Guide to the Records of Balfour Darwin Ltd (as fimed by the AJCP)

View online items only View full collection

M2527-M2533

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Created: 2019

Collection Summary

Creator: Balfour Darwin Ltd
Title: Records of Balfour Darwin Ltd (as filmed by the AJCP)
Date Range: 1902 - 1940
Collection Number: M2527-M2533
Extent: 8 items
Language of Materials: English
Repository: Australian Joint Copying Project
Sponsor: The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.

Introduction

Scope and Contents

Daybooks 1908-1940 Australia and New Zealand containing orders for steel drills, files, saw blades and miners' picks, and giving shipping details. Firms include Eagle and Globe Steel Co. Ltd. (Melbourne and Sydney), Toowoomba Foundry Co. Ltd. and Australian Agricultural Co.

Papers 1902-1903 relating to formation of Eagle and Globe Steel Co.

Conditions Governing Access

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.

Preferred Citation

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Archival History

Material selectively filmed at the Sheffield City Archives, Sheffield, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1990 (AJCP Reels: M2527-M2533). Original microfilm digitised as part of the AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.

Existence and Location of Originals

Sheffield Archives, 52 Shoreham St, Sheffield, England.

Collection Reference: BDR. For further information see Sheffield City Archives catalogue. [http://www.calmview.eu/SheffieldArchives/CalmView/]

Existence and Location of Copies

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2304309] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

The papers of Christopher Johnson and Co. (M2714-M2721) [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn17681], Burgan and Ball Ltd (M2555-M2562) [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn780779] and the Miscellaneous Collections of Sheffield City Archives (M2722-2726) [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1616361] have been listed seperately.

Finding-aid Notes

This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.

Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.

Subjects

Australia; Australian Agricultural Company Ltd; Balfour, Arthur and Co Ltd; Balfour Darwin Ltd; Eagle and Globe Steel Co Ltd; Great Britain; Melbourne, Victoria; Steel industry and trade; Sydney, New South Wales; Toowoomba Foundry Co Ltd

Bibliography

Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 19, p. 6. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-397322928]

Biographical / Historical

Henry Seebohm (1832-1895) and George Charles Dieckstahl (d. 1880), who were both of German descent, established the Dannamora Steel Works in Sheffield in 1865. It was a small-scale company which produced rifle steels and engineering steels and tools. It was incorporated as a limited company in 1899, with a capital of £150,000. Under the leadership of Arthur Balfour (1873-1957), 1st Baron Riverdale (created 1935), who became managing director in 1899, the company prospered. It established a research laboratory in 1905 and an engineers' tool department in 1910. It sold a considerable number of tool steels to the United States. In 1915, owing to anti-German feeling, the name of the company was changed to Arthur Balfour Pty Ltd. After the War, its expansion was hindered by strong American competition and high tariffs. Balfour responded by opening new accounts in China, India, Japan and South America and by extending its trade with Australia. In 1949 Lord Riverdale was succeeded as managing director by his son, Robert Balfour (1901-1998), who had a great interest in the technical aspects of steel making. In 1961 the company amalgamated with the Darwins Group to form Balfour Darwins Ltd., with Lord Riverdale as chairman. Darwins was founded in Sheffield in 1926 and produced high grade steel tools. It acquired the Sheffield Forge and Rolling Mills Company in 1953. Balfour Darwins was one of the larger makers of high speed and tool steels not subject to nationalisation in 1967. In the early 1970s the company was taken over by Edgar Allen and Company, which became Edgar Allen Balfour.