The Scottish Ironwork Foundation
22 Alexandra Place
Stirling
Scotland
FK8 1UN

Site development

We have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction we have had to the site and the information provided to us.We have recently completed the development of an online database for Scottish ornamental ironwork company information. This provides a means to compile information about companies operating in the field, and adding to it as we find it. Again, information and corrections gratefully received.

Chain of Office for Andrew Laing of Laings Foundry

Andrew Laing takes over the reins for the centenary year for the Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (Institute of British Foundrymen).

In August 2005 Andrew attended the ceremony at Falkirk, underneath the Grahamston gate.

Kibble Palace to be restored

The Kibble Palace in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens is to be restored in a multi - million pound restoration project, commencing in 2004. We have recently discovered through research, that while the building was erected by Boyd of Paisley, horticultural engineers, the cast iron components (of which many are missing) were manufactured by the Saracen Foundry of Walter MacFarlane & Co Ltd. Updates as the project progresses.

Power of the Internet

Since the site has been launched, we have been deluged by requests for information, and most pleasingly, people providing information to us. Relatives of the MacFarlanes of Saracen Foundry, and Sun Foundry in Adelaide have both been in touch and provided us with interesting information.

Martin Fountain back home

A large Saracen foundry drinking fountain and canopy (Model No.20) has just been re-instated on Glasgow Green. Named after Glasgow's Baillie Martin, the structure was restored by Heritage Engineering of Glasgow through the winter and has just been installed on site. The cast iron bust that sat atop the drinking fountain was removed for well - intentioned safekeeping in the 1980's and has yet to be found. Answers on a postcard please……

The earliest cast iron building ?

James Bogardus is often portrayed as the pioneer and inventor of cast iron buildings, following his visit to Europe, he designed and constructed numerous cast iron buildings and facades, certainly a specialist, but not the first. The ironfounder Bogardus used on occasion was Daniel D Badger's Architectural Ironworks in New York City, who's 1865 catalogue preface notes that :

' It is well known that Iron has been used in England and other European countries for interior supports in various kinds of edifices, in the form of beams, columns etc. ; but its introduction for the exterior of buildings is believed to be of purely American invention, and of very recent origin'.

In his lecture 'The progress of engineering', William Fairbairn makes his claim ; 'It is now twenty years since I constructed an iron house for Halil Pasha, then Seraskier of the Turkish army at Constantinople. I believe it was the first iron house built in this country ; and it was constructed at the works in Millwall, London, in 1839' .

Recent research by us would suggest a valid Scottish claim to the early use of cast iron for building.

The first identified example of a cast iron building in Scotland using constructed façade techniques is the Perth Waterworks, completed in 1832. Conceived as a building as opposed to a purely utilitarian structure due to it's prominent location, this cast iron masterpiece pre-dates the work of James Bogardus by some twenty years, and even Fairbairn by ten. Perhaps the reason for this that it was constructed by an essentially engineering foundry who perhaps were not intimidated by the scale of the undertaking that an ornamental foundry might have been at that time. It was converted to a Tourist information centre in the 1970's and currently serves as an art gallery.

At the request of Perth Water Commissioners, Adam Anderson (1780 - 1846) undertook to design and construct a means of establishing a long term solution to the problem of maintaining a clean water supply. Anderson was the Rector of Perth Academy at the time, and also supervised the construction of Perth Gasworks. The report given by Anderson to the Commissioners in 1834, and published in 1837 provides an invaluable record. Original designs and construction drawings held by Perth and Dundee City Archives have also been identified.

The basic principle was to pump water via a filter bed in the bed of the river Tay by steam engine into a cistern which was constructed to provide sufficient head to supply the town. One of the drawings notes relative heights of key Perth locations, and the design incorporated a mechanical mechanism for maintaining the water level. The building was originally intended to be located beside the Grey Friars Graveyard, and therefore to be 'of the plainest description', but concerns around placing the building 'so near the mansions of the dead' led to the current site being selected. The prominent location of the building prompted Anderson to design the building according 'to the Ionic Order', and incorporating the city emblem around the structure .

The masonry 'foundations' were started around twenty three feet below the engine house, and had to be substantial enough to take the estimated weight of the ironwork, which Anderson considered to be around nine hundred tons. Assembled from nine levels of grey cast iron panels with internally flanged faces, including a radiused dome formed at the upper level. The flanges were internally bolted with wrought iron bolts, with a mixture of cast iron cement, leather and wrought iron flat bar as a fitting strip making up the joint. The external façade of the building was extinsively decorated using freize panels and pilasters, bolted to the panelled structure beneath. Cast iron cement is credited as a creation of William Murdoch, often considered as Mathew Boulton and James Watt's right hand man . A mixture of cast iron filings and sal amoniac, it provides a waterproof and resilient joint which does not suffer the effects of electrolytic corrosion that wrought and cast iron does.

The structure was cast in the foundry of the Dundee Foundry Co., who had also won the contract to supply one of the steam engines to pump the water from the Tay. Makers of the Stirling engine, the Dundee Foundry achieved considerable success in this field. The challenge of casting the curved dome panels must have been considerable. In addition, the geometric accuracy required in the structure as a whole demanded consistent casting. The results achieved are remarkable by any standard, and the joint size is consistent around the structure. Anderson notes 'it may be sufficient to state that the structure is, in every respect conformable to the specification ; and that in point of workmanship, and the execution of the architectural ornaments, it is not surpassed by anything'.

In 1972, the building was converted to use as a tourist information centre by Morris & Steadman Architects, at which point a structural steelwork construction was installed within the dome to support the building. The environment within the dome was conducive to corrosion and the ironwork developed a number of problems. The wrought iron fitting strip between some of the flanges oxidised and expanded, causing stress fractures in adjacent flanges and panels. In addition, many of the wrought iron bolts also corroded, some failing completely, others expanding within the ironwork with predictable consequences. Some bolt replacement and flange clamps were installed in 2000 as a temporary measure prior to full restoration in 2003 / 2004.