ARMSTRONG (SIR W. G.) WHITWORTH AND CO., LTD. On Nov. 24, 1845, a solicitor, William George Arm strong, afterwards Lord Armstrong, proposed the application of the pressure of water in the street pipes to the working of the cranes upon the quayside, and, in 1846, the Newcastle Cranage Company was formed. In the following year the famous Elswick Works first came into being. The total share capital of the new company was only 122,500. This venture was successful and in 1882 became a public company. A further development led to the formation of the Elswick Ordnance Company. This was the result of Armstrong's successful experiments with rifled cannon, which culminated in 1858 in the production of an i8-pounder gun and its adoption, after extensive trials, by the British War Office. The Elswick Ordnance Company was formed therefore in 1859; and a year later Captain (afterwards Sir Andrew) Noble joined the firm. In 1862, the re-armament of the services being com plete, the Government withdrew from the company which was then amalgamated as Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co., with a capital of f18o,000. In 1882 there was further amalgamation and the formation of a new company under the title of Sir W. G. strong Mitchell and Company, Limited, with a capital of £ 2,000,000.
Soon afterwards a shipyard was started at Elswick. Thence forward the Elswick Yard concentrated entirely on warship building, and the Walker Yard on mercantile ships. The fast and heavily armed Elswick cruisers (actually built at Walker) of which the "Esmeralda" was the first and most famous of a long line, attracted world-wide attention.
The next important development in the company's history was the readjustment of the capital account in 1896, followed in 1897 by the purchase of the Whitworth Works at Openshaw in Manchester, where shortly afterwards a large armour-plate plant was installed. The capital by this time was over £4,000,000, and the style of the company became, as it remained, Sir W. G. Arm strong, Whitworth and Company, Limited.
For the next 18 years steady progress and expansion continued. The increasing size of battleships led to the construction of the Armstrong naval yard at Walker-on-Tyne.
In 1900 Lord Armstrong died, and was succeeded in the chair manship by Sir Andrew Noble, who continued to act as chairman until his death in 1915• The subsequent history of the company, though of great interest, is on somewhat different lines. Throughout the War, when the peak of its greatness was reached, its activities were of incalculable value to the Allies, but the conditions under which it worked were changed, and it developed into what amounted to a national arsenal. After 1918 a new set of problems confronted this famous concern, culminating in the sale of the Elswick and Openshaw Works to a new company called Vickers Armstrongs, Limited. However, with its important holding in the new com bine, the old company still retains its interest in the works which have been its main property for so many years, though the actual control of the armament side has passed into the hands of the new organization. (See VICKERS LIMITED.) (L. C. M.)