Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Large Testing Machines in South Wales, 1829-1906 . . .

Now we forward to July 1906, when another delegation from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers visited the Lloyd's Bute Proving House. The report of the visit was published within the Proceedings of the Institution : -

Lloyd's Bute Proving House, Cardiff

This proving-house was established in 1866 for testing chain cables and anchors for manufacturers and for vessels coming to Cardiff and the adjacent ports. It is situated on the west side of the Glamorganshire Canal, within half-a-mile of the Great Western Railway station, and is connected to it by a siding to the riverside branch railway, also with the Bute Docks by water. It is owned by the Marquess of Bute, Sir William Thomas Lewis, Bart., being the general manager, and Mr. George W. Penn the superintendent.

The proving-house is fitted with three powerful hydraulic testing-machines, the strains being indicated by levers and dead weights, thus assuring accurate results, in addition to which the breaking-machines are fitted with hydraulic indicators for experimental and light testing. There are two breaking-machines, one made by Messrs. Joshua Buckton and Co., Leeds, and licensed to 350 tons, and the other made by Messrs. Brown, Lenox and Co., Pontypridd, and licensed to 250 tons. The tensile testing-machine, the bed of which is 15 fathoms long, is licensed to 180 tons, but is being altered to test up to 250 tons.

The hydraulic shears are capable of exerting a force of 250 tons, and are fitted with gauges which indicate the pressure applied in shearing iron, steel, and other materials cold. In addition to the ordinary testing of chain cables and anchors, every description of experimental testing of iron, steel, wire-ropes, concrete, and wood is carried out with the greatest accuracy, and full reports of each test are supplied

(See also Paper on " Large Testing-Machines in South Wales, 1829-1906," by Mr. J. Hartley Wicksteed, Past-President, page 543.)