Bruce Peebles & Co. Ltd. was an Edinburgh industrial
electrical engineering company.
Early history
The company was founded as D. Bruce Peebles & Co. by
Scottish engineer
David Bruce Peebles
Bruce Peebles & Co. Ltd. was an Edinburgh industrial electrical engineering company.
Early history
The company was founded as D. Bruce Peebles & Co. by Scottish engineer David Bruce Peebles (1826–1899) in Edinburgh in 1866. The company ...
(1826–1899) in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
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 electrical equipment designed by
Ganz
The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
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, approximate ...
. 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 h ...
. 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
Pilton is a residential area of northern Edinburgh, Scotland. It is to the north of Ferry Road, immediately east of Muirhouse, and to the west and south of Granton (the Boswall, Royston Mains and Wardieburn neighbourhoods).
Description
Somet ...
, 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, London from 3 July 1905 to 14 July 1905
It was a successor event to the Second International Tramways and Light Railways Exhibiti ...
. 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 g ...
s for the
Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway
The Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (PB&SSR) was a narrow gauge railway intended to connect Porthmadog with the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways link terminus at Rhyd Ddu. Although some of the line was constructed between 1 ...
.
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 ...
s, including the world's largest 400 kV 'quadrature booster' for the
UK national grid
In the electricity sector in the United Kingdom, the National Grid is the high-voltage electric power transmission Grid (electricity), network serving Great Britain, connecting power stations and major Electrical substation, substations and ensur ...
. 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 for ...
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
Northern Engineering Industries plc (NEI) was a British engineering firm, which for over 10 years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside. Its headquarters were based at the Regent Centre at Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne.
History
The com ...
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. 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
Sir Duncan McDonald (20 September 1921 – 23 February 1997) was a Scottish engineer and businessman closely associated with Northern Engineering Industries. He specialised in the development of ultra high voltage transformers. He pioneered the ...
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.
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