Machinist - Gun - Loose Cannon 1898

by Mike Savad

Title

Machinist - Gun - Loose Cannon 1898

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Colorized photo from 1898
Original title: Elswick - Finishing big guns
Photographer: Bain News
Location: Newcastle, UK

It must have been very romantic to cut metal by gas light.

This is the Elswick Ordnance shop located in Newcastle UK. The exact address isn't known as this was a very large company with a long history. And they seem to have changed names over the years and divided the company up. Let's just say, this was one of them.

They built the guns that went onto ships in the 1890s, the company itself was started in 1859, so they were doing this for a while. This section of the shop made the big guns (or big for that era). These particular guns are 39 ton breech loaders (or at least that's what my research told me). This company turned out 6500 tons of guns, torpedo tubes, artillery and mountings per year.

A 10-inch gun took about a year to make. While a 100-ton gun took at least 18 months. As you can see here, there was no electricity, just belt drives. Look at the lighting, not a single bulb or wire, they did it with gas lamps and a huge mirror. There seems to be wood on all the lathes, I think they have there there because they get on them and it must have been slick with oil. That's my guess anyway.

It does make you wonder a bit how anyone moved around in a crowded room like this. Imagine bumping into that cannon that is located right behind you, and it rolls off that loosely stacked pile of lumber? That would be messy. I also noticed there was a collection hole in the floor for the oil, I never saw that in a shop, I wonder where the oil went?

Uploaded

January 19th, 2021

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