Leeds Forge Company

The Leeds Forge Company manufactured corrugated furnaces for marine steam engine boilers and later, pressed steel railway vehicles, in Leeds, England.

The company was founded by Samson Fox, who was born in 1838 in Bradford, Yorkshire. Fox had been apprenticed to Smith, Beacock and Tannett of Victoria Foundry, Leeds, successors to Fenton, Murray and Jackson, who were early railway locomotive builders. While at Smith, Beacock and Tannett, Fox became their travelling representative, and became acquainted with Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock, who were major shipbuilders on the Firth of Clyde. Scotts provided a substantial proportion of the capital to establish the Leeds Forge at Castleton Field, Armley, Leeds in 1874, initially producing straight and cranked locomotive axles.

In 1877 Fox lodged a patent for his Corrugated Furnace. This was a tube (initially iron, later steel) heated and swaged (rolled) under pressure to form corrugations. This increased the surface area of the tube, allowing more energy to transfer from the fire to the boiler. The corrugations also provided additional strength to resist boiler pressure. The first order was from James Humphreys of Barrow-in-Furness, for six furnaces 3 ft 1 in (0.9 m) diameter and 7 ft 6 in (2.3 m) long. The next year Fox succeeded in obtaining an order for two American ships and by 1880, after considerable effort, had secured US patents. Also in 1880, the German company Schulz, Knaudt of Essen began production of the Corrugated Furnace under licence from the Leeds Forge. Leeds Forge rejected licence applications from other companies including Taylor Bros, Clarence Ironworks, Leeds and John Brown & Company, Atlas Works, Sheffield. After a slow start with many financial setbacks, Fox introduced the rolling process in 1882 and this was the start of the commercial success of the furnace. From then on, steamships were routinely fitted with the Fox corrugated furnace on both sides of the Atlantic.

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