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Paul Dadson
enthuses
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My interest in this material came about when I was searching for a dissertation subject for the AA Conservation Course. I have to admit that, when a friend first suggested corrugated iron to me as a subject, I thought she was ‘off her rocker’, but as I had not got a better idea at the time I decided to do some research
—
and the rest is history! There is only space here to scratch the surface. But I hope that what follows may begin to challenge some who have dismissive thoughts about the material as I once had.
OIUGINS
The first iron sheets made in Britain were rolled at the end of the 18th century for the recently introduced tinplate industry. Sheets were rolled from iron bars in rolling mills know as “Two High Mills” similar in conception to the old fashioned kitchen mangles. The traditional sheetusing trades of the Midlands were nail making, the toy trade and tinplate production.
The progress of the industrial revolution brought an increasing demand for much larger industrial and public buildings, railway stations being an obvious example. The traditional roofing materials of tiles and slates were not suitable for the large spans of the new buildings and the traditional sheet roofing materials of copper and lead were expensive and inappropriate for utility buildings.
In the
Encyclopaedia of
Cottage,
Farm
and Villa Architecture
(1833), Loudon refers to iron sheet being used in Moscow in 1814. Sheet iron coverings were universally made use of on all new buildings in Petersburg and Moscow by
1832.
The corrugation of sheet iron increases the strength of the material significantly. It is claimed in Loudon’s encyclopaedia that “Walker of Rotherhithe” was the inventor of corrugated iron. However the first patent connected with corrugated iron was granted to Henry R Palmer of
Richard Walker 1832 advertisement in Robson ‘s
London Directory.
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the London Docks, a London civil engineer, in 1829. Palmer did not claim as his invention the mode of forming sheets
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“the means of producing such forms being well known”. But he claimed originality for its application to roofs and walls.
It seems that the material was first used for large-span roofs in the London Docks. The corrugation of sheet iron was an ingenious invention in itself but almost at once
it
was found that by curving the sheet
it
could be connected with other sheets to form an arch to provide a self supporting roof.
The galvanising of corrugated iron sheets began around the late 1830s following the adaptation of an already known process created by Sorel in Paris in 1836. Nevertheless
it
soon became clear that galvanising only forms a temporary protection against weather attack or indeed by steam and gas from locomotives.
PORTABLE BUILDINGS
The saying goes that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Corrugated iron filled an essential need for roofing large span structures. But the material is also ideally suited to prefabrication in terms of workable sized sheets, relative lightness, strength and compactness, that
it
is easy to imagine that
it
was invented specifically for that purpose. Indeed no other material has been so inherently suitable.
In the mid- 19th century there were a few pioneering manufacturers of portable buildings. One of these firms, Richard Walker & Sons, had a lead over its
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competitors for several years. But by the 1840s several leading firms were producing catalogues of their own work and advertising in the journals of the day. Such was the novelty of these buildings that they attracted considerable public attention. The range of products grew progressively though the 19th century as the manufacturers exploited the market potential. A few of the firms developed a definite style in their buildings and some were also able to specialise in producing particular types of buildings, for example churches and chapels. The export potential for portable buildings was soon recognised by the manufacturers and they were quick to exploit this potential when the opportunity arose, for example with the Californian Gold Rush in the mid- 19th century and the Gold Strike in Australia during the same period.
Among the many hundreds of buildings that were exported were a few architectural gems, for example, the Iron Palace for King Eyambo manufactured by Lacock of Liverpool in 1843. When Lacock built his Iron Palace in his yard before its exportation to Africa he opened
it
to a public exhibition and charged an entry fee which went to charity.
Prince Albert was so impressed by the technical ingenuity of Edward T Bellhouse’s work in Manchester that in 1851 he commissioned Bellhouse to construct a Ballroom at Balmoral Castle. Bellhouse developed an impressive capability to handle large buildings especially for export to South America. This firm is most renowned for producing in 1854 the Custom House and General Store for Payta Peru. This building attracted huge public attention when erected in Manchester prior to export as reported and described in the
Civil Engineer and Architects Journal
which stated that
it
was inspected by 25,000 people in ten days. Charles D Young and Company of Edinburgh had a reputation founded upon production of fine prefabricated cast-iron buildings. They also produced a range of simple corrugated iron structures for export. Young illustrated these utilitarian
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CONTEXT 44
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