Bellis and Morcom were a Birmingham based manufacturer of Stationary steam engines and later Internal combustion engines. The company also built compressors.
Company history[]
The company started as G.E.Belliss & Co. in the 1860s manufacturing industrial steam boilers and steam engines.Old advert here
Alfred Morcom joins the business and the company later Renamed as Belliss & Morcom
Time line [1][]
- George Edward Belliss had been apprenticed to R. Bache.
- 1849 The G.E. Bellis took over the engineering business of R. Bache and Co.
- 1852 Company established.
- 1866 Belliss went in to partnership with Joseph Seeking and took over Bache's works in Broad Street.
- 1866 Built a locomotive for Pike Brothers of Fayle in Dorset.
- 1870 advert list them as at Broad Street, Birmingham.
- 1872 The company moved to premises in Ledsam Street.
- 1874 They built a second locomotive for Pike Brothers and this is now in the Goods Shed Museum at Corfe Castle Station on the Swanage Railway. It was for a time in the Birmingham City Museum (from > to ?)
- 1880 Steam launch engine (Exhibit at Birmingham Thinktank Museum). States they were a world-leader in the production of marine engine form 1860s to 1890s. Listed as Bellis and Co.
- 1884 Marine engineer, Alfred Morcom, became a partner in the business.
- 1888 Orders for gunboat and torpedo boat machinery. Listed as G. E. Bellis.[2]
- 1891 High-speed engine with forced lubrication is in the London Science Museum.
- 1892 Independant Condenser with Air and Circulating Pumps. (listed as 'G. E. Bellis and Co')[3]
- 1893 Incorporated as a Limited Company
- 1894 Electricity generating engine (Exhibit at Birmingham Thinktank museum). Listed as G. E. Bellis.
- 1899 New factory opened in Icknield Square. The company was registered on 3 May, to take over the business of engineers of G. E. Bellis. [5]
- 1900 Supplied engines to the Gloucester electricity supply works. [6]
- 1900 Manufactured engines for the Port Dundas electricity works in Glasgow. [7]
- c1902 Built a factory at Rotten Park Street.
- 1907-8 They built one double-decker bus for the London General Omnibus Co. It had twin chain final drive.
- 1909 Built an engine for Park Gate Iron Works. This was a three-cylinder compound producing 1,080 hp at 300 rpm.
- 1914 Manufacturers of Patent Forced Lubrication, Quick-Revolution Engines for Electric Lighting, Power, Traction and Mill Driving in standard sizes from 10 to 3000 B.H.P.; also of Condensing Plants, Air Compressors, Fan Engines, Pumping Engines, Paraffin Engines, Steam Turbines etc.[4]
- 1937 Manufacturers of oil engines, condensing plants and compressors. [9]
- 1949 New steel shop opened on the former site of James Archdale and Co.
- Became part of Amalgamated Power Engineering and later NEI.
- 1960 Building Heavy duty compressors and other equipment.
- 1992 Rotten Park Street works closed.
- Owned by the Powell Duffryn Group who acquired the firm in 19? from ? and operate it along with several other Industrial compressor manufacturers, such as Hamworthy Engineering as part of the Process industry engineering division.
- The company was sold to Gardner Denver Inc. of the US in 2001 by Powell Duffryn after the Japanese Nikko Principal Investments Group took control.[5]
Product range[]
Write the second section of your article here.
Preservation[]
A number of examples of there engines and compressors survive in variouse museums and with private collectors.
- Single cylinder steam engine out of the Droitwich Spar laundry (photo above)
- Example of a Engine in the Internal Fire Museum wales
- Birmingham Think Tank Museum
See also[]
References / sources[]
- ↑ Graces Guide
- ↑ The Engineer of 3rd February 1888 p101
- ↑ Kelly's Directory of Worcestershire, 1892
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ International Law Office - deal reports
External links[]
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