Daniel Adamson
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Daniel Adamson (30 April 1820 – 13 January 1890) was a notable English engineer who became a successful manufacturer of boilers and was the driving force behind the inception of the Manchester Ship Canal project during the 1880s.
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[edit] Education
Adamson was born in Shildon, County Durham, the 13th of 15 children born to the landlord of a public house, 'The Grey Horse' (today, 'The Surtees Arms'). At 13, after attending a Quaker school in Old Shildon, Adamson was apprenticed to Timothy Hackworth, an engineer for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, with whom he later (1841) served as a draughtsman and engineer.
[edit] Business
In 1850, Adamson became manager of Heaton Foundry in Stockport, near Manchester. A year later, at Newton Moor near Dukinfield, he established an iron works, 'Daniel Adamson and Co', specialising in engine and boiler making. Initially, he followed designs created by Hackworth, but he improved the design and manufacturing process (pioneering the use of steel and taking out 19 patents in the process) over the next 36 years, exporting 'Manchester Boilers' worldwide, and building a business, the Newton Moor Iron Works, which by 1890 employed some 600 people.
Adamson’s other business interests, included a mill building company in Hyde ('The Newton Moor Spinning Company'), the 'Yorkshire Steel and Iron Works' at Penistone, the 'Northern Lincolnshire Iron Company' at Frodingham, and large share-holdings in iron works in Cumberland and south Wales.
[edit] The Ship Canal project
However, Adamson's most significant contribution was to become champion of the Manchester Ship Canal. He arranged a meeting at his home ('The Towers', in Didsbury) on 27 June 1882, inviting representatives of several Lancashire towns, Manchester businessmen (Adamson was a director of Manchester's Chamber of Commerce), local politicians and civil engineers, including the canal’s eventual designer Edward Leader Williams. At this meeting that he was elected chairman of the provisional committee promoting the Ship Canal, and was at forefront in pushing the scheme through Parliament in the face of intense opposition from railway companies and port interests in Liverpool. The requisite Act of Parliament enabling the canal was finally passed on 6 August 1885, after which Adamson became the first chairman of the board of directors of the Manchester Ship Canal Company – a post he held until February 1887. As a result of his resignation, the first sod was cut by his successor, Lord Egerton of Tatton, the following November.
Adamson remained a strong supporter of the project but did not live to see it completed (in 1894). He died at home in Didsbury on 13 January 1890. Daniel Adamson and Co remained a family business until it was sold in 1964 to Acrow Engineers Ltd.
[edit] Memorials
There are blue plaques at 'The Towers' (today the Shirley Institute), Wilmslow Road in Didsbury, and in Adamson Street, Dukinfield. Also in Dukinfield, St Luke's Church has a stained glass window in his memory. The Adamson Military Band was also named after him.
The Daniel Adamson Coach House has been preserved in Shildon.
A former Manchester Ship Canal Company steam-powered tug-tender, The Daniel Adamson (originally named The Ralph Brocklebank but renamed in 1936) is being restored by The Daniel Adamson Preservation Society.
