Portable Drilling Machine

This drill was one of two large portable drills used in the Coatbank Engine Works of Murray and Paterson.

These very versatile drills could be lifted by an overhead crane inside the factory and moved to where they were needed. This was very useful because sometimes it was not possible to transport the thing being built to one of the larger fixed drilling machines.



© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This drill was made in the 1960s to replace a very similar model by the same maker, Asquith which by then had been taken over by the Staveley Machine Tool Company.

Here you can see the two mobile drills inside the works. Murray and Paterson were one of the biggest engineering firms in Coatbridge. They made machinery for the iron and steel industries and also built rudders for ships.

Vertical Plate Bending Rolls

From Thomas Hudson and Company’s Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

Known as ‘pinch rolls’, these powerful rollers were used to shape the plates used to make boilers.

The forward roller could be lifted vertically by a crane and then shifted backwards in stages to increase the curvature of the boiler plate as it was slowly rolled back and forth between the rollers.

© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

You can see in the photograph the overhead line shaft that drove the rolls via a thick belt drive. By the time this photo was taken the machine was no longer in use.

Hydraulic Pump

This large three-throw pump was built to generate the large amounts of power needed by a steel testing machine.

The tensile testing machine pulled samples of steel apart to see how strong they were. The testing machine itself was built for Mossend Steel Works in Bellshill and was later moved to Glengarnock Steel Works. It is now on display in the exhibition hall at Summerlee.



© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

The pump was powered by the large Westinghouse electric motor that you can see bolted to it. Hydraulic power has the advantage that it can be flexible and can transmit tremendous power over distances and round corners.

The photograph shows the pump in-situ at Glengarnock.

Plate Edge Planer

This huge horizontal planing machine was used to trim the edges of the large steel plates used in boilers.

Boilers could be very large and had to be strong. This meant it was better to use large steel plates so that fewer joins were needed.

The flat steel plate was clamped into the planer and then the cutting head slowed moved along to cut it. The machine was driven by a belt from an overhead line shaft. Looking at the machine you can see the drum where the belt attached on the right: in fact there are three drums, one to make the cutting tool go left, one to make it go right and one to put the machine into neutral.



© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This particular plate edge planer was built in Glasgow around 1890 by the little-known engineering company of Crow Harvie. It was used in the Sheepford Boiler Works of Thomas Hudson and Company as shown in this photograph.

Sheepford Boiler Works

The boiler making workshop of Thomas Hudson and Company was on Locks Street, Coatbridge.

Hudsons was founded in 1870 and built not only boilers but also items for the coal mining industry such as screens. The screens were perforated steel plates that were used to sort the coal.





© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Licensor www.scran.ac.uk



Thomas Hudson patented two boiler designs of his own. The works was enlarged and re-equipped around 1890.

In later years the firm no longer made boilers, concentrating instead on the production of perforated plates. The Sheepford Works eventually closed in the 1980s but some of the machinery was saved and brought to Summerlee. It is now a unique and important part of our Recognised Collection of National Significance.

The company archive is cared for at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre, Motherwell.