Conference Paper

Authors

Ridgway, Nigel; and Lamb, Rohan

Title

The industrial heritage of Tangye in Australia and New Zealand

In

2012 South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Transactions

Imprint

Engineers Australia. South Australia Division, Adelaide, South Australia, 2012, pp. 23-35

Abstract

Tangye, a company founded by four brothers (Richard, George, James and Joseph), was a prolific designer and manufacturer of engineered products including hydraulic jacks, pumps, steam engines and machinery starting from 1857 in Birmingham, UK, as James Tangye & Brothers. Later they converted to a limited liability company, Tangyes Ltd, in 1881 and exported their products globally.
(Sir) Richard Tangye the youngest brother expanded the business globally through regular visits to Australia (1873,1884 and 1886) to develop local agents at various stages and the company owned warehouses with show rooms and inventory.
A significant proportion of extant heritage survives in Australia and New Zealand. The name "Tangye" is remembered for its superior quality and engineering and is still an iconic brand. There is also a significant number of horizontal single mill engines still in use in Javanese sugar mills and there is a website dedicated to their history (Dickinson). It is important to note very few Tangye engines survive in the United Kingdom and this increases the national significance of Tangye products in Australia and New Zealand.
Their business was founded on hydraulic jack design and progressed into standard manufacture of steam engines. These principles of manufacture are still in use today including make to stock, standard designs, interchangeable parts, production lines, innovation and high quality.
An observation of extant objects (Tangye products) and examination of the published literature shows these manufacturing principles started from circa 1869 when Tangye released their famous Quaker design engine which was sold until the 1940s.
The company persisted with many innovations such as high speed engines, governor improvements and patenting many of their ideas which have been detailed in the British journals The Engineer and Engineering.
A steam heritage survey in Victoria by Churchward found over 50% of all engines recorded and made before 1880 were British and of the 256 open crank engines recorded 51 were of Tangye manufacture which exemplifies their popularity (Churchward 1994). The population of surviving machinery in Australia and New Zealand is not documented by database; however, there is substantial ad hoc evidence available in private museums and the literature to demonstrate the cultural significance of Tangye engineering.

This paper attempts to unify the existing evidence of Tangye steam engines, a form of moveable cultural heritage in Australia and New Zealand, and to demonstrate its national and global cultural significance through:
1. Recognising the scale of export from Britain to Australia and the breadth of the products produced;
2. Social historical links between Australia and the USA, the Chaffey Brothers and irrigation schemes at Mildura, Renmark and Fresno, California;
3. Richard Tangye's global travels, principally to Australia;
4. The unique scientific contribution of the triple expansion Chaffey engine and Tangye's pioneering method of manufacturing steam engines (pumps and jacks) to a standard design.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• 2012 South Australian Engineering Heritage Conference - Transactions edited by Venus, Richard (Adelaide, South Australia: Engineers Australia. South Australia Division, 2012), 62 pp. Details