P. and W. MacLellan, Limited

P. & W. MacLELLAN, Limited, Clutha Works, Glasgow. Offices and Warehouse: 129, Trongate. Registered Offices : 8, Great Winchester Street, London.

    Having regard to the fact that our true greatness as a nation depends upon our industrial resources, our mechanical supremacy, and our advancement in the arts of peace, such a huge concern as that of P. and W. MacLellan, Limited, demands attention as a notable example of how that greatness has been achieved. At the Clutha Works, however, operations are conducted on so vast a scale that one is apt to be bewildered as well as impressed by the enormous size of these works, the diversity of the manufactures, the 2,000 workpeople employed, and the area of 13 acres which one has to traverse who is privileged to inspect the premises. But even these figures are incomplete, for they do not include the firm’s employees engaged elsewhere. It is computed that, besides the artisans and mechanics employed at the Clutha Works, the firm have in their employ upwards of 1,000 persons. These, however, are engaged in the various stores, warehouses, and offices.

    As may be supposed the firm is not one of recent origin, but is the outcome of gradual though rapid expansion. It was established early in the present century — in the year 1811 — and as P. and W. MacLellan it continued till the beginning of the year 1890, when the firm was transformed into a limited company ; descendants and connections of the founders, however, continue to have control of the concern, the directors being Messrs. George MacLellan Blair, chairman ; Graham Hardy Thompson, deputy-chairman ; George Scott MacLellan, James M. Blair, William Turner MacLellan, Walter T. MacLellan, and Henry MacLellan Blair. The first-named gentleman is managing director. The control of such a vast enterprise is one involving high administrative qualities as well as practical skill and commercial sagacity, and the partners have shown themselves to be possessed of these qualities in an exceptional degree.

    So extensive are the operations carried on that it is a matter of extreme difficulty to describe them or even to indicate their scope. For there is nothing incidental to the manufacturing of iron for engineering or for industrial requirements which are not made and supplied. As a consequence, the firm’s illustrated catalogues, admirably arranged and printed, constitute a series of sectional volumes numerous enough to be regarded as an industrial library, and are divided thus :- Machinery for Moving and Lifting Weights ; Steam-engine and Boiler fittings ; India Rubber goods, Prime Movers, including Engines, Boilers, &c. ; Pumps and Pumping Machinery ; Wood-working machinery ; Emery wheels ; Wire fencing ; Ships’ lamps, and Machine Tools of all descriptions.

    For the convenience of foreign and colonial customers the firm have arranged a code word for each of the goods included in their catalogues, thus enabling cablegrams to be sent at the minimum of cost, and facilitating the disposal of the articles ordered. This fact serves to indicate how wide are the firm’s connections, while it may be added that Messrs. P. W. MacLellan (Limited) have in their employ a staff of trained and fully competent men who can be dispatched to any part of the world in order to erect all kinds of engines, machinery, or structural ironwork generally. At the same time, for the benefit of customers who already possess skilled labour at hand, valuable hints and instructions are given by the firm in their catalogues.

    It may be stated, however, that the firm’s specialities are the manufacture of iron and steel bridges, roofs, jetty work, steel and iron railway carriages and waggons, steel and iron sleepers, and everything relating to permanent way. A proportion of these waggons are built to withstand the influences of hot climates, such as those of India, South Africa, the Colonies, and other countries in the East. Their manufacture is effected by special machinery so, that each part is interchangeable and their erection abroad greatly facilitated, the firm being in a position to execute orders with great rapidity, the output being equal to 100 waggons per week. The supply of machine tools is one of the most important features of the firm’s industry, and include brass finishers’ and engineers’ hand and treadle lathes, screw-cutting lathes of all kinds, self-acting, sliding, surfacing gap lathes of all sizes — not omitting capstan, turret, and other lathes too numerous to name. The firm’s horizontal, vertical, and boring machines have been specially designed to meet the modern requirements of engineers, shipbuilders, and boilermakers, and may be readily adapted to the nature of the work required. In this department are also included bench, cabinet, pillar, multiple, and other drilling machines; slotting machines, planing machines, punching machines, milling machines, emery grinding machines, profiling machines, and all the heavy class of machine tools requisite for shipbuilders, bridge builders, &c., &c.

    Another department of the works is devoted to steam engines and wood-working machinery for various purposes. These machines are of new and original design, the firm having spared no expense in adapting them to particular requirements, and so numerous are these that they can only be alluded to in general terms. They include circular saws, planing and thicknessing machines, moulding machines, tenoning machines, mortising machines, universal wood worker for planing, levelling, chamfering, tonguing, grooving, &c., frame saws, band saws, morticing chisels, augers and slot mortice bits, planing irons, moulding irons, Emery discs, saw files, gearing, pulleys, and hangers.

    Another department of great importance is that devoted to the manufacture of machinery for lifting and moving weights by hand, steam, electric, or hydraulic power. This includes chains and slings, ropes, pulley blocks, lifting jacks, crab winches, ships’ lifting gear, hoisting machines, and contractors’ machinery. As the alphabetical index of the numerous contrivances made in this department comprises two large pages of closely printed type, it is manifestly impossible here to give details ; but it may be stated in general terms that every conceivable appliance is here manufactured and can be supplied to customers either at home or abroad on exceptionally favourable terms. Similarly formidable is that section of the catalogue in which are set forth particulars of iron and wire fencing, gates and hurdles, manufactured by the firm for agriculturists and others. In connection therewith several specialities are made for export, including fencing such as is suitable for cattle runs in America and sheep runs in Australia ; there is one variety of fencing known as the Bullock Droppers, which has been extensively adopted for the enclosure of railway lines in South America and elsewhere. These contrivances have the merit of being strong and practically indestructible, and their use, consequently, is attended with remarkable advantages. Numerous varieties of barb fencing and wire netting are also manufactured for the Colonies as well as home requirements. Some designs are exceedingly ornate, particularly those intended for the enclosure of public grounds, for tree guards, &c. Gates and wickets of all kinds, some of the most elaborate descriptions are made, not to speak of others of a merely utilitarian character, such as those for level crossings, &c.

    Although at the Clutha Works the iron goods constitute the staple industry, the department occupied with India rubber, gutta percha, and leather goods for mechanical and other purposes is a very important one, and is after all cognate to the sections already mentioned. This is a very comprehensive department, ranging from all kinds of machine belting to India rubber mats, leather laces, tubing, and asbestos goods.

    Clutha Works, it should be added, is situated alongside the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Stock Railway, which comprises the Glasgow and South-Western and Caledonian Companies, and this, of course, is an immense advantage whether as regards the receipt of materials or the dispatch of finished goods. For the purposes of their enormous trade, the firm have large stores all over Glasgow, particularly near the different railway stations where they have the largest and most varied stock in Scotland of rolled girders, Zore’s patent girders, channel iron, angle iron, tee iron, best Yorkshire iron, Flitch and Sandwich plate, rivetted girders, bulb tees, rouads, square and flat iron, galvanized and corrugated roofing sheets, chequered plates, rails fishplates, and fastenings, Swedish bars (rounds, squares, and flats to 6 inches), shafting iron, and best cast steel. Great attention is paid to iron and steel girders of all types for structural work generally.

    The main offices and warehouses are in the Trongate. These were rebuilt a few years ago, and now form one of the most complete in the trade — probably in the whole world. The frontage is large and imposing, the building being constructed of freestone and red granite, and the block extends to the rear a distance of over one hundred yards ; structurally, therefore, the warehouse is a very fine one. It consists of three floors, but there is a centre passage, something like an arcade, which stretches the whole length of the building and is lighted by the glass roof overhead. In the warehouse there is an immense stock of ironmongery of every description, including furnishings for shipbuilders, engineers, railway companies, collieries, etc. All the specialities mentioned as being manufactured at the works are, of course, in stock, including tools and mechanical appliances of all kinds. The firm are agents for Milner’s safes, for gas and petroleum engines of all kinds, and, indeed, for every useful mechanical contrivance worthy of keeping in stock. Besides their Glasgow works, warehouses, and offices, the firm have their registered offices in London situated at 8, Great Winchester Street, E.C. These constitute an important distributive centre both for the home and the export trade, and are, indeed, indispensable now that the firm’s connections have become world-wide.

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