Dorman Long
Dorman Long, based in Middlesbrough, England, was a major steel producer, which diversified into bridge building, and is now a manufacturer of steel components for bridges and other structures. The business has been involved in the construction of many major bridges including the Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
History
The company was founded by Arthur Dorman and Albert de Lande Long as an iron works in 1875.[1] In the 1920s Dorman Long took over the concerns of Bell Brothers and Bolckow and Vaughan and diversified into the construction of bridges. In 1967 Dorman Long became part of British Steel.
In 1982 Redpath Dorman Long, the engineering part of the business, was acquired by Trafalgar House who in 1990 merged it into Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company in Darlington.[2]
Dorman Long Technology, the company that still carries the Dorman Long name, remains a subsidiary of Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company.[3]
Iron and Steel
Iron-making has been known in Cleveland since the Romans found iron slags in North Yorkshire, with small-scale iron-making known to have taken place at Rievaulx and Whitby Abbeys and at Gisborough Priory in the 17th Century.
Some of the key events connected with iron-making in Cleveland:
1837: The first Cleveland ironstone mine opens, at Grosmont.
1841: Bolckow and Vaughan open the first ironworks in Middlesbrough.
1855: 30 blast furnaces operate within six miles (10 km) of Middlesbrough.
1865: One million tonnes per annum (TPA) of iron are produced to make the area one of the world's major centres of iron production.
1875: Number of blast furnaces increases to 100, producing two million TPA.
1879: Sydney Gilchrist arrives in Cleveland and introduces the first commercial steel.
1902: The first integrated steelworks, involving conversion of iron ore to finished rolled steel shapes, is built at Cargo Fleet.
1917: The Redcar steel plant is opened, making steel in the 'open hearth' process.
1918: Cleveland Works opens.
1924: Dorman Long wins the contract to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
1946: Dorman Long purchases 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land between the Redcar and Cleveland Works to build the Lackenby development.
1967: Dorman Long, South Durham Steel Iron Co, and Stewarts and Lloyds come together to create British Steel and Tube Ltd.
1967: The steel industry is nationalised and the British Steel Corporation is born.
1973: The existing Redcar Ironworks site development begins.
1979: The number of blast furnaces drops to one - producing 3.3 million TPA.
1989: Company is privatised becoming British Steel plc.
1990: Merged with The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, Darlington.
1999: British Steel merges with the Dutch steel and aluminium company Koninklijke Hoogovens to become Corus Group.
2000: Dorman Long Technology Ltd formed as an independent company as part of a management buy out of Cleveland Bridge in August 2000.
Bridge Building
The most famous bridge ever constructed on Teesside was Dorman Long's Sydney Harbour Bridge of 1932. This was partly modelled on the 1928 Tyne Bridge, a construction regarded as the symbol of Tyneside's Geordie pride, but also a product of Dorman Long's Teesside workmanship. The greatest example of Dorman Long's work in Teesside itself is the single span Newport Lifting Bridge (a Grade II Listed Building). Opened by the Duke of York in February 1934 it was England's first vertical lift bridge. With a lifting span of 270 feet (82 m) long by 66 feet (20 m) wide, it is constructed from 8000 tons of Teesside steel and 28,000 tons of concrete with towers 182 feet (55 m) high. The electrically operated lifting mechanism allowed the road to be lifted 100 feet (30 m) in one and a half minutes by means of ropes passing through sheaves in the four corner towers. Newport Bridge is no longer raised or lowered; it is a permanent road crossing the river Tees.
The following is a list of some of the bridges built by the Dorman Long: it is not however fully comprehensive.
- Omdurman Bridge, White Nile, Sudan
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1926
- Total length 2,012 feet (613 m)
- 7 fixed spans, one swing span
- 3,700 tons
- Dessouk Bridge, Lower Nile, Egypt
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1927
- Total length 2.010 feet (0.613 m)
- 10 spans including 194 feet (59 m) swing span
- 3,800 tons
- Limpopo Bridge, South Africa
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1927
- Total length 1,515 feet (462 m)
- 1,876 tons
- Tyne Bridge Newcastle, England
- (Road)
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1928
- Total length 1,254 feet (382 m)
- Approximately 8,000 tons
- Sydney Harbour Bridge Sydney, Australia
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1932
- Total length 3,770 feet (1,150 m)
- Total weight of fabricated steelwork 51,000
- Weight of steel in the arch 38,000 tons
- Lambeth Bridge, London, England
- (Road)
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1932
- Total length 776 ft (237 m)
- 5 spans
- 4,620 tons
- Memorial Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand
- (Road)
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1932
- Total length 755 feet (230 m)
- 1,100 tons
- Khedive Ismail Bridge Cairo, Egypt
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1933
- Total length 1,250 feet (380 m)
- 3,000 tons
With the central span raised to allow the fire boat through
- Newport bridge, Middlesbrough
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1934
- The central lifting span is 270 feet (82m) long and 66 feet (20m) wide, weighing 5400 tons (6993 metric tonnes), the towers are 182 feet (55m) high. The total weight being 8,000 tons.
- Birchenough Bridge, Zimbabwe
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1935
- 1,242 tons.
- Strostrom Bridge, Denmark
- (Railways)
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1937
- Total length 10,535 feet (3,211 m)
- 21,000 tons
- Chien Tang River Bridge, China
- (Railway and Road)
- Built by Dorman Long, Middlesbrough, 1937
- Total length 3,840 feet (1,170 m)
- 16 equal spans
- 4,135 tons
Dorman Museum
In 1904 Sir Arthur Dorman of Dorman Long gave the Dorman Museum to Middlesbrough in honour of his youngest son, George Lockwood Dorman, an avid collector who was killed in the Boer War. Amongst the museum’s many exhibits, is a collection of ceramics from the local Linthorpe Pottery[4], which was renowned for its iridescent glazes, that at the time were not produced anywhere else in Europe. The museum has one of the largest collections of these highly distinctive ceramics in the world.
References
See also
External links
- Dorman Long information at Structurae
- Dorman Long Homepage
