Hathorn, Davey of Leeds

Hathorn, Davey was a successful Leeds (West Yorkshire, United Kingdom) engineering company in the 19th and 20th centuries that rapidly gained a reputation for the manufacture of reliable and efficient steam pumping engines.

The company started in 1872 as a means for a retired Scottish Army Captain, John Fletcher Hathorn, to give his half-brother a worthwhile career. A year later, a young engineer Henry Davey, joined the Partnership. Davey was to become probably one of the most innovative engineers in pumping technology of the period, and it was his patent of a new type of steam engine governor, the differential gear, together with its application to the two-cylinder Compound Engine, that gave the Company worldwide fame. Other innovations followed including a low-steam pressure domestic or safety motor that Davey used at his house at Headingley, Leeds.

The Compound Engine was the Company's bestseller in the 19th century, and a number of those engines survive in the United Kingdom at Ebbw Vale, South Wales, Cheddars Lane Technology Museum, Cambridge and the Mill Meece Pumping Station, Staffordshire.

In the 20th century, the Triple Expansion Engine superseded the Compound, and was exported to Uruguay and Australia. There are examples in both countries. In the United Kingdom working Triple Expansion Engines can be found at Twyford, Hampshire and the London Museum of Water and Steam.

By 1900 the Company had come under the Directorship of the influential Lupton family of Leeds, and in 1901 the partnership converted to a private company. However, like many companies in the 1930s, Hathorn Davey fell on hard times and it was taken over by Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland in 1936. They retained the name Hathorn Davey as a dormant company until 2016.

'Hathorn, Davey of Leeds' is a detailed history of a engineering company, located in the Hunslet area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

The first few chapters describe the establishment of the Sun Foundry where the Company was based. From 1872, the foundry was operated by a number of partnerships, led by John Fletcher Hathorn, a Scottish Landowner. Henry Davey was made a partner 1874 and Hathorn, Davey eventually appeared as the Company's title. Davey was responsible for a number of original innovations that contributed to the firm's excellent reputation for reliability and efficiency. Eventually their steam pumping engines were exported all over the world.

The 366 page book is amply illustrated with examples of the engines and pumps that the Company produced, together with minimal explanations of the technology taken from a variety of patents, and technical journals. The Hathorn, Davey Orders Books provide a common thread throughout the book. The book concludes with two appendices that provide details of the Order Books and the many patents taken out by Henry Davey.