Donor : Keith Alder
Location
The West Hartlepool Steel & Iron Works were formed in 1881 after taking over part of the former Iron Works & Rolling Mills of Thomas Richardson (The West Hartlepool Iron Company)
Part of the Iron Works was extended and modified to produce steel using Siemens Marten Open Hearth Furnaces . As part of this new installation, an Overhead Travelling Crane was necessary, This would have run on iron rails mounted on horizontal beams and supported on vertical columns. The crane covered part of the steel plant-The Casting Bay, where the steel would be cast into ingot moulds,- The Cogging Mill, where the steel ingots would be rolled into slabs, fnally, No.3 Mill, where slabs would then be rolled onto steel plates.
This crane would be used for fitting ingots, rolls and other heavy items. It would have been powered by steam from a boiler and a steam engine mounted on a crane.
Joseph Booth, crane manufacturers in Leeds, quoted for the manufacture, supply and erection of a Steam Driven Overhead Crane in the New Steel Works constructed in 1883.
The West Hartlepool Steel & Iron Company was the pre curser to The South Durham Steel Corporation formed in 1967.
More detail »South Durham Steel Works later British Steel. SEE NOTE BELOW FOR HISTORY
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