of the affairs of the organisation, and that he has been successful in his efforts is not indicated by mere statistical results of good management, but by the esteem and confidence in which he is held by his confreres, among whom are numbered many of the leading engineers, capitalists, and commercial men of Scotland.
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