Dowty's

The following attachments show leaflets for the invention -the one with the picture is the original 1920 patent which was then updated and re-patented in 1925 -this second version is the one sold to Dowty.
What I find incredible about this is that my Gt grandfather was obviously so articulate and yet he left school after the age of eleven to work in the mines full-time as he was orphaned.
 

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As Altham was then (pre-1974) in the Burnley Rural District Council area, you will have to try Burnley library rather than Accrington. Maybe both. It5 was not unco9mmon for an employer to take on the financial responsibilitty for an employee's aplicatuion for a patent, which was an expensive business.
 
Bob Dobson said:
As Altham was then (pre-1974) in the Burnley Rural District Council area, you will have to try Burnley library rather than Accrington. Maybe both. It5 was not unco9mmon for an employer to take on the financial responsibilitty for an employee's aplicatuion for a patent, which was an expensive business.
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Am going to have to get sleuthing now as you've given me a few lines of enquiry. I would really like to know how much the patent was sold for and if any production ever came from it for Dowty's. I know it was used on trial with success at Hapton, Whinney Hill and Dickie pit and also later at Burnley colliery. The mine owner's here did not adopt it as they didn't want to spend the money! It was also used in South Wales by the Tredegar Iron and Coal Co. in their colliery.
 
Bob Dobson said:
Colliers were the salt of the earth.
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Got to agree on that one. I spent 30 years in the coal mines. Started at Bank Hall in Burnley 1962. Moved to Huncoat. Worked as supply lad and then did my coal face training. Worked on the coal face doing a job called Striking out on nights for a while. This job was removing and resetting pit props. We carried with us a Dowty Key. This was used to release and pump up the Dowty Props. Then it shut and went to Hapton Valley until 1968 and then to Coventry Mine until 1992. Loved every minute of it. Lots of people I knew at the end of their working life down the pit said "Thank god I am out of that place". I was so sad when most of the coal mines closed in the early nineties. Loved it.
 
But just to confuse the issue we also did work for Dowty Rotol who made landing gear for aircraft
"The Company was founded by George Dowty in 1935 making aircraft equipment in Cheltenham under the name Dowty Aviation. In its early years the Company invented the first internally sprung aircraft wheel and went on to make landing gear for Frank Whittle's jet-propelled Gloster aeroplane. In 1960 the Company acquired Rotol Airscrews, giving it a propeller manufacturing capability (Dowty Rotol). In 1961 it acquired Boulton Paul Aircraft, no longer a large scale manufacturer of aircraft, producing research aircraft, but producing powered control units for aircraft as well as other activities. This was named Dowty Boulton Paul Ltd."

Wikipedia
 
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Thanks for your contributions Mog and Wadey - still can't imagine it being a fun job though!

Are any of these engineering companies still based in Accrington or have they all closed down? Do you know exactly on which street Dowty's was to be found?
 
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