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The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. After initial problems, the company was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom. The company prospered through its development and production of a new short-range and short-barrelled naval cannon, the carronade. The company was one of the largest iron works in Europe through the 19th century. After 223 years, the company became insolvent in 1982.

Early years

The company was founded as a partnership by three men, two Englishmen, Dr John Roebuck, a chemist, and Samuel Garbett, a merchant, and a wealthy Scottish shipowner, William Caddell. The factory of "Roebucks, Garbett and Cadells" was established on the north bank of Carron Water, two miles north of Falkirk. Taking iron ore from Bo'ness and water from the Carron, they decided to use the new method pioneered by Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale, using coke from coal mines in the vicinity as fuel rather than the usual charcoal. The works helped to push other less technologically advanced ironworks, such as the Wealden iron industry based in the Weald, out of business.

Caddell's young son, also William, was appointed manager, and the company's financial position was precarious in its first few years. It took time and a considerable investment to create the necessary infastructure and for the largely unskilled workforce to develop the techniques of iron working. The first blast furnace became operational on 26 December 1760, producing pig iron. However, when the factory started to produce cast iron goods, they were of a generally poor quality. Nevertheless, in 1764, the Board of Ordnance granted the company a lucrative contract to supply armaments to the British armed forces. The company also cast parts for James Watt's steam engine in 1765.

The company's fortunes had begun to improve as a result of Charles Gascoigne becoming a partner in 1765. Gascoigne was a grandson of Charles Elphinstone, 9th Lord Elphinstone and had married Samuel Garbett's daughter in 1759. Gascoigne introduced many improvements in the company's techniques of production, and devoted considerable effort to increasing the quality of its work, and he took over the management of the works from William Cadell, Jr, in 1769.

The company received a royal charter to incorporate as the Carron Company in 1773. However, despite Gascoigne's efforts, the quality of company's products had remained low, and the company's contracts to supply the Royal Navy were cancelled in 1773, with the company's cannon being removed from all naval vessels.

Carronades

Undeterred, Gascoigne also pushed forward the development of a new type of cannon, originally known as the "Gasconades" but better known by its later name, the "Carronade". Easily identified by its considerably shortened barrel, the carronade had the same calibre as a long gun, but contained much less metal and so was much lighter, enabling naval vessels to carry many more carronades than long guns. The resulting short range was not a problem as a result of the close-to broadside tactics employed at the time. The new weapon was a considerable success, and remained in production from 1778 through to the 1850s. The company established such a reputation for quality that the Duke of Wellington remarked in a letter to Admiral Berkley in 1812 that he would only wanted cannon manufactured by the Carron Company his army. The company also made ammunition, including some invented Henry Shrapnel. The company also supplied armaments to governments outside the UK, including weapons supplied to the embryonic United States which were used against Britain in the War of 1812. The British government tried to prevent the company from supplying plans and equipment to the Russian Empire, intended to improve Catherine the Great's weapons foundry at Petrozavodsk; nonetheless, Gascoigne delivered the Russian's orders, and travelled to Russia in May 1786 to supervise the works. He remained in Russia for 20 years, dying in July 1806 in Kolpino near St. Petersburg as Actual State Councillor Karl Karlovich Gaskoin.

Prosperity and fall

By 1814, the Carron Company was the largest iron works in Europe, employing over 2,000 workers, and it attracted may innovataors. William Symington was an engineer for the Carron Company in the early 1800s, and the company made engines for his steamboats, the Experiment and the Charlotte Dundas . John Smeaton was a consultant for the company. Henry Cort experimented on methods to produce malleable iron, anticipating the puddling process. Benjamin Franklin visited the factory, leaving works and is said to have left a design for a stove- 'Dr Franklin's stove or the Philadelphia stove'

The company continued to produce pig iron through the 19th century, together with cast iron products such as ballustades, fire grates, and the Carron bath. It ran its own shipping line, and produced munitions in both World Wars, and telephone kiosks in the later 20th century. In the 1960s, it produced cast iron rings to line the Tyne Tunnel under the River Tyne from Jarrow to Howden and the Clyde Tunnel under the River Clydefrom Whiteinch to Govan near Glasgow.

The company diversified into plastics and stainless steel, but the works went into receivership in 1982.

Further reading

  • Where Iron Runs Like Water! A new history of Carron Iron Works 1759-1982, Brian Watters, John Donald, 1998.

External links

Defence companies of the United Kingdom | Defunct companies of Scotland | 1759 establishments | 1982 disestablishments

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Carron Company".

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