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Thread: Thompson's Foundry Castlemaine
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16th April 2012, 07:05 PM #1future machinist
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Thompson's Foundry Castlemaine
Here is a brief history of the Thompson foundry in Castlemaine.
Thompson's Foundry was established in 1875 as an engineering workshop by brothers David and James Thompson David Thompson (1828-1889) arrived in Australia from his native Ireland in 1852 and was joined by his brother James the following year. The brothers set up the foundry in 1875. David Thompson Jnr (1865-1916) served his apprenticeship at the works, eventually becoming manager after the death of his uncle in 1910. He developed the business into one of the largest and best equipped engineering works in Australia.BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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16th April 2012 07:05 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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16th April 2012, 07:26 PM #2future machinist
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Here are some photos.
- Turning and boring machine
- Foundry built milling machine
- Article on foundry built boring machine
4. 20 tonne steel forging
BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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16th April 2012, 07:32 PM #3SENIOR MEMBER
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HI,
Thats Interesting - Thankyou, I am not sure if I had heard of them before. Doing some Seaching on the Internet and I found that the Thompson Foundry Music Band is also quite Famous. I did come across a Picture of the Band dated 2010 so I assume the Band is still going.
Something else that I found was Interesting was that William Henry Sutton (Sutton Tools) opened a Toolroom there in 1912. I will start a New Thread for Sutton Tool History rather than post the Links here.
I just seen the Pictures as I Replied, I am Curious as to what the Item is in the last Black & White Photo ?.Last edited by steran50; 16th April 2012 at 07:36 PM. Reason: Black & White Picture
All The Best steran50 Stewart
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
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16th April 2012, 07:32 PM #4
keep going Andre: what happened next and what is it doing now and what does it look like?
I think it's a great parallel development of Australian engineering manufacturing as a whole....
Very sad.
Cheers,
Joe
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16th April 2012, 07:49 PM #5future machinist
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Thompsons became a limited liability company in 1913. In 1924-25 the Thompson family surrendered control of the company and it was restructured as Thompson's Engineering and Pipe Company. After several changes of ownership since 1947, the company is now know as Thompsons, Kelly & Lewis Pty Ltd and now owned by the American company Flowserve who closed everything but the machine shop and pump test bay,they now employ around 40 people.
Here are some interesting facts from it's heyday
The total number of employees, excluding those working for agencies, is 900.
Each year the Plant at Castlemaine uses approximately:
8000 tons Firewood.
2,200,00 K.W.H. Electric Power.
350 Tons Coal.
700 Tons Coke.
100,000 gallons Fuel Oil.
15,000,000 gallons water.
The maximum thickness Mild Steel plate that can be rolled is:
3” – Cold
5” – Hot
The maximum weights of Casting that can be poured are:
Iron - 30 Tons
Bronze - 5 Tons
The largest Ingot that can be handled in the Forge is: 20 Tons
The maximum flow that can be measured in the hydraulic test laboratory is 150,000 gallons per
minutes.
The laboratory is suitable for electric motor drives up to 2000 H.P. on voltages of 2200, 3300 and
6600. The maximum power on 415 volts is 1000 H.P.
11BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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16th April 2012, 09:04 PM #6GOLD MEMBER
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Hi Andre,
Interesting read.
Thanks
Stuart
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16th April 2012, 10:14 PM #7future machinist
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Here are some more photos.
BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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16th April 2012, 10:17 PM #8future machinist
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More
BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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16th April 2012, 10:45 PM #9future machinist
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Another lot of photos
BETTER TO HAVE TOOLS YOU DON'T NEED THAN TO NEED TOOLS YOU DON'T HAVE
Andre
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17th April 2012, 01:44 AM #10
Thanks Andre. Nice summary and great photos.
My wife's uncle started his apprenticeship there at age 14 and retired from there aged 67 - around 10 years ago. He's still alive and bright. If anyone is interested in any detail of prodution in that period, I can still go and ask him!
Locally, the works are known as "the Thompson Foundry" - even now, when the is no casting going on at all.
Cheers,
Joe
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17th April 2012, 01:58 PM #11Senior Member
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Quite an interesting place.
I did some work there in regard to energy demand for the CSIRO a few years ago.
When they test their BIG pumps the lights in the whole town dim considerably!
They also had a transformer (actually more like a substation) that had slipped through cracks and had no "demand charge" attached to it.
Cheers
Justin
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