Bruce Peebles & Co. Ltd. was an Edinburgh industrial electrical engineering company.

Early history

The company was founded as D. Bruce Peebles & Co. by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

engineer David Bruce Peebles (1826–1899) in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1866. The company initially specialised in gas engineering but later expanded to include electrical engineering as well. It continued to trade after Peebles' death and, in 1902, the name was changed to Bruce Peebles & Co. Ltd. The company held the British manufacturing rights for the

Cascade converter A cascade converter is a type of motor-generator which was patented in 1902 by J. L. la Cour and O. S. Bragstad. It consists of an induction motor driving a dynamo through a shaft. In addition, the rotor of the induction motor is electrically c ...

and a licence to manufacture

three-phase Three-phase electric power (abbreviated 3φ) is a common type of alternating current used in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system employing three wires (or four including an optional neutral r ...

electrical equipment designed by Ganz of

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Canadian Electric Traction Company

In 1903, Peebles expanded into Canada. Along with other investors, it formed the Canadian Electric Traction Company and supplied the three-phase equipment, car motors and generators for the South Western Traction Company of

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...

. The main line ran 28-miles between London and

Port Stanley Stanley (; also known as Port Stanley) is the capital city of the Falkland Islands. It is located on the island of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2016 census, the city had a popula ...

, a resort town on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. It was the only three-phase traction line in Canada, and was closed in 1918.

New factory

In 1904 the company opened a new factory at a site in East Pilton, Edinburgh, employing 3,000 at its peak in the 1950s. The works had its own internal railway system, which was electrified and used electric

shunting locomotive A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

s built by Peebles themselves. This was the first electric line in Edinburgh (main line electrification did not reach Edinburgh until the early 1990s). In 1905 the company was exhibiting at the

Third International Electric Tramway and Railway Exhibition The Third International Electric Tramway and Railway Exhibition was held in the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a main ...

. It also manufactured at least one (from an order of ten)

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or ga ...

s for the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway.

War work

During both World Wars, the works produced shells, submarine and aircraft parts, tank and electrical equipment such as mobile search lights and minesweeping units.

Woodhead Line electrification

It was the main sub contractor for the electrification of the Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield from 1947–1954, a major engineering achievement. Throughout this period it specialised in large scale

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

s for

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

s, including the world's largest 400 kV 'quadrature booster' for the UK national grid. It also produced heavy

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...

s for various uses, including railway locomotives.

Ownership changes

The company became part of the Reyrolle Parsons Group in 1969, part of Northern Engineering Industries in 1977 and part of

Rolls-Royce plc Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...

in 1989. Many young electrical engineers were taken on by this company, with a special course in electrical engineering being run at the nearby

Telford College Telford College is a further education college in Telford, Shropshire, England. It operates from one main site and many in-company training sites and community-based courses spread out across Shropshire and the whole of the United Kingdom. Dur ...

. They gained skills in highly specialised work, and Peebles' products were exported all over the world. The late

Ron Brown Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairman of the Democratic National Co ...

, MP for Leith, was employed by the company, as was the late Sir Duncan McDonald who was the chief transformer designer.

The business divided

In 1998 the business was split, with the Peebles Electrical Machine Division (Motors & Generators) being acquired by Pope (Australia) and the Transformer Division going to the Austrian company

VA Tech VA Tech Wabag Ltd. is an Indian multinational company with headquarters in Chennai, India. Founded in Breslau in 1924, the company is focussed on desalination and water treatment for municipal and industrial users. The company has completed m ...

Transformer division

In April 1999 a substantial fire destroyed the main transformer works in East Pilton. The company decided that a replacement factory should be relocated to

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

Docks to better facilitate transfer of the largest transformers onto ships for export. The Pilton site was sold for residential redevelopment. VA Tech closed the Leith factory during 2005 and continued service work only. The entire VA Tech company became part of Siemens that year.

Motors & Generators division

The motors & generators business relocated to Wood Road in the nearby

Rosyth dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation in the 1990s it was ...

. Parsons Peebles Motor & Generators was acquired by Clyde Blowers Capital in January 2013. The company is still located in the Royal dockyard Rosyth and continues to manufacture and service specialised motors and generators.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce Peebles and Co. Ltd. Manufacturing companies of Scotland Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Electrical engineering companies of the United Kingdom