Geelong was Victoria’s second important port city. It also served as the gateway to Victoria’s prosperous western agricultural district. To serve that district, the engineering works of William Humble was founded in 1861.

William Humble was born at Whitby, Yorkshire in England, on 9 April 1835. The son of a farmer, as a youth he worked for the firm of Richard Hornsby before emigrating to Victoria aboard the ship Electric in 1858. On arrival in Melbourne in July (after a voyage of 118 days and with but £5 in his pocket) he entered the service of Fulton’s Foundry. He then moved to Geelong and worked for a short time at George Walker’s Corio Foundry, before moving to Crowle’s, Ford & Tannick’s, and Munro’s foundries, all in Geelong. In 1861 he started his own business in Geelong styled ‘Humble & Simmons Western Foundry’. His founding partner was William Simmons (with Ward Nicholson added in July 1864). In July 1865, William Humble married Emma Strong. Besides the three partners, there were six adult employees and three or four boys, with a wages bill of £40 per week. Simmons died only two years after the business started and his place was taken by John Lessels, a former foreman at the Phoenix Foundry, Ballarat. He returned to his former employer after only one year and his place was taken in December 1865 by John Valantine, a nephew of Thomas Fulton. He also returned to his former employer in September 1867, and the firm became just Humble & Nicholson.

Ward Nicholson, the son of an oil-maker, was born near Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK, in 1836, and was apprenticed to Stephenson’s Foundry in that city. Having completed his apprenticeship, he sailed for the Colonies, arriving in 1857. He worked at Ford’s Foundry in Geelong (marrying the owner’s daughter Jane in 1858) before going into partnership with William Humble. Ward Nicholson was briefly in financial difficulty in November 1862, but seems to have recovered quickly. Around March 1866, the firm purchased the premises and business of the Vulcan Foundry, originally established briefly by the Langlands brothers in 1847 as a branch of their Melbourne establishment, though it was quickly closed in 1848. The foundry was re-opened in 1854 by William Croll. The site was in Little Malop Street (extending south to Ryrie Street – today occupied by a carpark and the Bendigo Bank) and the partners moved their operations there in 1861, trading as Humble & Coy.

From the start, agricultural machinery provided a steady trade along with traditional engineering. This included mining machinery and Ford’s patent rock drill. It was to be the wool press that would provide a substantial income, most notably that to the patent of David Ferrier of Coleraine, with its hinged top, first noticed in the press in October 1876, and which would go on to win numerous awards of merit and medals at exhibitions. The counter-balanced upper box reduced a three-man operation to just one, enabling a ‘gun’ presser to press up to 40 bales per day. Over the next 25 years, more than 1,200 presses would be manufactured. In June 1877, the style of the company was changed, henceforth trading as ‘Humble & Nicholson’.

The firm produced a large number of steam engines for such diverse uses as powering Strong & Pierce’s boot and shoe factory in Geelong, the crusher at Clement Nash’s Lethbridge quarries, the machinery at Munday’s Geelong Tannery, and Dann’s Flour Mill. Railway contracts for the Victorian government included weighing machines for the Geelong goods shed, a number of pumping sets for locomotive water totalling £5,500, and four turntables totalling £1,890. The centre castings for the turntables alone weighed two tons each. The quality of the castings led to an order for ten pairs of locomotive cylinders, each turned out flawlessly. Along with agricultural work (sheep-washing plants, wool-presses etc.) and mining apparatus, the Vulcan Foundry was becoming an important enterprise, albeit one notable in the local press for a high frequency of industrial accidents.

Perhaps the most potentially serious of these was the explosion of an egg-ended boiler at the works on 27 February 1879. The boiler was old, having been imported by the Geelong & Melbourne Railway Company but never used. It was now to be used to store gas for lighting railway carriages, and the Vulcan Foundry received an order for a steam-driven pump and fittings to pressurise the old boiler. A test of the boiler and pump had already proved successful at 110psi. A further test a few days later saw the boiler explode at about 103psi. The explosion tore the iron of the boiler ‘into ribbons’ with fragments landing up to 150 yards away, destroying all the windows in the turner’s and pattern shops, and wrecking the new pump. The noise of the explosion attracted a large number of onlookers but, fortunately, no one was injured. The damage was estimated at £200.

In April 1879, Humble & Nicholson won a contract for a new wrought and cast-iron bridge at Cressy (replacing an earlier timber bridge over the Woady Yallock Creek, destroyed by fire in 1878). It would be the first of several iron-girder bridges constructed by the firm. The contract for the Leigh Shire Council totalled £4,542 8s 4½d. Work was underway by October 1879 with the engagement of a diver to assist with the sinking of the cast-iron piers. The bridge was opened in October 1880 to considerable acclaim. (The bridge still exists but is out of use.) This and other work necessitated an expansion of the foundry, and the purchase of a new radial-drilling machine and a large lathe with associated gantry. A large overhead crane was also installed to enable even the heaviest pieces of machinery to be moved around the site. The foundry was now so busy that shifts were being worked as late as 9:00pm.

By this time, the Vulcan Foundry employed around 100 men. Innovation had been a key to its success, helped by protective tariffs introduced by the Victorian government. A key interest was the development of a reaper-binder with an automatic knot tying mechanism. The sheaves could be potentially bound either with straw, wire, or twine. Western District straw was too brittle for the job; wire knots could readily be made (but that left the danger of the wire being accidentally ingested by stock). Twine seemed ideal, but was more difficult to tie. David Ferrier of Coleraine developed a suitable mechanism around 1867 and had turned it into a practical machine by the late 1870s. Humble & Coy constructed one to his design that enabled Ferrier to reap and bind his own crop using only his own labour and a team of horses. In 1880, another four machines were made but, with the withdrawal of tariffs on imported reaper-binders (reducing the price to £75), sales could only be made to pay direct to farmers, there being no margin for sales through an agent. A duty of around 20% would provide the protection required. That the machine was a success was without doubt; Mr Ransome of Ransome & Sims had obtained one from Humble to take back to England for trials on English crops.

Refrigeration offered another opportunity, with Humble & Nicholson producing their first unit for a Geelong ice-works in January 1882. A second machine (to Edmund Taylor’s patent) was constructed for a Melbourne butcher in November of the same year and, by late 1883, five had been completed. Orders began to flood in from interstate, the larger machines costing up to £1,000 but making a great saving in meat which would otherwise have spoiled. The machine was so successful that, in December 1886, Humble & Nicolson installed one in a brick building opposite the Vulcan Foundry in order to provide a service to the butchers and public of Geelong. It soon became apparent during summer that demand was going to exceed capacity. By 1888, at least twenty refrigerating sets had been installed Australia wide, and even one in New Zealand. The firm had got in on the ground floor just as the cooperative butter factory system was being established in Victoria, and afterwards did a large trade in refrigeration equipment for this industry.

The manufacture of portable steam engines at the Vulcan Foundry had commenced in 1882, protected by a tariff of 25% on imported engines. This increased the price of an imported engine by around £60, a heavy impost on famers. Thompson’s of Castlemaine was also manufacturing this class of engine (and would, in the future, be joined by others). One produced by Humble & Nicholson even won a gold medal in the 1888 Exhibition. However, it appeared that purchasers still preferred the English article, and the number of Victorian engines produced remained low. It would take a shortage of imported engines during the First World War for this product line to be revived. In March 1918, two portable steam engines and three portable oil engines were despatched from the works for display on the Dangar Gedye (machinery merchants) stand at the Sydney Agricultural show.

In 1890, Humble & Nicholson rebuilt a steam locomotive at the Vulcan Foundry. Former Launceston and Western Railway 4-4-0T No.3 was a product of Stephenson’s Foundry (where Ward Nicholson had served his apprenticeship), and was builder’s No. 1988 of 1870. It was used as a contractor’s locomotive on the construction of the Warragul to Rokeby railway until its boiler exploded at the Muddy Creek Station on 7 March 1890. One person later died as a result of his injuries. After rebuilding at the Vulcan Foundry (and the addition of a small tender), the locomotive was used on the Kerang and Koondrook tramway in northern Victoria as The Federal. It was scrapped sometime after 1922.

By 1899, Humble & Nicholson had moved into the internal-combustion era, applying for a patent for ‘an improved oil or gas engine’. By 1901, the firm had turned out one of the largest gas engines (on the Otto cycle) in Victoria at 35ihp, and were soon achieving an efficiency of two-thirds of a penny per horsepower per hour. This achievement was followed by a line of stationary and portable
oil engines.

On 31 December 1900, Ward Nicholson retired, and his share of the business was taken over by William Humble’s sons Thomas Strong, William Henry, and George Bland Humble, the two former being trained as practical engineers and the latter taking charge of the financial management of the new firm – William Humble & Sons. Ward Nicholson died of liver cancer aged 71 on 9 March 1908, and is buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Geelong. He died a wealthy man (despite many failed speculations in mining), his major asset besides real estate being the Richmond Refrigerating & Ice Company in Brighton Street, Richmond, established in 1888 and bequeathed to his children.

William Humble died of complications of diabetes on 27 February 1917. He was 81 and a wealthy man, well respected in his community, a former Mayor of Geelong, a supporter of the Gordon Technical College, the Geelong Hospital, and many other charities. The business of the Vulcan Foundry was left to his two surviving sons William Henry and George Bland Humble (Thomas Strong Humble having died on 30 August 1915).

In August 1918, the firm was incorporated as ‘Humbles Ltd’, capitalised at £50,000. A decade later, in May 1928, the Vulcan Foundry was offered for sale. Part of the land was sold off to the neighbouring Geelong & Cressy Trading Company, and a subsequent fire in this area destroyed the large stock of wooden patterns kept there. It seems there were no takers for the remainder of the business, with the machinery being sold-off piecemeal over the next few years, with a final sale being held in November 1931. Thus ended an engineering firm which had endured for 70 years.

Of the 9,100 boilers registered under the Boiler Inspection Act of 1906, Humble & Nicholson and Humble & Sons constructed 69, or just 0.76%. What they lacked in quantity was more than made up by quality, with boiler inspectors invariably pleased with the result. Of the boilers built, 33 (49.3%) were vertical and practically all of the Field-tube type. These had become a specialty of Humble & Nicholson, with many being constructed for the Victorian Railways. The Field-tube boiler was developed in 1864 by Edward Field [1825-1908] for the fire engines constructed by Moses Merryweather, where speed in raising steam was a primary concern. The boilers were constructed with vertical tubes closed at their lower end. Within each tube was suspended a smaller concentric tube. Water in the outer section of the tube was heated, drawing down colder water from above, forming a thermic syphon and setting up a positive circulation. A key point was a ‘trumpet-mouth’ at the top of the inner tube, so that the flow of colder water downwards would not be impeded by the hotter water moving upwards. More than 360 Field-tube boilers were sold in the UK in the few years after the patent was registered, and were capable of evaporating between 9-10lb of water per pound of coal consumed.

Of the remaining boilers registered 19 (27.5%) were Cornish, 8 (11.6%) were underfired, 5 (7.2%) were Jackass, 2 (2.9%) were rectangular-firebox portable engines, and 1 (1.4%) was egg ended. The last of the boilers left the works as late as 1928. There were only 16 sales into greater Melbourne (and two of these were to the Richmond Ice Works of Ward Nicholson), all the remainder being to Geelong and Western District country areas.

Several items from this firm survive. The Victorian Steam Heritage Register list one vertical stationary engine (3nhp), two locomotive-boilered portable engines (4nhp), one portable engine (8nhp) with a jackass (circular-firebox) boiler, and one vertical boiler. Another boiler not on the register (originally a winch engine mounted on a cast base) exists in the bush at Mount Samaria. Of the Foundry itself, not one trace remains.

*Peter Evans

References

Sutherland, A. (1888). Victoria and its Metropolis, Past and Present. McCarron Bird & Company, Melbourne, volume II, page 154; Smith. J. (1903).

The Cyclopedia of Victoria: An Historical and Commercial Review, Descriptive and Biographical facts, figures and illustrations – an Epitome of Progress. Cyclopedia Company, ‘special part’, page 43; VPP, Minutes of evidence, Royal Commission
into the Tariff 1883, pages 856-858; PROV, inwards passenger lists 1858, fiche 148 page 1;

Victorian Government Gazette (VGG), Gazette 134, Tuesday 18 November, 1862, page 2326.

For Langlands’ purchase of the Vulcan Foundry site in 1847 see Geelong Advertiser & Squatters’ Advocate, Friday 23 July 1847, page 2; and closure Geelong Advertiser, Tuesday 7 March 1848, page 2.

For Croll’s occupation see Geelong Advertiser & Intelligencer, Tuesday 30 May 1854, page 5; and for Humble & Coy’s takeover Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 10 March 1866, page 2.

A potted history of the firm is given in the Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 22 June 1912, pages 3 and 4.

Geelong
Advertiser, Saturday 30 October 1869, page 2; Friday 21 January 1870, page 2.

VGG, Gazette 69, Friday 29 September 1876, page 1806; Geelong
Advertiser, Friday 20 October 1876, page 2; Monday 12 November 1877, page 2.

Geelong
Advertiser, Friday 8 June 1877, page 2; Leader, Saturday 7 September 1901, page 5.

Geelong
Advertiser, Wednesday 17 October 1877, page 3; Friday 9 November 1877, page 2; Saturday 19 October 1878, page 4; Saturday 18 October 1884, page 3.

Geelong
Advertiser, Wednesday 15 May 1878, page 2; Thursday 25 July 1878, page 2; Monday 16 June 1884, page 2.

Geelong
Advertiser, Friday 28 February 1879, page 3; Friday 21 Marsh 1879, page 3.

Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 10 April 1879, page 2; Tuesday 19 August 1879, page 2; Wednesday 15 October 1879, page 4; Wednesday 24 March 1880, page 2; Friday 22 October 1880, page 2.

VPP, Minutes of evidence, Royal Commission into the Tariff 1883, pages 856-858; Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 11 March 1880, page 2; Monday 10 January 1881, page 2; Friday 4 February 1881, page 3; Monday 9 January 1882, page 4; Saturday 24 January 1885, page 2.

Geelong
Advertiser, Monday 16 January 1882, page 3; Saturday 11 November 1882, page 2; Wednesday 5 December 1883, page 4; Friday 3 December 1886, page 3; Saturday 15 January 1887, page 2; The
Herald, Saturday 15 September 1888, page 2.

Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 4 November 1886, page 4; The
Age, Wednesday 18 September 1889, page 7; The
Argus, Wednesday 25 September 1889, page 4.

Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 7 March 1918, pages 2 and 3.

 Warragul Guardian & Buln Buln & Narracan Shire
Advocate, Tuesday 11 March 1890, page 3; Great Southern
Advocate, Friday 21 March 1890, page 3; Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 12 June 1919, page 2; Thursday 12 June 1919, page 2; Tuesday 17 June 1919, page 4. Locomotive data from railway historian Peter Medlin.

The Age, Saturday 2 September 1899, page 11; Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 28 November 1901, page 2; Tuesday 8 December 1903, page 1; Weekly
Times, Saturday 9 September 1905, page 12.

Geelong
Advertiser, Wednesday 2 January 1901, page 4.

Ward Nicholson death certificate 1916 of 1908.

PROV, VPRS 7591/P2, unit 421, item 107/145; VPRS 28/P0, unit 1384, item 107/145; VPRS 28/P2, unit 841, item 107/145.

William Humble death certificate 1563 of 1917; PROV, VPRS 7591/P2, unit 582, item 157/378; VPRS 28/P3, unit 818, item 157/378; unit 632, item 145/035; Geelong
Advertiser, Friday 9 April 1915, page 2; Thursday 22 July 1915, page 4.

Geelong
Advertiser, Thursday 15 August 1918, page 2, Saturday 2 June 1928, page 7; Saturday 8 September 1928, page 1; Wednesday 19 September 1928, page 7; The
Herald,
Saturday 7 November 1931, page 27.

Based on an analysis of the boiler registration records in PRO, VPRS 7854/P1 and 7854/P2. Copy available from peter@peterevans.com.au on request. For details of the Field-tube boiler see The
Engineer, Friday 5 August 1870, pages 96 and 98; Friday 27 November 1908, page 562; and US patent 44877 of 1864.

Sutherland, A. (1888). Victoria and its Metropolis, Past and Present. McCarron Bird & Company, Melbourne, volume II, page 154; Smith. J. (1903). The Cyclopedia of Victoria: An Historical and Commercial Review, Descriptive and Biographical facts, figures and illustrations – an Epitome of Progress. Cyclopedia Company, ‘special part’, page 43; VPP, Minutes of evidence, Royal Commission into the Tariff 1883, pages 856-858; PROV, inwards passenger lists 1858, fiche 148 page 1; Victorian Government Gazette (VGG), Gazette 134, Tuesday 18 November, 1862, page 2326. For Langlands’ purchase of the Vulcan Foundry site in 1847 see Geelong Advertiser & Squatters' Advocate, Friday 23 July 1847, page 2; and closure Geelong Advertiser, Tuesday 7 March 1848, page 2. For Croll’s occupation see Geelong Advertiser & Intelligencer, Tuesday 30 May 1854, page 5; and for Humble & Coy’s takeover Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 10 March 1866, page 2. A potted history of the firm is given in the Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 22 June 1912, pages 3 and 4.

Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 30 October 1869, page 2; Friday 21 January 1870, page 2.

VGG, Gazette 69, Friday 29 September 1876, page 1806; Geelong Advertiser, Friday 20 October 1876, page 2; Monday 12 November 1877, page 2.

Geelong Advertiser, Friday 8 June 1877, page 2; Leader, Saturday 7 September 1901, page 5.

Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 17 October 1877, page 3; Friday 9 November 1877, page 2; Saturday 19 October 1878, page 4; Saturday 18 October 1884, page 3.

Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 15 May 1878, page 2; Thursday 25 July 1878, page 2; Monday 16 June 1884, page 2.

Geelong Advertiser, Friday 28 February 1879, page 3; Friday 21 Marsh 1879, page 3.

Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 10 April 1879, page 2; Tuesday 19 August 1879, page 2; Wednesday 15 October 1879, page 4; Wednesday 24 March 1880, page 2; Friday 22 October 1880, page 2.

VPP, Minutes of evidence, Royal Commission into the Tariff 1883, pages 856-858; Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 11 March 1880, page 2; Monday 10 January 1881, page 2; Friday 4 February 1881, page 3; Monday 9 January 1882, page 4; Saturday 24 January 1885, page 2.

Geelong Advertiser, Monday 16 January 1882, page 3; Saturday 11 November 1882, page 2; Wednesday 5 December 1883, page 4; Friday 3 December 1886, page 3; Saturday 15 January 1887, page 2; The Herald, Saturday 15 September 1888, page 2.

Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 4 November 1886, page 4; The Age, Wednesday 18 September 1889, page 7; The Argus, Wednesday 25 September 1889, page 4.

Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 7 March 1918, pages 2 and 3.

Warragul Guardian & Buln Buln & Narracan Shire Advocate, Tuesday 11 March 1890, page 3; Great Southern Advocate, Friday 21 March 1890, page 3; Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 12 June 1919, page 2; Thursday 12 June 1919, page 2; Tuesday 17 June 1919, page 4. Locomotive data from railway historian Peter Medlin.

The Age, Saturday 2 September 1899, page 11; Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 28 November 1901, page 2; Tuesday 8 December 1903, page 1; Weekly Times, Saturday 9 September 1905, page 12.

Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 2 January 1901, page 4.

Ward Nicholson death certificate 1916 of 1908.

PROV, VPRS 7591/P2, unit 421, item 107/145; VPRS 28/P0, unit 1384, item 107/145; VPRS 28/P2, unit 841, item 107/145.

William Humble death certificate 1563 of 1917; PROV, VPRS 7591/P2, unit 582, item 157/378; VPRS 28/P3, unit 818, item 157/378; unit 632, item 145/035; Geelong Advertiser, Friday 9 April 1915, page 2; Thursday 22 July 1915, page 4.

Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 15 August 1918, page 2, Saturday 2 June 1928, page 7; Saturday 8 September 1928, page 1; Wednesday 19 September 1928, page 7; The Herald, Saturday 7 November 1931, page 27.

Based on an analysis of the boiler registration records in PRO, VPRS 7854/P1 and 7854/P2. Copy available from peter@peterevans.com.au on request. For details of the Field-tube boiler see The Engineer, Friday 5 August 1870, pages 96 and 98; Friday 27 November 1908, page 562; and US patent 44877 of 1864.