R. Campbell & Co.

R. CAMPBELL & Co., Brass Founders, &c., 9, Melville Place, 132, Trongate, Glasgow.

    The rapid and successful advancement of the undertaking established seven years ago by Messrs. R. Campbell & Co., of Glasgow, presents an example of enterprise indispensable to the interest of any work dealing with the modern aspects of trading activity in this City ; and as brass founders, engaging comprehensively in all the branches and departments of that industry, this firm have attained a prominent and creditable place. The business has necessarily derived a sound impetus from the practical skill and tact of Mr. John McArthur, who, along with his late partner and confrere, Mr. Robert Campbell, gained an extensive and thorough experience in the trade in the employment of Messrs. McLaren. That once eminent firm is not now in existence, and this circumstance has had the effect of transferring the bulk of their trade to Messrs. Campbell, who were well known to the patrons of the late house. Mr. McArthur had the misfortune to lose his fellow-worker by Mr. Campbell’s death about a year ago, though the place has been admirably filled by Mr. Daniel Campbell, who was assumed into the firm ; and the business over which both gentlemen are called upon to preside is one that gives promise of even further expansion and development.

    Situated in the Trongate at that part known as Melville Place, the firm’s premises are both central and convenient. Three flats are fully occupied, and throughout these the mechanical and other resources have been developed in a manner which the most casual observer will readily appreciate. The first department is principally devoted to the preparation of patterns and moulds, and attention is readily directed to the corner where an immense heap of rough brass cuttings indicates the class of material treated in the two small furnaces at hand for melting and refining the brass, preparatory to its reception into the moulds. The castings are finished on the floor above, where a fine equipment of ten lathes is ever busy in smoothing and filing the articles towards completeness. On this floor also is a neat little office in which is kept an assortment of specialities for the convenience of those transacting business with the firm, and the third floor constitutes a commodious storeroom for the patterns, the quantity and variety of which alone serve to show the immense amount of work overtaken by the firm during their brief term of trading.

    Messrs. Campbell operate largely in the production of cranes for steam and water fittings, bell-hanging, and gas and water appliances and castings of every class and description. They have become identified with an ingenious appliance for the prevention of water-waste which has already attained due recognition and appreciation, and they transact a very busy trade in the repair and adaptation of all kinds of brass foundry work. Every detail of the industry is carried out with the uniform precision which tends to the completeness of the largest and smallest operations alike. All work is subjected to the close personal scrutiny of one or other of the partners, and such systems of oversight speak well for the capabilities of a firm who have relaxed no exertions to render their undertaking a useful factor in the brass founding activity of Glasgow, the prosperous character of which it creditably exemplifies.

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