Welcome

Gathering the Jewels features over 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.

Search the map

Thumbnail image of Wales,

New to Gathering the Jewels is G.I.S. A geographical search facility that will enable searching by location and place name.

Topics

Home » Industry » Metal mining and manufacturing » Machinery

Displaying results 1 to 4 out of 4

Page 1

  • John Wilkinson was a native of Cumberland but became instrumental in developing the iron and associated industries in the Wrexham area in the late eighteenth century. In 1763, John and his brother William founded the New Bersham Company, having inherited the ironworks from their father, Isaac Wilkinson. Bersham soon led the world in the field of iron technology and later John joined up with James Watt in the manufacture of steam engines. Wilkinson also developed associated sites such as the Minera Lead Mines where he built a smelting pit. In 1792 he bought the Brymbo Estate where he set up a new ironworks. This letter is addressed to Hugh Meredith, Minera, Wrexham.
Letter from John Wilkinson to Hugh Meredith, regarding Brymbo ironworks, 4 October 1799 [image 1 of 4]
  • Presented to the Royal Institution of South Wales, by Messrs. Vivian & Sons Ltd, Hafod Copper Works, Swansea, 1920. John Henry Vivian (1785-1855), one of the most important figures in the South Wales copper industry during the 19th century, built the Hafod Copper Works in 1809. From the mid eighteenth century until the late nineteenth century the Welsh copper smelting industry was internationally pre-eminent. Initially based on the smelting of Cornish copper ores with the metallurgical coals found in the Swansea, Llanelli and Neath area, from the second quarter of the nineteenth century copper ores were imported from all parts of the world. Many of the older smelting concerns were established with Cornish capital, including the largest concern of all, Vivian & Sons. The dominant product of the works of 'Copperopolis' as Swansea termed itself was ingots, although in the nineteenth century the larger works installed rolling mills to produce sheets and plate. Welsh smelted copper was exported to most parts of the world. The industry rapidly declined in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as a result of smelting works being established nearer to the mines which formerly supplied Swansea with its ores.
Four-inch oscillating steam engine, 1865
  • Westinghouse Engines, 1904.
Photograph Album presented to J. H. Darby, Brymbo Steelworks, 1908 [image 26 of 46]
  • Nuremberg Engine, 1907.
Photograph Album presented to J. H. Darby, Brymbo Steelworks, 1908 [image 27 of 46]