Alfred Muller Simpson

Alfred Muller Simpson (4 April 1843 – 28 September 1917), invariably known as Alfred M. Simpson or A. M. Simpson, was a South Australian industrialist, a principal of the manufacturing firm of A. Simpson & Son. He was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1887 to 1894.

Alfred M. Simpson was born in England, the son of silk hat manufacturer Alfred Simpson (1805 – 23 September 1891) and his wife Sarah Simpson, née Neighbour ( – 30 December 1874). The name "Muller" or "Müller" was bestowed on him in recognition of a business partner who proved unreliable, and thenceforth never mentioned by the family. After a series of financial setbacks the family emigrated, virtually penniless, to South Australia on the John Woodhall, arriving in January 1849, and in 1855 founded in Gawler Place the hardware firm that in April 1864 became A. Simpson & Son.

The young Alfred was educated at Mr. Martin's school in Pirie Street 1855–1856. He was from age 14 apprenticed as a tinsmith at his father's shop and worked for his father until his 21st birthday, when he was made a partner in the business. He gradually took greater control of the business, replacing simple hand tools with power machinery of all kinds — drills, grinders, guillotines, mills and presses, all belt-driven from overhead shafts driven by steam engines. The company's workforce grew from half-a-dozen to 500. He installed a foundry which became the largest consumer of pig iron in the colony. The range of products of the factory was ambitious. A notable product was a safe, whose fire-resisting properties were satisfactorily proved at a trial in the Adelaide Parklands in 1866, and exhibited the following year at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition. A later model of the Simpson safe, following a rash of safe-blowing by "dynamitards", featured an explosion-proof lock. Simpson safes were to be found in banks and offices for much of the century. Bakers' ovens introduced around the same time and employing similar technology, were similarly successful and durable. The precision frames for the ovens were cast at Samuel Strapps' foundry in Currie Street. In 1868 a new factory was built at the corner of Grenfell Street and Gawler Place. In 1871 another factory was built further south on Gawler place, in the old (1841) Congregational chapel, once the home of J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution. In 1876 they purchased a section on the corner of Pirie Street and Gawler Place. In 1894 vacant land in Wakefield Street was purchased from C. G. Everard for another factory, which later occupied 3 acres (1.2 ha).

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