Article ID: CBB328901722

From Georgian traders to Victorian glass makers: The evolution of the Chance family business and its role in developing glass manufacturing (2020)

unapi

The firm of Chance Brothers became the major British manufacturer of optical and lighthouse glass during the second half of the nineteenth century. But this specialised business grew out of a number of precursor partnerships and companies in the West Midlands and Bristol regions dating back into the eighteenth century which among, other items, manufactured window glass. In a number of instances, for example by employing French workers to transfer Continental techniques to England, these earlier businesses foreshadowed later practices of their successor. This paper examines the development of these family-based businesses until the mid-nineteenth century. It argues that their innovatory technical, engineering and manufacturing practices were shaped by many social and cultural influences. In this case of Chance, these included: intra-family relationships; educational provision; the supply of capital, where connections with the slave trade were significant; and a profound understanding of how to use the tax system for maximising profit. What is striking compared to the contemporary Midland businesses of the Wedgwoods or of Boulton and Watt, is the lack of interest by the Chance family until mid-century in using scientific knowledge and method.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB328901722/

Similar Citations

Book Trinder, Barrie Stuart; (2013)
Britain's Industrial Revolution: The Making of a Manufacturing People, 1700--1870 (/isis/citation/CBB001421820/)

Article Coverdale, Tony; (2017)
The Ingenious Mr. Padmore: Eighteenth-century Polymath (/isis/citation/CBB912081467/)

Book Robert Bickers; (2020)
China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World, 1816–1980 (/isis/citation/CBB392202083/)

Book Allen, Douglas W.; (2012)
The Institutional Revolution: Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World (/isis/citation/CBB001320973/)

Article Arnaud Bartolomei; Matthieu de Oliveira; Boris Deschanel; Thomas Mollanger; (Spring 2021)
The Making of Commercial Innovations: The Use of Printed Commercial Circular Letters in France and Europe, 1750-1850 (/isis/citation/CBB204104713/)

Article Robert Fitzgerald; (2017)
International Business and the Development of British Electrical Manufacturing, 1886–1929 (/isis/citation/CBB583254224/)

Book Russell, Ben; (2014)
James Watt: Making the World Anew (/isis/citation/CBB001510127/)

Article Peter M. Solar; Klas Rönnbäck; (2015)
Copper sheathing and the British slave trade (/isis/citation/CBB786137923/)

Article William P. Kennedy; P. J. R. Delargy; (Summer 2020)
Shorting the Future? Capital Markets and the Launch of the British Electrical Industry, 1882–1892 (/isis/citation/CBB570854750/)

Article Catherine Casson; Mark Dodgson; (Summer 2019)
Designing for Innovation: Cooperation and Competition in English Cotton, Silk, and Pottery Firms, 1750–1860 (/isis/citation/CBB799382467/)

Book Chris Evans; Louise Miskell; (2020)
Swansea Copper: A Global History (/isis/citation/CBB336671042/)

Book Johan Mathew; (2016)
Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea (/isis/citation/CBB767549347/)

Chapter A. D. Morrison-Low; (2016)
The Gentle Art of Persuasion: Advertising Instruments during Britain’s Industrial Revolution (/isis/citation/CBB243547291/)

Book MacLeod, Christine; (2007)
Heroes of Invention: Technology, Liberalism and British Identity, 1750--1914 (/isis/citation/CBB000830491/)

Authors & Contributors
Nuvolari, Alessandro
Solar, Peter M.
Boris Deschanel
Richard Williams
Delargy, P. J. R.
Dodgson, Mark
Concepts
Industrial revolution
Business history
Technological innovation
Technology
Manufacturing
Merchants
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
Enlightenment
20th century, early
17th century
Places
Great Britain
Birmingham (England)
Wales
Scotland
Europe
Arabian Sea region
Institutions
London Stock Exchange
Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company, Ltd.
Anglo-American Brush Electric Light (firm)
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (Great Britain)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment