B. Hick and Sons
 |
|
| General partnership | |
| Industry |
Engineering Heavy industry |
| Predecessor | B. Hick and Son |
| Successor | Hick, Hargreaves & Co. Ltd. |
| Founded | 10 April 1833 |
| Founder | Benjamin Hick |
| Headquarters | Soho Iron Works, Crook Street, Bolton, United Kingdom |
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Number of locations
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2 |
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Key people
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John Hargreaves Jr. John Hick George Henry Corliss William Hargreaves William Inglis Robert Luthy Benjamin Hick John Henry Hargreaves |
|
Number of employees
|
1000 (1894) 600 (1961) 350 (1990) |
B. Hick and Sons, subsequently Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England.Benjamin Hick, a partner in Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell, later Rothwell, Hick & Co., set up the company in partnership with two of his sons, John (1815–1894) and Benjamin (1818–1845) in 1833.
Benjamin Jr left the company after a year for a partnership in a Liverpool company, possibly George Forrester & Co. In April 1841 he filed a patent for a governor for B. Hick and Son that featured on the front page of Mechanics' Magazine using his father's Egyptian winged motif.
The company's first steam locomotive Soho, named after the works was a 0-4-2 goods type, built in 1833 for carrier John Hargreaves. In 1834 an unconventional, gear-driven four-wheeled rail carriage was conceived for Bolton solicitor and banker, Thomas Lever Rushton (1810–1883). The engine was the first 3-cylinder locomotive and its design incorporated aerodynamic turned iron wheel rims with plate discs as an alternative to conventional spokes. The 3-cylinder concept evolved into Hick's experimental horizontal boiler A 2-2-2 locomotive about 1840, adopting the principle features of the vertical boiler engine. The A 2-2-2 design appears not to have been put into production.
Hick's wheel design was used on a number of Great Western Railway engines including what may have been the world's first streamlined locomotive; an experimental prototype, nicknamed Grasshoper, driven by Brunel at 100 mph, c.1847. The 10 ft disc wheels from GWR locomotives Ajax and Hurricane were lent to convey the statue of the Duke of Wellington to Hyde Park Corner in London.
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Wikipedia