Butt Strap Drilling Machine

During the 1800s the steam pressure needed by steam engines got higher and higher. This meant that the outside of the boiler (called the ‘boiler shell’) had to be built very strongly.

The boiler shell was made by curving thick sheets of iron or steel into a tube. The ends were then overlapped and riveted together. A strip of iron called a ‘butt-strap’ was placed between the two ends to improve the seal.

A butt-strap and boiler shell drilling machine like this one was used to drill the holes for the rivets. The machine is lying flat now but originally stood upright with a turntable at its feet. The boiler shell was clamped to the turntable, which you can now see displayed nearby.

From Thomas Hudson and Companys Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

This illustration from a late 1800s engineering manual shows a similar machine. Our machine is bigger and was actually fixed to a column in the factory.

The drill is now displayed horizontally inside the Engineering Pavilion while the turntable is on display nearby.

Large Radial Drill

This big Tullis drilling machine was used at Thomas Hudson and Companys Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

This type of machine is called a radial drill because it can rotate around its centre column. This is a very versatile tool because the drill and be moved along the horizontal arm and the arm itself can be moved up and down as well as rotating around the centre column.



© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

This photograph shows the drill inside the Sheepford Boiler Works. Above it you can see a small crane attached to a pillar. Items would be lifted onto the table of the drill using a larger overhead crane that spanned the factory roof.

Boiler Shell Machine

This machine was used to turn and trim boiler shell plates in the Sheepford Boiler Works, Coatbridge.

After being shaped in the plate bending rolls the curved boiler plate was clamped onto the rotating table of this machine and turned against a static cutting tool.

The machine is a vertical lathe – just imagine a typical engineering lathe stood on end, the principle is exactly the same.

This drawing of a Hudson Patent Water Tube Boiler is from the Thomas Hudson and Company Archive which is held at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre, Motherwell.

Click on the image to see it at a larger size.

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.

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.