John Gilmour & Co.

MESSRS. JOHN GILMOUR & Co., Manufacturers of Bricks and Tiles, &c., 10, Cook Street, S.S., Glasgow.

    A firm engaged in the fire-clay business, which is, moreover, possessed of its own coal-pits, may be assumed to be in the enjoyment of an exceptionally important trade, and to carry on operations upon an unusually extensive scale.

    Such is certainly the case as regards Messrs. John Gilmour & Co., whose pits and fields are at Bonnyton, Kilmarnock, and whose Glasgow Office and depot are at No. 10, Cook Street, South Side. This firm — an old-established one — was founded by Mr. John Gilmour, whose name it perpetuates. He, some years ago, was succeeded by Messrs. John Morton and James Parker. These gentlemen, though still retaining the name of the founder, are now the only active partners in the concern. Under their control the business, which from the first has been an important one, has attained more considerable dimensions, till now it is about the most notable of its class in the whole country, and is still developing in a remarkable degree. The partners appropriately divide the administrative work, Mr. Parker attending to the productive branch of the trade at Bonnyton, while Mr. Morton manages the distributive department in Glasgow. Effective supervision in both branches is thus secured.

    Every description of fire-clay goods, both useful and ornamental, is manufactured by the firm, including white and coloured enamelled bricks and tiles, enamelled kitchen and scullery sinks, enamelled washtubs, enamelled wash-out closets, facing and fire bricks, chimney cans, sewerage pipes, vent linings, oncomes, flooring tiles, cattle troughs, horse mangers, &c. The mere enumeration of this formidable list will help to give a notion of the diversity of purposes to which fire-clay is now applied, and the varied forms of manufacture which its extended use has called into existence. In fact the sanitary importance now-a-days of this material cannot be over-estimated. It is non-corrosive, cleanly, and in certain forms handsome.

    There are few firms, of course, which manufacture it so comprehensively as Messrs. John Gilmour and Co., and it must be borne in mind that few possess such remarkable facilities. Also must it be remembered that the possession of these facilities, and the fact that they are themselves distributors as well as pit and field owners and manufacturers, enable them to supply all kinds of fire-clay requisites at first cost. Hence they have an immense advantage over mere traders, and consequently their trade connections are very extensive.

    At their Bonnyton works several hundred hands are employed, but for the present we are concerned not so much with these as with the Glasgow branch, where goods are stored and thence despatched all over the country. These premises are admirably suited to the requirements of the firm’s business. A railway runs almost overhead, and the arches form the best possible stores for the finer sort of bricks, &c. Moreover, their yard is almost enclosed with buildings wherein other goods are stored in immense quantities, and the stock is as diversified as it is great.

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