In the northern block are fixed the valuable engineers’ tools, lathes, stoking machines, &c., necessary for the turning, shaping, and fashioning all the component parts of a steam-engine or other complex machine. Here also the patterns are made, and here the produced machine receives its final perfection. At the extreme northern end of the factory are the shops where are made the steam thrashing and other agricultural machines, of which wood is a principal component, the wood-work being conveniently introduced into this shop from a detached timber yard, where is fixed all the wood-working machinery by which the frameworks of the steam thrashers and other machines are completely fashioned.
In between the northern and southern parts of the Works the Offices are situated, and it will give some idea of the magnitude of the business when we say that last year upwards of 34,000 letters were received and answered. The Commercial Office is 100 feet long, and the manufacturing office 40 feet long.
Our remaining space must be devoted to the productions of the firm.
Everyone knows that the name of Ransome has been associated with the plough from the earliest period of its improvement until its present highly perfected condition, and that in many a well-contested struggle in England and abroad, before all kinds of tribunals, the Ransome plough has been eminently successful, and is manufactured in annually increasing numbers.
The first great improvement in the plough, viz., the Patent Chilled Plough Share was the invention of Robert Ransome, the founder of the firm, and was patented in 1803. Now these patent shares are in universal use. Indeed to the improvement of the plough and the unwearied energy of the founder and his two sons, James and Robert Ransome, the firm may be said to owe its origin and subsequent success.
Messrs. Ransomes were also one of the earliest makers of the portable steam engine, and are at the present time amongst the largest producers of this very important machine in the kingdom. Within the last ten years, engines of this class, to the aggregate power of 10,000 horses nominal, have left the Orwell Works.
The steam thrashing machines made by the firm, which possess peculiar advantages of construction, are also produced in very large numbers, and have carried off a large number of prizes.
To the merits of these and other inventions developed and manufactured by the firm, the long line of prize diplomas in the commercial office, the large box of medals, gold, silver, and bronze, the decorations bestowed on partners of the firm by the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Portugal, and, recently, the gold medal of the Paris Exhibition, bear abundant testimony and need no confirmation of ours.
We may just add that the manufacture of railway material, which has formed part of the business hitherto conducted at the Orwell Works, will shortly be transferred to a branch of the old firm, who are building a new factory on the banks of the Orwell. This will give Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Head, increased space, and facilities for the manufacture of agricultural machinery, to which they will henceforth give their exclusive attention.