Records of Mirrlees Watson Co Ltd, sugar machinery manufacturers, Glasgow, Scotland

This material is held atUniversity of Glasgow Archive Services

Reference
- GB 248 UGD 118/2,/118/8,/118/12
Dates of Creation
- 1840-1974
Name of Creator
- Mirrlees Watson Co Ltd (sugar machine manufacturers: 1900-: Glasgow, Scotland)
Physical Description
- 30 metres
  There are no physical characteristics that affect the use of this material.

Scope and Content

Letterbooks 1923-1924
Job books 1899-1966
Job schedule books 1922-1963
Centrifugal schedules 1962-1967
Schedules 1962-1966
Dry pump schedules 1922-1966
Schedule of parts 1906-1921
Order books 1840-1966
Order job books 1922-1935
Copy books 1935-1966
Drawings index books 1848-1936
Descriptive index to drawings 1841-1966
Roller books 1904-1964
Miscellaneous volumes 1878-1960
Sugar bulletins 1925-1936
Production order books 1962-1974
Sugar machinery drawings [to be identified]

Administrative / Biographical History

P & W McOnie , engineers, was formed in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1840 by Peter McOnie, general engineer, and his brother, William, to repair sugar machinery and supply spares. By 1848 when the partnership was dissolved, the company had turned out 50 engines and 50 sugar mills. In September 1848 , Peter established a new partnership, McOnie & Mirrlees , with James Buchanan Mirrlees, sugar machinery manufacturer. The partnership became Mirrlees & Tait in 1851 , following Peter's death in 1850, when J B Buchanan recruited William Tait from W M Neilson's Hydepark Locomotive Works in Springburn, Glasgow, as his junior partner and manager of the works. The engines and machinery that the company exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition were criticised for their cheap and weak cast iron, lack of economy and "lavish introduction of quantity rather than attention to quality of their cast iron framing". These criticisms were acted on by Mirrlees, Tait & Watson , as the firm had become known in 1868 . By 1876, they had been making engines with Corliss valve gear for 8 years, and an engine and mill made by the firm on view at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition was attracting attention "on account of the improved details of construction". At this time, the company was employing around 800 workmen and had one of the most fully equipped ironworks in Great Britain at Scotland Street, Glasgow. By 1896, the firm could cast 100 tons per day.

The relationship between the various sugar machinery manufacturers and engineering firms was close which allowed for subcontracting in times of heavy demand. In 1883, Mirrlees, Watson & Co as they had become in 1882 , formed Watson, Laidlaw & Co, to build centrifugal separators for the company. Similarly, in the depression of the mid-1880s, Mirrlees, Watson & Co were making components for several Glasgow sugar-machinery manufacturers and general engineers.

In 1889 , the firm was incorporated as Mirrlees, Watson & Yaryan Co Ltd . The years 1878-1884 saw a boom in the sugar machine manufacturing industry and saw the company produce 45,000 tons of machinery, worth about £1,500,000.

The company developed several new components, such as the Yaryan evaporator, and held the sole licences in the UK for the Weston centrifugal separator and diesel engine in 1897.

In 1900 , the company became known as Mirrlees Watson Co Ltd becoming M W Sugar Holdings Ltd in 1966 . In 1967 , the company was acquired by A & W Smith & Co Ltd , sugar machine manufacturers, Glasgow, which by then was a wholly owned subsidiary company of Tate & Lyle Ltd, sugar manufacturers. The two companies traded as Smith Mirrlees . Smith Mirrlees was acquired in 1988 by Fletcher & Stewart Ltd, sugar machine manufacturers, Derby, England. They ceased to operate at the Eglinton Works in the late 1980s.

Sources: Michael Moss and John Hume, Workshop of the British Empire: Engineering and Shipbuilding in the West of Scotland(London, 1977) and A Slaven & S Checkland, Dictionary of Business Biography: 1860-1960 , vol 1 (Aberdeen, 1986)

Arrangement

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