Records of Nobel's Explosives Co Ltd, explosives manufacturers, Ardeer, North Ayrshire, Scotland

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Scope and Content

Photographs 1860-1904
Financial records 1874-1876
Production records 1883-1923
Administrative records 1962-1963

Administrative / Biographical History

The British Dynamite Co Ltd was set up as a limited liability company in 1871 , under the chairmanship of Charles Randolph ( 1809-1878 ), shipbuilder. The purpose of the company was to develop and sell dynamite, a form of nitroglycerine absorbed in Kieselguhr, a clay-like material, which, shaped and cut into lengths, could be handled fairly safely. This, together with a safety fuse and detonator, had been the inventions of Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( 1833-1896 ), a Swedish born chemist and businessman. Establishing himself in, first, Sweden and then Germany, Nobel determined to expand the business further. He could raise little interest, at first, in the USA or in England, but a group of Glasgow businessmen including John Downie and George McRoberts, at that time a partner in the firm of Westquater Chemical Co , raised the initial capital of £24,000. Nobel was paid for his rights and for the work he subsequently undertook as technical adviser, in shares. In time he came to own half the original capital as well as having a profit-sharing agreement. The company set up its head office at 7 Royal Bank Place in Glasgow, Scotland, but established works in Ardeer, North Ayrshire, Scotland, along the shore of the Firth of Clyde between Stevenston, North Ayrshire, and Irvine, North Ayrshire.

Production of dynamite began in 1873 . In 1874 , The British Dynamite Co Ltd had 19 agencies in the British Isles and supplied and delivered dynamite to all locations in the British Isles. They were the sole proprietors of Alfred Nobel's patents for "superior blasting powder". Production of detonators began in 1876 at the Westquater factory, owned jointly by Nobel and George McRoberts. The company was reorganised in 1877 as Nobel's Explosives Co Ltd , with capital of £240,000. Nobel continued to set up new businesses, so that, by 1886 , there were some 15 independent corporations dealing in the production and sale of dynamite. This led to some fierce competition, in spite of the fact that Nobel continued to be a large shareholder in all the companies and to act as an adviser on matters commercial as well as technical. In 1886 , encouraged by Nobel, the Nobel-Dynamite Trust Co Ltd was set up in England, with a registered office in London, as a holding company whose shares were exchanged for the shares of five subsidiaries; four German and the largest, Nobel's Explosives Co Ltd . This sort of multi-national trust company represented a very advanced form of organisation for its day, particularly in Great Britain. By 1907 , Nobel's Explosives Co Ltd , whose head office was now located at Nobel House, 195 West George Street, Glasgow, was a contractor to the British Government.

Subsequently, Nobel turned his attention to the invention of a smokeless powder, ballistite, which was to have great significance for the armaments industry. Work continued at Ardeer and Westquater in the production and development of explosives and detonators through and after the two world wars. By Nobel's Explosives Co Ltd 1926 had been absorbed into Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd, Nobel Division . By 1972 this division was an independent trading organisation of ICI Ltd .

Arrangement

This material is arranged into series, which consist of numbers of items related by function and/or format. Within series, the items are generally arranged chronologically