Modern Hydraulic Machinery - Tweddell's System
Some selected pages taken from a catalogue of machinery, dated 1915
This catalogue, in both English and French, runs to some 200+ pages of descriptions and illustrations of machine tools.
COVER PAGE – This is the brown cover page of the 1915 catalogue. The more widely available version is the 1928 catalogue with a blue cover.
PAGE vi, INTRODUCTION – Page introducing the company and highlighting the extensive range of machine tools manufactured by the company.
PAGE vii, NOTE AND TERMS – This page is a continuation of the Introduction and describes the company’s business terms and conditions of sale.
PAGE viii, CUSTOMERS LIST – A page listing the names of Governments and Firms to whom equipment was supplied.
PAGE ix, ADVANTAGES OF RIVETTING – An interesting page describing the benefits of Tweddell’s Portable Rivetters.
PAGE 211, SHORT CODES – Another interesting page that is worthy of expansion. In these early years it should be assumed that written communication between the parties could only be undertaken by letter or telegram, the latter being expensive and probably charged by the number of letters or words contained therein. Accordingly, the company must have devised a system of code words that could be used for communication. Most products in the catalogue had allocated their own unique code word. These could therefore identify the correct product to enable manufacture and, together with the appropriate code word, initiate an order using the minimum number of words thereby reducing the cost and adding an element of security at the same time!
It is not clear when this system was devised or when it ceased but catalogues from the late 1890s through to the 1920s, possibly beyond, all contained these pages.
PAGES 213 TO 215 – These pages provide an illustration of machine tools and the buildings and equipment required to set up a comprehensive locomotive building workshop.
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PAGES 216 TO 219 – These pages with illustrations of the heavy machine shop in the early years are a reprint from Gentlefolk and the Great North Magazine, June 1905. The text is worthy of a read, which is presumably the reason why the article was included in the catalogue in the first place!
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Click on the hyperlink to see a photograph of Ralph Hart Tweddell.
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