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Bellis & Morcom no 8890 engine CAITLIN - at Astwood bank 09 - IMG 3431

Single Cylinder steam engine

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[]

  1. Graces Guide
  2. The Engineer of 3rd February 1888 p101
  3. Kelly's Directory of Worcestershire, 1892
  4. 1914 Whitakers Red Book
  5. International Law Office - deal reports

External links[]

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