Hans Renold (31 July 1852 - 2 May 1943) was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
/British
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
, inventor and industrialist in Britain, who founded the Renold manufacturing textile-
chain
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...
making business in 1879, and with
Alexander Hamilton Church
Alexander Hamilton Church (28 May 1866 – 11 February 1936) was an English efficiency engineer, accountant and writer on accountancy and management, known for his seminal work of management and cost accounting.
Biography
Church was born in U ...
is credited for introducing
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
also known as
Taylorism
Scientific management is a theory of management that Analysis, analyzes and wikt:synthesis#Noun, synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially Workforce productivity, labor productivity. It was one of the ...
to England.
Biography
Renold was born in
Aarau
Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...
, Switzerland into a
burgher
Burgher may refer to:
* Burgher (social class), a medieval, early modern European title of a citizen of a town, and a social class from which city officials could be drawn
** Burgess (title), a resident of a burgh in northern Britain
** Grand Bu ...
family of that town. He attended the polytechnic school in Zurich, then worked in a drawing office in
St. Denis, Seine
Saint-Denis (, ) is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis had a population of 112,091 as of 2018. It is a subprefecture (french: sous-préfecture) of the department of Seine- ...
, France.
Renold came to London, England, and soon after to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, in 1873 at the age of 21 and found work with a firm of machinery exporters.
In 1879, with £300 borrowed from his prospective father-in-law, Renold purchased a small textile-chain making business in
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, Lancashire, from James Slater and started the Hans Renold business.
Hans Renold and his first wife Mary Susan Herford (1855-1919), were married in 1880, and had six children: Mary Katharine Renold,
Charles Garonne Renold
Sir Charles Garonne Renold J.P., LL.D (29 October 1883 – 7 September 1967) was a British engineer and pioneer of management science. Born in Altrincham, England, he was the son of Hans Renold, a Swiss-born engineer and businessman. He was D ...
, Amy Madeleine Renold, Mary Robberds Renold (died young), Hans Herford Renold (died young) and Austen Hugh Renold. He married Rowena Hague Pigott (1874-1962) in 1923.
*Naturalised British subject 1881
*Elected
M.I.Mech. E. 1902
*
J.P. for City of Manchester 1917
*Honorary D.Sc. from the
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...
1940
Work
Soon after starting the business in 1879, in 1880 Hans Renold invented the
bush roller chain. This represented a great advance on the common pin-and-link chains of the day and laid the design foundation upon which all modern precision roller chains are based. The firm immediately extended its business from textile chains into cycle chains for the new safety bicycle invented by
J. K. Starley.
Renold was not only a brilliant engineer and a model employer who built around him a very skilled labour force, but was also a very astute businessman. His business prospered and he steadily
ploughed back his growing profits into premises and plant. He moved the business to Brook Street, Manchester in 1881. In 1889 a rapid expansion of the business took place and a new factory, Progress Works, was built in Brook Street. In 1906, Hans Renold planned and started construction of Renold Works on open land at Burnage, five miles to the south of Manchester.
Renold had long been devoted to the ideal of establishing a firm sense of community among his employees and their families and in 1909 gave his active support to the establishment of the Hans Renold Social Union for the encouragement of a wide range of leisure activities.
After his death in 1943, Priestnall Hey, his former home in
Heaton Mersey
Heaton Mersey is a suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on the north-western border of Stockport, adjacent to Didsbury and Burnage in Manchester.
Heaton Mersey is a mostly residential area and commuter zone for Manche ...
adjacent to Renold Works at
Burnage
Burnage is a suburb of the city of Manchester in North West England, about south of Manchester city centre and bisected by the dual carriageway of Kingsway. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the population of the B ...
, was presented by his son for the use of the Hans Renold Social Union.
Hans Renold Limited was formed as a private limited company in 1903. It merged with The Coventry Chain Company Limited and was registered as a public limited company named Renold and Coventry Chain Company Limited in 1930. It was renamed Renold Ltd. in 1967, and later became Renold PLC. Nowadays the company still bears his name.
Patents
* Renold, Hans.
Driving-chain" U.S. Patent No. 690,317. 31 Dec. 1901.
* Renold, Hans.
A Corpora" U.S. Patent No. 690,318. 31 Dec. 1901.
* Renold, Hans.
Driving-chain HANS RENOLD." U.S. Patent No. 1,134,010. 30 Mar. 1915.
* Renold, Hans.
Driving-chain of the silent type" U.S. Patent No. 1180539. April 25, 1916.
References
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Renold plcHans Renold Ltd
{{DEFAULTSORT:Renold, Hans
1852 births
1943 deaths
19th-century British businesspeople
People from Aarau
19th-century Swiss engineers
Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom
19th-century Swiss inventors
People from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport