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Refractories are defined as a material that can stand up to the action of corrosive solids, liquids or gases at high temperature1.In ancient times refractories took the form of clay sludge used to line shallow pits. Later hearths and kilns were built out of bricks specifically made for that purpose. Pots were also made out of these refractory clays and used to melt various materials such as glass, iron and other metals. By 1500 BCE bricks were used to build furnaces for smelting natural minerals. Up until the sixteenth century, clay bricks or firebricks, as they were called, remained the main refractory for the construction of furnaces.
Fireclay bricks were important for a variety of reasons. They were relatively easy to produce, often a sideline for ordinary brick makers, and thus very common. However, they could also be an important indicator of the level of industrial development of a given area, as firebrick production often only came with the development of a coal industry. Although the production of firebrick only required a relatively low level of technical knowledge to produce, the market for these bricks only existed on a large scale when a higher level of industrial development had occurred.
Large scale and more sophisticated refractory production began in England, in the eighteenth century, near the Welsh border at Stourbridge close to the major industrial centre of Birmingham2. It was in South Wales, in 1842 3, that the first silica firebricks are believed to have been produced. Silica refractories, as with the many other types that followed, were developed out of the need to keep pace with improving smelting techniques. As furnaces and the techniques required to operate them became more sophisticated, refractories had to improve. Even so, silica bricks 4 were for decades into the twentieth century the standard brick used in many industries.
During the early industrial development of Australia, in the nineteenth century, the majority of refractory needs were provided for through imported materials, mainly from the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Some small scale refractory brickworks were established. One of these was an English firm in Sydney which manufactured magnesite bricks. Some locally produced refractory bricks suffered from a reputation for poor quality. A silver smelter at Sunny Corner near Lithgow was said to have failed in 1887 because of thefurnace bricks used. They were described as "...poor quality colonial made bricks..."5, that melted in the furnace.
However, some local producers of firebricks did prosper. The company that claimed to be the first producer of firebricks in Australia 6was, Hughes and Drury's Newcastle and Burwood Fire, Clay and Brickworks, located in The Junction area of Newcastle. It was established in 1866 and continued trading until the early 1980's. The company began its commercial life as a fireclay firebrick producer, later adding the manufacture of commercial and industrial pottery in a successful attempt at diversification. Diversity of production, including a wide range of non-firebrick products, was characteristic of the local producers of the period.
Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, Hughes and Drury's dominated the colonial market. Firebricks were the only product which the company exported outside the Newcastle area, supplying many industries in Sydney and regions north of Newcastle. In 1888 the company was producing 20,000 firebricks per week, and 5,000 feet of drainpipe 7. The company later ceased production of firebricks, concentrating on drain pipes in Newcastle 8, instead.
On the South Coast of New South Wales another local producer was also established. Joseph Pendlebury, an Englishman by birth, established his brickworks near Wollongong, in 1901. He had then had over 40 years experience in brick production both in England and Australia. He was a well respected and expert burner, one of the most important skill groups within refractory production. He had been foreman at the local Bulli Brick and Tile Company, until he established his own works, which produced approximately 60,000 bricks per week 9. The company he ran went from strength to strength.
The success of both these firms provides evidence of the growing market and need for refractory products in the developing Australian economy. The demand for refractory bricks in Australia increased throughout the nineteenth century. From the mid point of the century, between 100,000 to 1 million firebricks per annum were imported into New South Wales, both from other colonies, such as Victoria and South Australia as well as from overseas, from the United Kingdom and the United States 10. These bricks would have been used in a variety of enterprises such as - gas manufacturing plants, non-ferrous metal smelters, glass works, boilers and specialist kilns. While there were local producers of certain of the required bricks, they were not able to meet the demand for either quantity or quality. Many local producers of goods, not only those of firebricks, had to cope with the added disadvantage of a perception that the local product could never be as good as that imported from overseas, especially England. This sense of inferiority in the quality of the local product can be deduced from the fact that in virtually all advertising and interviews relating to Newbold's and other local refractory producers, the comment is made that the local product is as good or better than the imported material.
By the beginning of this century, a market for a local producer of top quality refractories had emerged. The prime factor beyond the diversity of minor industries, was the appearance of a local iron and steel industry. For this to develop and compete with overseas producers, a large range of refractory products would need to be manufactured in Australia.
The reasons for this were varied: importing refractories from overseas was costly, while the huge distance, in time and space, between refractory producer and steel maker, was a source of many problems. Most important was the issue of what would happen to the local iron and steel industry if these overseas supplies suddenly ceased. At the extreme, the most obvious potential disruption was war. If war were to cut off supply of refractories this could cripple the fledgling steel industry at a time when demand would otherwise be high.
Attempts to establish iron and steel production in Australia had begun in the mid-nineteenth century. The first major attempt occurred at Mittagong, where in 1849 the first iron furnace was built. This venture soon failed. The next and for the history of iron and steel production, most significant was at Lithgow. Here, an American, James Rutherford, with two others, established the Eskbank iron works in 1874. They employed Enoch Hughes as manager, his experience in iron came from his time working at the FitzRoy iron works at Mittagong. Although production began in 1876, the works was unable to compete with the cheap iron imports from overseas, especially from the United Kingdom 11.
After Rutherford closed the works, a group of employees began a co-operative in 1883 to work the remaining foundries. In the same year William Sandford came to Australia from England to work for the Lysaght company's works in Sydney. However, in 1886 he became the works manager of the co-operative iron works in Lithgow and, by 1892, he had purchased the lease for the site from Rutherford, working the plant as his own. In 1900 he became the first man to produce steel in Australia in his 4-ton open hearth steel furnace.
However, the costs incurred to renovate the plant had been high and, after severe financial stress, he twice offered the works to the State government, who refused the offer to take them on. By 1907 the situation was desperate and Sandford was forced to close the works, even though he had a seven year contract to supply the State government with all its iron and steel needs 12.
It was in these circumstances that the Hoskins family were approached by the government. The Hoskins were well established foundry owners from Sydney who had been major customers of the iron and steel works in Lithgow. When it became clear that their largest supplier of iron could no longer operate, the State government persuaded the Hoskins 13 to take over operations of the plant. Part of the inducement was the assured continuation of government contracts signed with Sandford. The Hoskins' iron and steel plant, although only a small scale producer by overseas standards, was a significant milestone in the development of Australia as an industrial nation. Better capital resources and management skills helped the Hoskins to greater success than Sandford. The Hoskins approached the whole venture in a much more systematic manner. One aspect of this overall philosophy can be found in their approach to the Newbold brothers. Such an initiative by the Hoskins eventually resulted in an assured local supplier of one of their most vital requirements, refractory bricks.
It was also the impetus for the foundation of the Newbold Brothers firebrick works. By establishing Australia's first successful iron and steel plant and as a result, Australias' most significant refractory producer, the Hoskins had started Australia on the road to large scale industrial development.
Almost the oldest and certainly the most successful large scale refractory firm in Australia, Newbolds began life in Lithgow in 1908, established by Arthur Newbold and his brother Fred. This company was the first, according to its 1918 catalogue, to produce silica refractories in Australia 14 and its establishment marked the beginning of a long and successful national industry. Arthur Newbold and his brother had recently arrived from South Africa where they had produced roofing tiles. However, the Newbolds had been born in the Birmingham of the 1870's, a major centre of refractory manufacture in Britain. The company established itself in Lithgow, in close proximity, as was logical, to the only functioning iron and steel furnaces in the country. When the Newbold brothers began in 1908 they worked in a converted common brickworks which they had leased with the assistance of Charles Hoskins 15. By 1912 the company and the demand for its product had grown sufficiently for a new, larger plant to be constructed at a site five miles from Lithgow, at a place called Marangaroo. This was on a site adjacent to the Newbold Brothers quarry site, on land belonging to the Hoskins "Eskroy Park" holdings 16.
In the same year, 1912, the company known as Newbold Brothers went public with a nominal capital of £15,000 and a paid-up capital of £10,000 17. With the increased capital and the extended works, the output of the newly formed Newbold Silica Fire-brick Company Limited rose from an initial output of 60,000 standard 9" bricks per month in 1908 to over 200,000 bricks per month in 1912. This increased production demonstrated the sort of substantial increase in the demand for its products which ensured the future of Newbold's.
The process of taking the venture public would appear to have been a sign of confidence. It seems unlikely that such a risk would be taken unless the brothers were confident of success. It was also at this time that both the State Government and the B.H.P Co were looking seriously at establishing an iron and steel industry. The period, which was one of general industrial expansion, provided an excellent context for firm expansion in the face of an expected sizeable increase in demand.
By 1914, Newbold's won its first contract from the B.H.P 18. Soon after this the First World War broke out and overseas supplies of silica and other refractory bricks, previously supplied by Britain and European countries such as Belgium, Austria and Germany, were virtually cut off. All concerned with the steel industry realized the war's significance for the fledgling steel industry. The early period of the war demonstrated perfectly the dangers of relying exclusively on overseas-produced materials. The construction of part of the steelworks at Newcastle was delayed due to special bricks from Belgium being unavailable. Although the problem was solved, it was this type of deficiency that was to precipitated a major trip overseas by Arthur Newbolds 19.
In search of knowledge necessary to solve such problems, during the War, Arthur Newbold went to the United States at the request of Hoskins and the B.H.P Co Ltd to consult with the leading Pittsburgh silica brick makers, the Harbison-Walker Refractories Company. On his return Arthur Newbold rebuilt his Lithgow plant, supplying the refractories needs of both Hoskins and the B.H.P Co Ltd 20. This was the first of many overseas research trips undertaken by Newbold and other executives within the company, to keep pace with the various technological advances made in the field of refractories.
This close relationship with major customers, a characteristic of refractory production, was to continue and expand with the establishment at Newcastle by the B.H.P Co Ltd of a major integrated steelworks in 1915. In the years following the establishment of the steel works, Arthur Newbold and the company he managed built a refractory plant in Newcastle, which then became production headquarters for the firm. This new plant was within sight of the B.H.P Steelworks, (see Map 1).
The plant was established on a four acre site near the train lines at Waratah in 1919 (Map 1). It comprised a milling shed, a raw materials storage area, a drier and five kilns. Output capacity was 50,000 bricks per week with a work force of approximately 50 employees 21. Soon after the construction of the plant, plans for extensions were already under way. The new plant was a concrete manifestation of a close relationship with the B.H.P which was to endure for the rest of Newbold's history as an independent company. Under its agreement with the B.H.P, Newbold's became and remained the major supplier of refractory bricks to the most significant steel producer in Australia 22. It is thus perhaps necessary here to provide a few details on the origins and the development of the steel producer.
The story of the origins of the Newcastle steelworks is well-known and has been frequently told. The decision of the B.H.P Co Ltd to enter steel production, taken on strictly commercial grounds, was yet symptomatic of the increasing complexity and continuing growth of the Australian manufacturing industry in the early twentieth century.
Considerable forethought and planning was involved in the construction of the Newcastle steelworks, with extensive visits to the United States, and the extensive use of American technology providing another parallel with Newbold's. And, just as wartime disruptions and shortages provided a favourable context for the B.H.P's strategic objective of import replacement, so too did it favour Newbold's.
The War allowed B.H.P Co Ltd to establish itself as the driving force in Australian manufacturing and to become a key player in the economy in general. The War meant assured orders for the company in the most difficult period for new venture, its initial establishment. Rather than meeting intense competition from established suppliers the B.H.P Co Ltd had the domestic market largely to itself and thus enjoyed capacity production and sales. It was thus, seemingly, in a strong position for post-war survival.
Newbold's shared this period of prosperity. Its Lithgow works supplied the Newcastle steelworks with tens of thousands of refractory bricks per month. Newbolds itself understood the significant effect of the war on their standing in the industrial sector of Australia, it put them in their own words "...in an extraordinarily favourable position." 23Overall, the First World War allowed the newly formed industries to consolidate their market positions. It also had the important role of demonstrating to the Federal Government the strategic weakness of relying on foreign supplies of manufactured goods 24, especially iron and steel and (because of its vital role in producing the aforementioned products), refractory materials.
The war had been a dramatic demonstration of how Australia could be isolated both geographically and economically. It bolstered the political commitment to growth in the economy and thus the further development of the existing policy of tariff protection as a means towards general import replacement.
These economic and political developments combined to inspire the 1920 Greene Tariff, which raised general tariffs between 14 to 26 per cent. Its purpose was to act as an impetus to economic growth based on industrialisation through import replacement 25 and the consolidation of existing industry. The argument used was that the various tariffs would protect the infant industries from imports while these were establishing themselves. The hope was that once the industrial sector became more self-sustaining the tariffs could then be removed 26.
In the immediate aftermath of the War, the Greene Tariff was hardly needed. Pent-up demand led to a domestic post-war boom in which demand for steel rose rapidly. Production at Newcastle rose from 180,000 tons in 1918 to 235,000 tons in 1921 27. Newbold's also benefited and by late 1921 was supplying B.H.P Co Ltd steel works at Newcastle with approximately 230,000 refractory bricks per month 28. However, this hectic growth and prosperity was soon to come to an end.
1 Shaw, p. 3
2 Karl Gurcke, Bricks and Brickmaking: A Handbook for Historical Archaeology, (Moscow: Idaho UP, 1987) p. 48
3 James Coxey, Refractories (Pennsylvania: State College, 1950) p. 1
4 Fireclay bricks consist of aluminium silicates with or without free silica. The raw fireclay is usually found in conjunction with coal deposits. Fireclay bricks were often manufactured by the producers of ordinary building brick because only a low level of technical knowledge needed.
Silica bricks require a greater technical knowledge and skill to produce because of the more complex chemical properties of the raw material and the need for greater care in their production due to these chemical properties. They became widely used and manufactured after the development of the iron and steel industry.
5 Vicki Powys, Sunny Corner - A Silver Town of 1880's (Bathurst: Crawford House Press, 1989) p. 62
7 Aldine Centennial History, Vol.II (Sydney: The Aldine Publishing Co, 1888)
10 New South Wales Statistical Register 1870 - 1901 - all refractory bricks were categorised as "firebricks".
11 C. Hoskins, The Hoskins Saga (Sydney: Halstead Press, 1969) pp. 33-5
14 The Newbold Silica Firebrick Co - Company Catalogue, 1918 p. 5
15 A.R Newbold, "The Early Silica Brick Industry" The B.H.P Review, Vol. 13 No. 1, 1935 p.8
18 Memo from Arthur Newbold, Waratah Plant to Head Office, 11th March, 1922
23 Newbold Silica Fire-brick Co Ltd, company catalogue, 1918
24 C Forster, Industrial Development in Australia 1920-1930 (Canberra: ANU, 1964) p.4
27 I. McLennan, The History of the Australian Steel Industry (Brisbane: Queensland UP, 1974) p.7
28 Letter from A.R Newbold to Newbold Co Ltd Head Office 10th February, 1922
© Copyright - Michelle Watson, 1996
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