Elswick Ordnance Company
The Elswick Ordnance Company (also known as Elswick Ordnance Works) was the armaments department of the from 1897 as Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Ltd. engineering company based in Elswick near Newcastle upon Tyne . Elswick Ordnance was founded in 1859 by William George Armstrong as an independent subsidiary of his company and originally served to avoid conflicts of interest, since WG Armstrong was employed as an engineer in the War Office at that time .
After Armstrong resigned from government service in 1864, the Elswick Ordnance Company became part of the parent company again, but remained as its independent department.
The company began manufacturing guns of various calibres and later expanded its activities to include the construction of warships. It was manufactured for the Royal Navy and the British Army as well as for export. The company is credited with inventing the gunboat . A number of these boats, each equipped with a large-caliber muzzle loader, were built for China. The company temporarily had a monopoly in the field of large-caliber guns, which the naval leadership disapproved of because of the associated price level. In addition, constructive problems with the wire cannons were known.
Shipbuilding was increasingly expanded to include larger types.
In 1903 Elswick built a total of five ships with a total displacement of 49,000 tons.
In 1897 the company employed 12,000 people.
literature
- John Turner Walton Niebold: How Europe armed for war (1871-1914). Blackfriars Press, London 1916.
- Henry W. Macrosty: The Trust Movement in British Industry (1916). Batoche Books, Kitchener 2001.
- Marshal J. Bastable: Arms and the state: Sir William Armstrong and the remaking of British naval power, 1854-1914. Ashgate, 2004, ISBN 0-7546-3404-3
