A Long Boring Story: the Kearns Milling Machine

Engineering machine tools often had very long working lives and were passed from firm to firm, their provenance becoming more vague and shrouded in rumour and mystery.

Even by those standards the story behind this machine seems extraordinary. A horizontal boring, facing and milling machine, it ended its days in the Greenock works of J Gardiner and Company. However, according to what Summerlee staff were told when they acquired the machine in the mid-1980s it was used to make weaponry in both the early and later years of the 20th century.

The story is that the machine was used to make torpedoes during the First World War and later on made parts for Seacat missiles. If anyone can verify this I would love to hear from them.

The machine was built sometime around 1914 by Kearns and Company of Manchester.

We would be very interested to hear from anyone who worked for Gardiners as we have a number of machine tools from them. You can drop me an e-mail at ParkesJ@culturenl.co.uk.

Doors Open Days at Summerlee

This year for the first time we are opening up the Industrial History Store at Summerlee for a behind the scenes peek at some of our collections that are not on permanent display.

Tours run at 11am, 12pm, 1pm and 2pm on Saturday 7 September 2013. They will take in the Engineering Pavilion, the Sawmill and the Industrial History Store, where you will see some of our star objects.

To book a place on one of the tours call the museum on 01236 638352.