David Spence

DAVID SPENCE, Grocer, Spirit Merchant, General and Shop Outfitter, 83, Stockwell Street, Glasgow. Works: 75, Robertson Street.

    An establishment of great distinction in its own particular line of industry is that conducted by Mr. D. Spence, which was founded at the present address by Mr. James Anderson in 1840 and taken over by the present proprietor in 1881.

    The premises consist of a double fronted shop with extensive warehouse accommodation. There is also in connection with the above a factory at 75, Robertson Street, where a large staff of practical scale, beam, and weighing machine makers, tinsmiths, and japanners are employed. A very extensive stock of grocers’, spirit dealers’, dairy, and bakers’ utensils is held, together with all kinds of general ironmongery, scale, beam, and weighing machines, &c.

    In the executive department all kinds of tinsmiths’, copper, zinc, brass, and japan work is turned out in the best style of workmanship. The proprietor, having every appliance and employing only first-class workmen, is prepared to undertake every description of blacksmiths’ work and general repairs. Repairs will be called for and sent back finished in a few hours’ time at prices which cannot be equalled. Beams, scales, and other trade requisites are lent to grocers and provision dealers, spirit merchants, butchers, and tobacconists, &c., while their own are under repair. The distinctive trade mark of the house is “Justice and the sign of the Canister”.

    A speciality that has been invented, patented, and is solely manufactured by Mr. Spence is the “Jubilee Fire Extinguisher”, which is an entirely new invention. It is easily carried in one hand, and the simplicity and quickness of its action is such that a stream of fire-extinguishing fluid can be instantly applied to any spot within a radius of from thirty-five to forty feet. This new invention is made in six sizes to hold from 4 gallons to 48 gallons of fluid. It is of a neat and ornamental appearance, and is fitted so as to stand or hang in any prominent position from which it can be easily and quickly lifted when required, and will remain ready for instantaneous application for an indefinite number of years. There is no apparatus for the purpose which can be used with more simplicity or quickness of action than this extinguisher. It is in every way self-acting and is superior to all others in that it is not liable to be set in action by any accidental change of position. In warehouses and mills, where inflammable goods are kept, these extinguishers are simply indispensable ; to shopkeepers with goods in close proximity to gas jets they are equally so, as they will in every case, when properly used, extinguish a fire immediately on its discovery.

    A large and well-established trade is done throughout the City and adjacent towns. Mr. Spence is a thoroughly practical craftsman and of the highest status in the trade and manufacturing circles.

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