• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Dennison’s Birmingham's first light switch

In Dave's initial post from the Crabtree article, reprinted in Practical Mechanics Magazine of June 1937, A.L. Dennison believes that the Dennison factory was the first industrial building to enjoy electric lightning in the Midlands. But is he correct?

The article states that the exact date is not known, but it was about 1880 that Franklin Dennison installed a Chamberlain and Hookham 50V dynamo. According to Grace’s Guide, Chamberlain and Hookham came into existence in 1883, and in 1800 the firm looks to be Smith and Chamberlain, Solar Works, West Brom.

The Chamberlain here is Arthur, the brother of Joseph.
 
1880 - Dennison’s instals a dynamo powered by a gas engine, maybe a Tangye or a Belliss and Morcom? (But that’s just a speculation on my part.)

This morning I hear a bloke on the radio saying that all of the current batch of nuclear power stations that generate the electricity for our supergrid are nearing the end of their economic lives, and that there is only one new plant on the go, Hinckley Point, I think. The new generation equipment powered by natural resource, mainly wind turbines, cannot alone supply more than about half our needs on a Sunday. People are being encouraged to buy electric cars and to heat their homes by non carbon dioxide producing methods, which may mean electrically powered boilers, or radiators of some kind. (Hands up if you remember ”Economy Seven”).

Are we heading for a perfect storm of increased demand for electricity coupled with inability to generate the stuff?

The mental picture of the English Channel boiling as the overloaded EDF cables heat up in the struggle to transmit overpriced French electricity to U.K. comes to mind.

So, it might be back to generate your own and stuff the ozone layer. Anybody know Chamberlain and Hookham’s ‘phone number?

P.S. What a superb advert for Dennison’s watch cases. Redolent of the days when people had time to read a properly thought out pitch, not just a multi coloured unique selling proposition.
 
Last edited:
Johnfromstaffs said:
1880 - Dennison’s instals a dynamo powered by a gas engine, maybe a Tangye or a Belliss and Morcom? (But that’s just a speculation on my part.)

This morning I hear a bloke on the radio saying that all of the current batch of nuclear power stations that generate the electricity for our supergrid are nearing the end of their economic lives, and that there is only one new plant on the go, Hinckley Point, I think. The new generation equipment powered by natural resource, mainly wind turbines, cannot alone supply more than about half our needs on a Sunday. People are being encouraged to buy electric cars and to heat their homes by non carbon dioxide producing methods, which may mean electrically powered boilers, or radiators of some kind. (Hands up if you remember ”Economy Seven”).

Are we heading for a perfect storm of increased demand for electricity coupled with inability to generate the stuff?

The mental picture of the English Channel boiling as the overloaded EDF cables heat up in the struggle to transmit overpriced French electricity to U.K. comes to mind.

So, it might be back to generate your own and stuff the ozone layer. Anybody know Chamberlain and Hookham’s ‘phone number?

P.S. What a superb advert for Dennison’s watch cases. Redolent of the days when people had time to read a properly thought out pitch, not just a multi coloured unique selling proposition.
Click to expand...
John, many good points! My concern with electric cars is not enough charging stations and time to re charge although coming down. My observations having worked in the car and truck industry, one of the sleepers out there is hydrogen fuel cells. They can be compact and very scalable, most car makers and engine builders are developing hydrogen as quickly as possible. There are a lot of options for power developing, a little early to pick the winner at this point!
 
In November 1882, before Chamberlain and Hookham was formed, the Birmingham Daily Post reports that Messrs RW Winfield and Co. gave an electric-lighting exhibition at their works in Cambridge street.

"The electricity is generated by means of one of the engines which drives the machinery in the works...Two dynamo machines for Swann lights, one for the Compton. 105 lamps were lighted, 42 of which could be employed at the same time. By means of a special switch, which is the design of Mr Henry Lee, consulting mechanical engineer, the electric current can be sent to any of the lamps at once... all danger from fire is obviated by the wires being substantially coated with ozokerrited india-rubber and tape....A 5 horse power engine will drive the machinery for supplying the current either to the Swann lamps or to the Compton arc lamps.”
 
My speculation concerning the maker of the engine driving Dennison’s dynamo comes to nothing. The date is too early for Tangye, and Bellis and Morcom seem to have made steam engines and compressors at that time. I was hoping that the Birmingham manufacturer of watch cases would have an entirely Birmingham built generating set.
 
Very interesting history. One thing that is not mentioned is the belief that Dennison’s factory was the first industrial building in the Midlands to enjoy electrical lighting, and no mention of a fire.

It informs that Aaron Dennison (ALD) moved to England in 1871, and after a short stay in London he decided to set up home in Birmingham. Later it says he moved his family to Birmingham. This shows a mistake in Grace Guide where it states that he came in 1874. ALD is also recorded on the 1871 Census, where Aaron was a lodger in Hall Road, Handsworth, with William Midgley and down as watch maker.

He was possibly making arrangements to find suitable accommodation ?

On the 1881 census ALD is at 27, Villa Road with son Franklin. I have reproduced the picture from the Dennison site which they believe is 1871 and this could well be Villa Road ?

E39554A2-C21B-4C3D-B4E9-B762B2642F34.jpeg
 
i agree mike wrong shape to be the house in villa road....my guess its the right shape and size to be the house that aaron dennison was living in hall road in 1871...
 
Last edited:
Labour day event from Dennisons at Crown and Cushion Perry Barr. OMG that bouffant!
 

Attachments

  • Dennisons Labour day Rose and Crown enhanced.jpg
    Dennisons Labour day Rose and Crown enhanced.jpg
    197.4 KB · Views: 14
In 1871 ADL was lodger at 11, Hall Road with William Midgley, a retired brass founder. (Hall Road joins Villa Road)

In 1881 he had moved to 27, Villa Road with his wife, son Franklin and daughter. In 1891 he is at Wretham Road.
 
More information on the Dennison early years, and electric lights, can be gained from the Vintage Watchstraps site.

“After much searching he (ADL) found investors in Birmingham, England, who were prepared to put up the capital to buy the Melrose machinery and form a watchmaking company.

The company was initially called The Anglo-American Watch Company. The watches were understandably American in nature, with going barrels rather than fusees, and the initial products, uncased movements, were sent to America for sale, but there was little demand because of a financial recession at the time meaning that the market was already over supplied.

The name of the company was changed in February 1874 to The English Watch Company, presumably indicating a change in focus to selling watches on the British market. It appears that Dennison left the company at around this time.

In 1874 Dennison set up a watch case manufactory in the Handsworth area of Birmingham which eventually became the Dennison Watch Case Company. The early history of the company is rather unknown, despite the best efforts of Philip Priestley with the help of descendants of the founder to uncover it. A date of 1875 is suggested by a long service award to William McBeth in 1929 in recognition of 54 years service from the foundation of the company. However, it is generally believed that the business was started in 1874, coinciding with the establishment in Britain of a branch of the American Waltham Watch Company. Waltham began importing movements from its American factory and was desperate to find someone who could make the large numbers of cases required.

A record in the Birmingham Trade Directory of 1876 indicates a possibility that Edward Howard, one of the founders of the American company with Dennison and Davis in 1850, might have been an investor. Alfred Wigley, an engraver, polisher and springer of watchcases, was involved in some way right from the start, eventually becoming a partner in 1879. The company was called Dennison, Wigley & Company from 1879 until 1905.

In August 1888 The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith reported that Dennison & Wigley were making watch cases so successfully as to be able to send quantities to America in spite of the import duty charged on them. The company employed at the time 100 hands and the factory was ‘lighted throughout with electric light’.”

Aaron Dennison and The Dennison Watch Case Company

Aaron Dennison and The Dennison Watch Case Company
www.vintagewatchstraps.com www.vintagewatchstraps.com
 
Pedrocut.
There is also some other interesting information on the vintage watchstraps site. This will be of particular interest to Astoness, as it involves Dennison and the Anglo-American and the English Watch Co, which were situated at 45 Villa St, not far from the Dennison factory in Villa St. This is shown on the c1889 map below:


map c1889 villa st showing Watch manufactury at no 45 villa st.jpg
 
In the Birmingham Daily Post in January 1877 there is a long article about Birmingham watch manufacture and the English Watch Company. I can put it on if anyone wants it, but this bit adds more info...

"Passing along Villa Street one only sees a modest door plate bearing, the inscription English Watch Company as the outside indication of the important manufacturer carried on at the rear. The premises consist of 5 houses, an assembly room formerly a chapel, and three ranges of shopping, capable of accomodating at least 300 workmen. The whole area covering nearly an acre of land. Since acquiring the works the present company have considerably enlarged them, and introduced additional machinery, so that the power of production is largely increased...”
 
John. Shopping was used then to describe workshops only. I do not think the word was then used as a verb, though the word shops for an establishment to buy things was so used
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top