South Yorkshire Times October 16, 1948
Romance of Industry
Kilnhurst Steel Firm’s Chairman Looks Back
The romance of the rise of the Rotherham and Kilnhurst firm of Messrs. John Baker and Bessemer Ltd., an outstanding example of the merits of private enterprise, is revealed in this special ‘South Yorkshire Times’ article.
Mr. George Baker, O.B.E., Chairman of the Company, has just celebrated his 70th birthday, and in an interview with a representative of this newspaper he has given an interesting retrospective review of the firm with which he has so long been associated and of the developments in the South Yorkshire steel industry during this past half-century.
Mr. George Baker’s father had only £300 to start his business, and the firm which Mr. Baker and his brothers have run so efficiently has grown to such dimensions that the employees at Kilnhurst alone exceed 1,000.
Tackling Problems
Mr. Baker told our reporter:
“Forty-five years ago I came into this district to erect and run a steelworks. My qualifications for the job were not very apparent: a grounding in science and particularly in inorganic chemistry, some years as an apprentice in engineering, during which I took evening classes in engineering in what is now the Applied Science Department of the Sheffield University.
“This was followed by a few years without a specific job, chasing orders and introducing the new electric tramcar wheel which my father had designed, and tackling any problems which arose.
“Coincident with this I took evening classes in metallurgy and obtained an Associateship in Metallurgy
“As I have said, not much qualification for designing a steel-works, but our ideas were very modest; all we set out to do was to keep our Rotherham works supplied with tyres and axles.
“My father, the late John Baker, from a very small beginning had built up a prosperous business as a railway wheel manufacturer. He had the foresight to realise that with the growing combinations of tyre and axle makers he could be squeezed out of business Moreover, he had many sons whom he wished to see established, but the last straw to decide him was the fact that a local firm from whom he purchased the bulk of his requirements of tyres and axles, and who in return gave him valuable orders for machining axles, put down their own plant for machining axles.
Derelict Site
“Why our plant was erected in Kilnhurst is too long a story for this brief interview. The site was derelict and had been out of use for many years; the job of clearing it was made less expensive by the discovery of a quantity of bull-dog cinder, the refuse from the old iron puddling furnaces, which was rich in iron and had a ready sale.
“And so we set to work to build our steel works, which were to consist of one 15-ton melting furnace, a tyre-punching press, a tyre-becking press, which was also to be used for forging axles and for corrugating wheels, a tyre finishing mill and, what was then somewhat of a novelty, a wheel rolling mill.
“Unfortunately, my father died just as we had started the erecting of the new building, and this not only deprived us of the benefit of his advice and driving power, but we soon found that the backing of one man with ample funds was a very much better thing than the same funds divided into eleven parts and much of that in trust.
“However, work proceeded, some few tyres were produced in 1905 and in 1906 we were producing on a profitable basis; not much, it is true, but the gross profit on the Kilnhurst trading account was over £3,000.
“Looking back, this result seems incredible, for we had experienced several disappointments; the plan of making axles under a press was mechanically sound, and the axle looked well, but it was impossible to get rid of the scale and we had to install an axle hammer.
“A greater failure was the steel melting furnace. This had been heralded as the latest improvement in open-hearth steel melting and the most economical in fuel, but nothing could prevent the semi-circular path of the flame cutting the front wall, and the cost of up keep was prohibitive. And there were other mistakes and difficulties, but by patience and hard work they were all overcome, and whilst progress was slow and irregular, we had reached a satisfactory state of affairs by 1914.
“The conditions of work in those early days were very different from today: the week was 54 hours and the working hours 6 a.m. to 5.30 p.m
COAL at 8s. a TON
“The first contract for coal was. at eight shillings per ton for Dalton washed, doubles, delivered alongside the canal wharf, and we paid sixpence per ton to men who came along with barrows and baskets and unloaded it to the boilers.
“A first-hand forge furnaceman had a basic wage of 7s. per day, lever-men at the punching press—a job which required a dexterity which was more common in those days than today — had the same base. Forgemen classed as helpers had a base of 25s. per week, and the press-driver had the same. As late as 1913 the standard engineering rates were turners 36s., fitters 34s., smiths 34s., labourers 20s.”
Mr. Baker said that the 1914-18 War naturally made a great upset. The whole works were turned into a munitions factory, presses were adapted, and new ones were introduced to make shell forgings, all at the company’s own expense
“When peace came we found ourselves in a very awkward position; we had made large profits, but the only parts of those profits which reached a cash stage were taken for taxation, and we were left with a lot of useless plant, a works which required rebuilding, and no cash resources,” Mr. Baker explained.
“This was the most critical time we experienced, and if we had taken one of the remedies proposed to us, it is now quite clear that the works would have come to an end in the slump of 1931 and 1932. However, we decided to rebuild and extend the works, and we formed ourselves into a public company and issued shares to the public.
“Masters Of Our Craft”
“The rebuilding was done very economically. We were by this time “masters of our craft.” We did not need to call in outside advice; we designed and in some cases built our new machines, and the works have proved to be very efficient.
“With the exception of the year 1926, when we were without coal, and the slump years of 1931 and 1932, we have not looked back.
“The acquisition of the businesses of Harrison and Camm Ltd. and of Henry Bessemer and Co. gave us what we most needed, a larger field for the sale of our products, but, generally speaking, until now the works have not operated to full capacity.
“In the last war we again made shell forgings and many other munition components — a considerably greater tonnage than in 1914-18 — but we made them mainly by installing additional machines, and we did not break up our wheel and axle plant.
“The bulk of the outlay on these extensions was refunded by the Ministry of Supply, and the operations of ‘deferred repairs’ has enabled us to get our works back to something approaching a pre-1939 state, but taxation has again taken from us monies which ought to have been ploughed back into the business and used for replacement of machinery and plant.
“As in 1918, we are faced with the difficulty of providing funds for a new melting shop, and we have had again to issue shares to finance the scheme.
“Here are a few figures to mark progress: I have not turned up the actual 1906 output of forging but judging by the sales, it would be in the neighbourhood of 2,500 tons, and it reached 6,600 tons in 1913: last year it was 33,150 tons.
A figure in which the local public viral be more interested is the amount distributed as wages and salaries. In 1906 it was £14,378, in 1913 it was £23,257, and last year £364,578. No man liveth to himself, neither does any firm, and many families must have shared in this increased distribution.
“The whole history of my father’s success—he had only £300 to start his business — and the continuation my brothers and I have achieved, is an example, among many, of the merits of private enterprise.
The Future?
“And what of the future? Nationalisation is naturally the uppermost thought in our minds. We hope that as we are a small concern we shall escape the net, but we are afraid that as we are competitors of larger combines, we shall be brought in.
“The works are now well organised and anyone could run them for the next few years, but I doubt whether the almost day-to-day improvements which are necessary to keep a works up-to-date would be made under nationalisation, and I absolutely deny that any national controlled body could start with a derelict site and, without adequate funds, turn it into a hive of industry.
“I have referred to the fate which might have overtaken these works in the slump of 1931, and the conditions will be repeated in the next slump. Reconstruction of railway rolling stock cannot proceed at the present rate for ever and the slump will come one day. When it does you will have all makers of wheels working half time, and the inevitable result under Nationalisation will be to close down one works.
“It is unlikely that efficiency will count; under Nationalisation the preference would be for large unit, and we as a small one will have to go.
“I do not propose to deal with the personal aspect of Nationalisation, but it is not pleasant to think of the result of a life’s work been taken from one williy-nilly and at the purchaser’s valuation.
“At my age I suppose I ought not to mind, but I do.
“If in this interview I seem to have been too personal, I do not forget that I was one of a team with my brothers, nor that in the later years I owe a lot to the cooperation of other men.”