Thwaites and Carbutt

Robinson Thwaites
R. Thwaites and Co's Vulcan Works at Thornton Road, Bradford, 1858
Born	1807 Horton, Bradford
Died	22 October 1884 Bradford
Nationality	English
Occupation	Mechanical engineer, company director
Employer	Thwaites and Carbutt
Spouse(s)	Anna Hirst (c. 1821 – 1880)
Children	Thomas, Mary, Anna, William, Eliza, Arthur, Edward, John, Albert
Parent(s)	Father – Thomas Thwaites (1784/5 – 7 April 1869) Mother – Hannah Hammond (c. 1773 – 1851)

Robinson Thwaites (1807 – 22 October 1884) was a nineteenth-century mechanical engineer and mill-owner in Bradford, Yorkshire. His companies included at different times Robinson Thwaites and Co, Thwaites and Carbutt and Thwaites Brothers.

Robinson Thwaites' father Thomas was a master plumber. Robinson trained as a plumber to follow in his father's business, and started to practice as a plumber.

But instead, by 1848 he founded the Vulcan Iron Works at Bradford, as shown in an 1858 lithograph in the Illustrated Commerce Guide. His firm, Robinson Thwaites and Co, later (1862) in partnership with Edward Carbutt as Thwaites and Carbutt, and (in 1880) Thwaites Brothers, acquired a high reputation for its machinery used in the production and manufacture of iron and Bessemer process steel.

Robinson Thwaites and Co grew from a firm of "3 seniors, 50 men and 6 boys" in 1851 to "130 men and 13 boys" (as Thwaites and Carbutt) by 1871. Thwaites Brothers continued in production until at least 1914.

In 1862, Thwaites and Carbutt exhibited a selection of machine tools at the London Exhibition. These included a seven hundredweight double-action self-acting steam hammer; a four hundredweight double-action single standard hammer; a pillar radial drilling machine; a six-inch centre slide and screw cutting lathe; a "very powerful" planing machine; and a ten-inch centre double-geared slide lathe.

In 1866, Thwaites and Carbutt Vulcan Works manufactured three locomotives "of 0-6-0 type" for Boulton.

In 1869, Thwaites and Carbutt supplied the engines for a reversing rolling mill at Landore steel works.

In 1877 Thwaites and Carbutt supplied a rolling mill engine (see illustration) for the Eston Ironworks of Bolckow Vaughan and Co. It had a 36 inch (91.44 cm) bore, and a 54 inch (137.16 cm) stroke. That same year, the firm produced a coke crusher to prepare carbon for ironmaking.