
Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several
iron foundries in both England and the United States during the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century.
Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular namesake for these foundries.
England
During the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, numerous entrepreneurs independently founded factories named Vulcan Iron Works in England, notably that of
Robinson Thwaites and
Edward Carbutt
Sir Edward Hamer Carbutt, 1st Baronet (22 July 1838 – 8 October 1905) was an English mechanical engineer and a Liberal politician. He served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Biography
Carbutt was the youngest son of ...
at Bradford, and that of Thomas Clunes at Worcester,
[McKenzie and Holland Ltd, Vulcan Iron Works, Worcester http://www.miac.org.uk/mckenzie.htm Retrieved 12 October 2011] England. The largest of all the ironworks of Victorian England, the Cleveland Works of
Bolckow Vaughan
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd was an English ironmaking and mining company founded in 1864, based on the partnership since 1840 of its two founders, Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan. The firm drove the dramatic growth of Middlesbrough and the prod ...
in Middlesbrough, were on Vulcan Street.
Thwaites & Carbutt, Bradford
The Vulcan Works at Thornton Road,
Bradford was a spacious and handsome factory. It was described in Industries of Yorkshire as
Ley's, Derby

The Vulcan Iron Works at Osmaston Road,
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gain ...
was founded in 1874 by
Francis Ley
Sir Francis Ley, 1st Baronet (3 January 1846 – 27 January 1916) was an English industrialist. He founded Ley's Malleable Castings Vulcan Ironworks in Derby. He (re-)introduced baseball into the United Kingdom town of Derby with the Ley's Re ...
(1846-1916). On a site occupying 11 acres by the
Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway
The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was a British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station. It now forms part ...
, he manufactured castings for motor cars.
[ The company became the Ley's Malleable Castings Company Ltd. In the London Gazette of April 14, 1876, Ley was granted a patent for "improvements in apparatus for locking and fastening nuts on fish plate and other bolts". The iron foundry was closed and demolished in 1986.]
McKenzie, Clunes & Holland, Worcester
The Vulcan Iron Works at Cromwell Street, Worcester was founded in 1857 by Thomas Clunes (b. 1818, d. 28 September 1879). The firm started out as "Engineers, Millwrights, Iron & Brass Founders, Plumbers etc", according to the listing in ''Kelly's Directory
Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in England that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses ...
''. The works had a single tall tapering square chimney, a covered area with open sides, and a handsome main building on a largely open site on the west side of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
By 1861, Clunes, a former "Plumber and Brass Founder" from Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...
, Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
living in St Martin's, Worcester, with nine children, was a "Master Engineer employing 104 men and 10 boys"; his son Robert at age 11 was an "Apprentice to Engineer".[The National Archives. 1861 England Census Record. Worcester, St Martin. RG 9/2092. District 11. Page 2.] In 1861, Clunes was joined by two former railwaymen, McKenzie and Holland, and the firm moved into railway signalling
Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enor ...
equipment. Clunes retired to Fowey, Cornwall, and his name was dropped from the company's name in the 1870s. The entry in the Worcestershire Post Office Directory for 1876 is simply "RAILWAY SIGNAL MANFRS. McKenzie & Holland, Vulcan Iron Works, Worcester."
Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows
The Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows produced ironwork for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...
, as well as locomotives
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; th ...
.
Vulcan Iron Works, Langley Mill
The G R Turner company's Vulcan Iron Works at Langley Mill, Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...
was built in 1874. GR Turner produced railway rolling stock until the 1960s; at its peak it employed 350 men. According to Grace's Guide, G R Turner was established in 1863; it became a Limited Company in 1902, and was registered on 29 January 1903 as acquiring T N Turner's business of "engineer, wheel and wagon maker"; in 1914 it was described as "Colliery Engineers" as well as making rolling stock, with 800 engineers.
Vulcan Ironworks, Preston
In 1857 the firm of Baxendale and Gregson was founded in Shepherd Street, Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
, Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...
. When the works there became too small, the business moved to a new Vulcan Ironworks, built at Salter Street, just off North Road, Preston, under the name Gregson and Monk.[
In 1873, James Gregson bought 82 acres of land at Fulwood; in 1876 he built Highgate Park mansion with the land as its extensive gardens. He owned much property in Preston and was a councillor of Fulwood District. His son George Frederick Gregson ran the firm after him.
When Monk retired in March 1874, James Gregson became sole proprietor. He employed about 400 men, making up to 100 weaving looms per week. Over 25,000 looms made by Gregson were claimed to be at work in or near Preston in 1884.][Our Local Industries. The Iron Trade. Messrs. Gregson and Monks, Vulcan Ironworks. (No. 9). Preston Chronicle, 30 August 1884. (Preston Digital Archive)]
Retrieved 16 February 2012.
The machines made by the firm included:[
The ironworks was reported in 1884 to have grindstones of 7 ft (2 metre) diameter; "two cupolas blown by fans, one of which is capable of melting twenty tons of metal per day"; cranes and hoists; a brass moulding shop; a sand mill (for the mouldings); and a machine for grinding coal to dust. The buildings included a draughtsmen's office; a pattern makers' and joiners' shop; a packing room; an erecting and turning shop; and a smithy. All the machines were driven by rope from a single large wheel; two horizontal steam engines powered the entire ironworks. The journalist noted that "The death rate among grinders is very high indeed, which it is almost impossible to prevent."][
]
United States
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Vulcan Iron Works, based in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in th ...
, manufactured railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
locomotives such as those shown in the illustration. The company was established in 1849 by Richard Jones. It built locomotives such as the preserved Berlin Mills Railway 7 (1911), and by 1944 was constructing both steam and diesel locomotives, as illustrated (right).[ The company ceased operation in 1954, and its assets were acquired by General Industrial Locomotive Corp.
]
War-time service
In February 1944, before the 'D-Day' Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, the company claimed
Today, hundreds of Vulcan locomotives are rendering vitally important war-time service, both at home and overseas, and our shops are working at top speed to complete urgent orders for Army, Navy and defense plant requirements. Tomorrow, more and larger Vulcan locomotives will be available to help rebuild a war-torn world. Our manufacturing facilities are being enlarged and improved ....
Locomotives
Vulcan produced a wide variety of steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s, mostly small but some with up to eight driving wheels. With the advent of internal combustion
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...
technology, the firm began producing small locomotives fueled not only with gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic ...
, but also benzine, alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
, kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was reg ...
and naptha. Vulcan produced its first diesel locomotives
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...
in the 1920s; a total of 54 diesel-electric switcher
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 inte ...
units (each weighing or more) came out of Vulcan's shops between 1938 and 1954. Its largest unit was a B-B unit built for Carnegie Steel Company
Carnegie Steel Company was a steel-producing company primarily created by Andrew Carnegie and several close associates to manage businesses at steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the late 19th century. The company was formed ...
in 1944. It also constructed the TCDD 56301 Class
The Turkish State Railways (TCDD) 56301 Class is a class of 2-10-0 steam locomotives known as "Skyliners". They were built by Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The 88 locomotives in this class were numbered 56301-88. The first ...
for the Turkish State Railways
The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları), abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible with the ownership and maintenance of railway infrastructure in Turkey ...
in 1947.
Vulcan built a large number of gasoline-powered locomotives with a mechanical drive, such as the Maumelle Ordnance Works Locomotive 1
Maumelle Ordnance Works Locomotive 1 is a gasoline-powered, mechanically driven, two-axle railway locomotive which was built in 1942 by Vulcan Iron Works (of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) for the United States War Department's Maumelle Ordnance W ...
, built in 1942.
Seattle
The Vulcan Iron Works in Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
had Jacob Furth as its president. Furth ran the Vulcan Iron Works along with the Puget Sound Electric Railway and street railways on the Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...
.[Clarence Bagley, ''History of Seattle from the earliest settlement to the present time'', Volume 2, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1916. p 732-738. This work is now in the public domain.]
San Francisco
A Vulcan Iron Works was established at 135 Fremont Street, San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in 1850 during the California gold rush. The factory occupied the block bounded by Fremont, Mission, Howard, and First Streets. The factory maintained the name through a number of owners building boilers, steam engines, mining machinery, sawmills, and some relatively primitive steam locomotives for 19th century California railroads. It built the Oregon Pony
The ''Oregon Pony'' was the first steam locomotive to be built on the Pacific Coast and the first to be used in the Oregon Territory. The locomotive, a geared steam 5' gauge locomotive with 9"X18" cylinders and 34" drivers, was used in the earl ...
in 1861.[Other Geared Steam Locomotives — Page STUV. Geared Steam Locomotive Works. 2010-05-30. URL:http://www.gearedsteam.com/other/other_stuv.htm.] The factory was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity s ...
, but steel fabrication activities resumed on the site after the quake.
Charleston
There was a Vulcan Iron Works on Cumberland Street, Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
, South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = "Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = G ...
in 1865.
See also
* Vulcan (motor vehicles)
References
{{reflist, 32em
External links
Preserved Vulcan Iron Works steam locomotive list
* ttp://www.prestonhistoricalsociety.org.uk/phs_display.php?mnImage=BH0971 Photograph of Gregson and Monk Engineers, Salter Street, Preston
Photograph of a Gregson and Monk power loom
Photograph of James Gregson's Highgate Park mansion, Preston in 1900
Photograph of a grate, cast by Vulcan Iron Works San Francisco
Finding Aid for Vulcan Iron Works collection at Hagley Library
Industrial machine manufacturers
History of Worcester, England
Foundries in the United States
Defunct locomotive manufacturers of the United States
Ironworks and steel mills in the United States
Industrial buildings in England
Foundries in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake