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The Origins of Nettlefold & Chamberlain 1823–80

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A History of GKN

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Abstract

On 1 May 1851, Lady Charlotte Guest, with her daughter Maria, attended the opening ceremony of the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace situated in Kensington Gardens.1 The Dowlais Iron Co. had loaned series of specimens illustrating the manufacture of iron2 and these would have been displayed in the south-west galleries, along with other items illustrating coal mining and the metallic industries. The exhibition had been conceived not simply as a way of demonstrating British superiority in manufacturing but was, in the words of Prince Albert, President of the Commissioners, appointed to organise the event, ‘to give us a true test and living picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived’.4 The engineering trades were equally well represented and there were a variety of machines on display to show their precision and self-acting properties. Machinery for drilling, boring, shearing, punching, planing and slotting, together with their products, were arranged in the north-west corner of the mighty hall of iron and glass.5 It was here that an inspired John Sutton Nettlefold first considered applying the latest mechanical techniques to the manufacture of woodscrews. Britain’s industrial and trading competitors also exhibited, so that Germany, France, Belgium, Russia and America all had sections.

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© 1987 GKN plc

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Jones, E. (1987). The Origins of Nettlefold & Chamberlain 1823–80. In: A History of GKN. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06629-2_5

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