Angus Croll

MR. ANGUS CROLL

 

            "For ever in the gaseous war,

            May Crollious General be

            And when again he leads his men

            May I be there to see"[1]

 

This quotation comes from a poetic account of  'The Battle of Bow Bridge' - a pitched battle between  workmen employed by two different east London gas companies.  The leading figure in both battle and poem was 'Colonel' Alexander Angus Croll.  The gas trade press in the middle years of the nineteenth century is often far from dull.  Like Mechanics Magazine, it exhibits a sharp Cockney humour. Frequently details appear about the more flamboyant of the gas engineers. None was more outrageous than Angus Croll. It is sometimes hard to remember that he was not a Londoner - in so many ways he typified Essex man!  Croll was, however, a Scot and retained close Scottish links to the end of an extremely successful, if slightly ridiculous, life.

 Croll is a very good example of a chemical manufacturer in a close relationship with the gas industry.  He had energy and ideas which allowed him to diversify into all sorts of different fields which he thought would be useful and profitable.  The basis from which he worked was always his knowledge of gas industry residuals.

THE YOUNG CROLL

 Gas works, as we have seen, produced ammoniaas a waste product. Manufacturing chemists hoped to find ways to use it profitably.  In this, Croll was in the forefront. He was one of the second generation in the gas industry.   Expertise born out of youthful fanaticism is common in the late twentieth century when everyone knows young people unable to leave their computer screens. Gas manufacture was once no different and many of these  lads grew up to be gas engineers.

 Croll came from Perthin Scotland, the youngest child of a septuagenarian father. He claimed, rather improbably,  that he had had to make bird cages to pay for his schooling.  He then became a weaver's reed maker apprenticed to an older brother. In his early twenties he came to London and set up as a chemical manufacturer on a site in Millwall. This seems a strange thing for a poor boy to do - the source of his capital was never explained.  The Millwall site has not been traced, and he could, in fact, have been an employee in someone else's works.

 In 1838 he patented a method of making  'gas for affording light' but then turned his attention to chemicals. In 1839 he patented a way of 'reconverting salts used in purifying gas and manufacture of ammoniacal salts' from an address in Greenwich. A career in ammonia salts was launched.

 

CROLL THE CHEMICAL MANUFACTURER

 He now claimed to be a chemical manufacturer in Greenwich. In 1836 a request to  buy  ammoniacal liquor from the Ratcliffe Company[1]came from 'Croll and Jones'.   'Jones is  intermittently listed between 1810 and 1838 in the Greenwich Rate Books.  He made vitriol at  the chemical works which had once been associated with the Greenwich copperas works.  There is no sign of Croll in either ratebooks or directories. Perhaps his ammonia business  was just a job in Jones' vitriol work

Croll's chemical 'business' did badly. He then took a job as second engineer with the CharteredGas Company at Brick Lane.[1]  It seems unlikely that the Chartered would have taken someone on in this senior post without experience of gas manufacture or supervision in a similar business.. It rather leads to the suspicion that Croll's background was not quite what he later claimed. He was 'a young man .... full of ideas'.[1]   He was said to have been very effective, and happy, at Brick Lane. He had become a total abstainer and temperance beverages were provided in the works.  Workmen were signed up to the cause. When he resigned  after only five years work he was presented with a silver snuff box.  

 During the next ten years Croll took out eight patents, all but one concerned with the chemistry of coal gas and ammonia salts.  

 t had become increasingly clear that gas purification by limebased processes could not continue in the inner city gas works. The smell was  insupportable and disposal methods difficult.   There were numerous attempts to find a better, cleaner,  method - most London gas works had tested several such.   Some of those who formulated new methods of purification were chemists whose real aim was to recover  ammonia.[1]

 LEATHER

 In 1839, while employed at Brick Lane,  Croll approached the Imperial Gas Company together with  a Mr. Bevington. They had a new scheme for 'removing the ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen from the gas. For £1,000[1] they would supply a salt which 'could be applied to the gas making machine'.[1]  The ImperialBoard were delighted by a suggestion that meant an end to the nuisance of  wet lime.n the deal Croll would get the waste products to use in his chemical works and  'make a profit selling the muriate of ammonia'.

Mr. Bevington, Croll's partner, was a member of the Bermondsey leather working family. The Bermondsey leather industry was well known and very large. In the 1850s a third of the country's leather was processed there.[1]   The grand buildings of the Leather Market and a Leather Hide and Wool Exchange[1] can still be seen  in the 1990s.  Colonel Samuel Bevington was to be the first Mayor of Bermondsey and his statue stands at the junction of Tower Bridge Road and Tooley Street.  Croll's partner was one of three brothers who owned Neckinger Mills, which, built as a paper mill,  stands where the Neckinger river once crossed Abbey Street.  In 1836 the Greenwich railway was built alongside the mill's wall and the Neckinger has disappeared underground, but the mill still provides workshops and homes long after the Bevingtons have gone.[1]   In their day Bevingtons were predominant in Bermondsey leather. In the later nineteenth century they expanded into the fringes of the chemical industry to build a 'remarkably offensive' glue works on the Erith marshes.[1] Why were they interested in Angus Croll?

 Thirty years earlier Frederick Albert Winsor had suggested that tanners might have a use for ammoniacal  liquor. He said that "it was one of the strongest lyes for tanning skin ...  cheaper and quicker and superior than  bark'.[1]   In the tanning process, skins were treated with lime, dung and a solution of oak bark.  In the nineteenth century it was thought that ammonia compounds might be suitable substitutes.[1]  Alum, which Croll was to manufacture, was used in a different process called 'tawing'[1] to make white, non-waterproof, leather.

Imperial bought Croll's  purification scheme but it had been  set up to please everyone and never really worked.  It was not cheap for the gas company to run,  lime was still used and  the  hydrochloric acid caused problems with machinery. It was  'troublesome and expensive' and soon abandoned.[1]

AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS

 In 1844 Croll read a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers about a new method of making sulphate of ammonia.  He suggested passing coal gas, which had been through the ordinary lime purifiers, into sulphuric acid.[1] The resulting sulphate of ammonia was described, by Croll, as 'of remarkable purity'.  It would  provide the double benefit of clean gas and a high quality ammonia salt. It seems a pity that members of the Institution who listened to Croll's paper asked no questions about it, and preferred to discuss the porosity of pipes afterwards. Perhaps they did not understand it.

 Croll's paper also described tests made on his sulphate of ammonia and its usein agricultural purposesA subject which on which, he said,  'men of science, education and capital have for several years bestowed much attention'.  Croll was right, the usexe "Agricultural use"§ of ammonia in agriculture had been given considerable attention  for many years.   It is very likely that much of the sulphate of ammonia that the gas industry made went for agricultural use.  Ammonia was probably first used like this around 1800 - which would put the gas industry in a good position to become suppliers.[1]  A  Mr. Cox XE "Cox" § had submitted a paper  about this to the 1809 Parliamentary Enquiry into the Gas Light & Coke Co. xe "Parliamentary Enquiry"§ The Board of Agriculture XE "Board of Agriculture" § was also interested and inxe "Perth.  In"§ 1814 Sir xe "Davy Humphery "§Humphery Davy had carried out some relevant experiments.  Again, there are no details.[1]  Sir xe "Russell John "§John Russell, commenting on this,  said that the sulphate of ammoniaxe "Sulphate of ammonia"§ which Chartered Co.xe "Chartered Co"§ made in 1815 was intended for agricultural use but that it was 'unsatisfactory until further research' had taken place.[1]  In the early 1840s numerous experiments with potential fertilisers were made. These  included the pioneering work of Baron Von Leibeig XE "Leibeig, Baron von" § as well as that of  John Bennet Lawes.[1] XE "Lawes, John Bennett" §  Croll's paper was part of this movement. He  embellished it with quotations from Leibeig, the leading current authority.

 

The experiments on sulphate of ammonia XE "ammonia" §xe "Sulphate of ammonia"§ for fertiliser, which Croll described, had been undertaken at  Manor Farm, Havering Atte Bower XE "Havering Atte Bower" §  -  the back end of Romford. This was remarkably near to a future address of Croll's - he later lived at Haroldswood Lodge only a mile or so from Manor Farm. There is just a suspicion that it might have been his farm - another possible indicator of Croll's wealth. The report omits to say who supervised the experiments - perhaps it was Croll himself.  He said that the sulphate was applied as a 'top dressing' rather than by watering as with Davy'sxe "Davy, Humphrey"§ experiments.[1]  Croll however mentioned no other research or findings on the subject - despite the work done by xe "Royal Agricultural Society;"§ Davy and others.

 

Croll had a commitment to research and education and was a founder supporter of the Royal College of Chemistry.[1]  He must also have known xe "Lawes John Bennett "§John Bennett Lawes, the best known agricultural chemist of his generation. Lawes'  first fertiliser works was on Deptford Creek and he later moved to Atlas Works XE "Atlas Works" §, Millwall XE "Millwall" §. Thirty years later, the Lawes Manure Company,xe "Lawes Manure Company,"§ by then at Barking and without Lawes himself, boughtxe "Barking, bought"§ 'patent ammonia XE "ammonia" §'xe "Patent ammonia'"§ from Croll's Alum and Ammonia Companyxe "Alum and Ammonia Company"§.[1]

 

 

CROLL'S PURIFIER

 

Several manufacturing chemists tried to persuade the gas industry to take on their purification schemes. xe "Laming Richard "§Richard Laming and xe "Hills Frank "§Frank Hills were two leaders in this and along with Croll became enmeshed in  rival processes and interminable litigation.   An attempt to outline some of this saga will be made in another chapter. The whole process of patents, claims, counter-claims and legal cases went on for many years.  Many volumes would be necessary to analyse and document exactly what was going on.  If  there were any winners then Frank Hills came out  best and  Richard Laming went out of his mind. Croll kept on for a while but eventually  withdrew to pursue his many other interests.

 

 

CROLL'S GAS W0RKS

 

One of his other interests was a gas meter XE "gas meter factory" § which Croll patented. He set up a factory to make it just south of the Canal Bridge in the Kingsland Road, Hackney.  Even this was not particularly straightforward and in 1869 Croll's report as Chairman included the news that large amounts of the company's money were missing.[1]  An event which Journal of Gas Lighting was only too happy to report. In the 1860s he was Chairman of the Gas Engine Company XE "Gas Engine Company" §.

 

He also took on the management and ownership of gas works. In the mid-1840s he took over the Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Worksxe "Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Works"§. [1] The business had a majority of Scottish shareholders - associates of Croll. XE "Croll." § 

 

He also leased gas works in Coventry XE "Coventry" § and Winchester. XE "Winchester." §  Most importantly he became involved with xe "Pearson, Charles, city solicitor "§Charles Pearson, the City of London solicitor[1] and  with him set up a  'consumer' gas worksxe "Consumer' gas works"§ for the City of London..xe "Bow Common."§  The background to 'consumer' works has never adequately been explained. They were a common feature of the middle part of the last century and usually involved  interests who wanted a say in the management of their local gas company. The City of London's XE "City of London Gas Co" § works was one of the earliest - the story is told in some detail in Everard's XE "Everard, Sterling" § History of the Gas Light and Coke Company. There was some dispute at the time as to Croll's exact role.   Pearson -  a different man from the copperas manufacturer - had many ideas about City infrastructure XE "City infrastructure" §. It is through  him that that the City had such an early underground transport system - and he wanted to integrate this with sewage, markets and the postal system. 

 

 

THE BRAVE SOLDIER

 

To cut a very long story short - in the 1850s the Great Central Gas Works XE "Great Central Gas Works" § was opened on Bow Common in the presence of the Lord Mayor and with a great deal of ceremony.  The main buildings still stand, although ruinous, in the 1990s.  The idea was to have an out of town works which supplied the City of London and in which the City had a large financial stake. It also meant that the existing City of London Company works on an undesirable inner city site at Blackfriars XE "Blackfriars" § could be persuaded to close. During the laying of gas mains the incident mentioned at the start of this chapter took place. The Great Central Company XE "Great Central Company" § wanted to lay  mains across Bow Bridge XE "Bow Bridge" § but were opposed by other Gas companies - while supported by the local authority.  In the early hours of the morning the Secretary of the Commercial Gas Company XE "Commercial Gas Company" § committed a technical assault on the beadle by touching his shoulder. Barricades were built, and manned by 200 workmen, in order that the Commercial Company's mains could remain in place for the three days required to make them permanent under the law.  A contingent of Great Central workmen stormed the barricades  and tore down the pipes.   Great Central and Croll were declared the winners.[1]  Regrettably Croll's management skills were not of the same order - the Great Central Gas Works quickly became a by word for chaos and bad practice.  There were a number of proscutions for nuisance.

 

Croll had considerable military pretensions. He was closely connected with the volunteer movement - his title of Colonel came from work with the Tower Hamlets Volunteer Engineers XE "Tower Hamlets Volunteer Engineers" §.  In later years this body had its training ground close to the place where Beckton gas works was XE "Beckton gas works were" § built in the late 1860s.  It must have been co-incidental that a major dispute,  eventually settled by the War Office XE "War Office" §, arose over this ground.  Bullets, it appeared,  from Volunteer rifles were flying over the heads of those building the new works.[1]  Perhaps it was just an echo of the Battle of Bow Bridge. XE "Battle of Bow Bridge." §

 

ROTHERHITHE

 

Following the foundation of the Great Central XE "Great Central" § Croll  took over the failing Rotherhithe Gas Works XE "Rotherhithe Gas Works" §.xe "Rotherhithe."§  This had been built by Stephen Hutchinson XE "Hutchinson, Stephen" §  and been falling down ever since. In an attempt to change things one of Joseph Hedley XE "Hedley, Joseph" §'s son's had taken over the works. Some sort of siege seems to have resulted and T. Abercrombie Hedley XE "Hedley, T.Abercrombie" § was forcibly ejected by Croll. XE "Croll." § It became the Surrey Consumers Company XE "Surrey Consumers Company" § and remained independent until taken over by South Met XE "South Met" §. in the 1880s. A holder (although not an early one) still stands in Brunel Road.    Croll was to claim that the idea of a Surrey Consumers Company had been his - and that he had persuaded the relevant Board of Works members to back him. He also claimed to have to have set up the 'districting' scheme whereby South London was divided into exclusive areas of supply.

 

TELEGRAPHS

 

Another project was the United Kingdom Telegraph Companyxe "United Kingdom Telegraph Company"§. It was said that when Croll opened the Great Central Gas Works at Bow that when the mains were laid to the City of London  telegraph cables were included  in them for instance communication. The UKTC was formed in 1851 to develop telegraphs over public highways.  Croll was a director, described in their prospectus as a 'contractor' who held 3,000 shares. What he contracted for is not clear- was it gas supply? The telegraph system XE "telegraph system" § was developed along canal tow paths and, despite great opposition, began work in 1860 using an early type printing telegraph.[1] In 1871 the company gave a great banquet for Croll in the City Guildhall at which they presented him with a vast and extremely orate silver object.   Croll, it was, claimed had made the company financially secure through his negotiations in Scotland and Denmark, involving his personal friends [1] 

 

By the 1850s he was living in some style in the East End of London - at Howrah House (now a nunnery) in the East India Dock Road.   He was clearly a rich man. He claimed to have been supported in all these efforts by James Wyld, the younger - geographer and Liberal MP.  His political connections and social position were considerable. He was a Sheriff of London and Middlesex, later a Magistrate for the City of London and for Reigate in Surrey. Croll seems to have had a social conscience  and is said to have written a pamphlet on prison reform as the result of seeing Danish prisons in the 1870s - copies of this have not been traced.  

 

ALUM AND AMMONIA

 

He remained, however predominately a chemical manufacturer. The Alum and Ammonia Company had xe "Alum and Ammonia Company "§ been set up in the mid-1860s taking over from a predecessor Gas Products Utilising Company. xe "Gas Products Utilising Company. "§Croll said that the company had works in Hurlet - a tiny hamlet near Paisley -  andxe "Hurlet,"§ in West Street Glasgowxe "Glasgow"§, buying liquor from Glasgow Gas Worksxe "Glasgow Gas Works"§, and also at Nine Elmsxe "Nine Elms"§ in London. It certainly had a works on Bow Common,xe "Bow Common,"§ where, in 1859, Croll was prosecuted for nuisance. This site appears to have been on the north bank of the Limehouse Cut XE "Limehouse Cut" §, west of Poplar North Street.[1]  It can be deduced that sulphuric acidxe "Sulphuric acid"§ was made there because, as Crollxe "Croll"§ reported to a shareholders' meeting, 'the floor of the vitriol chamber had given way' and 'a crowbar had been forced into the lid of the large vitriol chamber'. In addition the 'secretary had falsified the accounts' and 'there was an action for libel against him'.  The shareholders wanted Croll to resign on this occasion but he refused. He also refused to publish the company accounts, claiming 'commercial confidentiality'.[1]

 

The Alum and  Ammonia Company XE "Alum and  Ammonia Company" § made 'ammoniacal alum'. 'Alum' is another chemical with a changing definition.  It is a modern everyday name for 'a hydrated double salt of aluminium and potassium'; a modern chemist means 'a class of salts that crystallise with twenty-four molecules of water'.  Its ancient use meant 'astringent salts'.[1]xe "Ammoniacal alum'."§ 'Alum'xe "Alum'"§ had been used since the middle ages as a mordantxe "Mordant"§ for fixing colours in dyeing[1]xe "Dyeing"§ and for 'tawing'xe "Tawing'"§ leather XE "leather" §.[1] xe "Alum. "§The manufacture of alum is tied to that of copperas but it is also made on the Yorkshire coast where a local  aluminous shale was used as a raw material. In the 1790s xe "Mackintosh Charles "§Charles Mackintosh had begun the manufacture of alum fromxe "Alum from"§ the waste of coal workings around Hurlet.[1]xe "Glass works waste."§. Frederick Albert Winsor XE "Winsor" § might have known of this process when he said, in 1804,  that ammoniacal liquorxe "Ammoniacal liquor"§ could be used to make alum.

 

Crollxe "Croll"§ probably started making alumxe "Alum"§ from ammoniacal liquorxe "Ammoniacal liquor"§ at some time in the mid-1850s. His works at Hurlet might have used  the source of the shale mentioned by Mackintosh.xe "Mackintosh."§ This shale is said to have run out about 1880 and the Alum and Ammonia Company xe "Alum and Ammonia Company "§ceased trading around that time.  Crollxe "Croll"§ had numerous Scottish connections with many Scottish shareholders on the Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Company XE "Tottenham and Edmonton Gas Company" § and the telegraph Company. Perhaps these contacts helped with his raw material sources.

THE CIVIL ENGINEER

In the 1860s Croll described himself as a 'civil engineer' from an at 10 Coleman Street.  Perhaps this was the contracting which he did for the telegraph companies. He is said to have built the Wool Exchange in Basinghall Street but actually  on the site of 10 Coleman Street. In 1873. Pevsner says that it was built by John Gordon of Glasgow of  'Aberdeen Marble. The connection with Croll - apart from the Scottish one, is not clear.   In the 1870s he began to write about his experiences- beginning with a history of the Great Central Company Journal of Gas Lighting was to review this publication as 'a romance of which Mr. Croll is the hero'[1]

In his later years Croll lived at Beechwood, in Reigate, with his wife, Sophia. They had no children. He died in Dunblane in 1886. It is perhaps fitting that, given his contribution to the exploitation of ammonia salts, that he died while experimenting with sulphate of ammonia.[1]  He appears to be buried in the South Metropolitan Cemeteryat Norwood where there is  a large and prominent monument which mentions nothing about gas.

Croll was not typical either as a gas engineer or a chemical manufacturer. Despite his pretensions - and undoubted skills - he always cut a figure of fun. He fell into vats of tar but remained totally impervious to criticism. He never seems to have been short of money despite the financial irregularities with which he was surrounded. Neither does he seem short of bright ideas.  He must have been very influential in moving the chemical industry on in its relationship with the gas industry and it's by products.  There is something else which is very important. A young man was growing up in the back streets of east London while Croll was mismanaging his gas and chemical works on Bow Common. William Perkin has been seen as the founder of the coal tar dye industry but who knows how much he learnt from his youth  surrounded by the experimenters of the east end.

 

 MR ANGUS CROLL

[1].A.A., The Great Central Gas Co.,  1875. "The dauntless stern Dakinensii".

[1].Ibid.

[1].Rat DM, 10th April 1836.

[1].ICE, Obit, op cit.

[1]. Everard, op cit

[1].W.King,Treatise , 1882

[1].Imp DM, 25th May 1839.

[1].Imp DM, 9th February 1839.

[1].David Thomas, "Strong, Rawle & Strong Fellmongers', LIANo.4.

[1]. Cherry & Pevsner, Buildings of England. London  South, 1983.

[1].A. Crocker, "The Paper Mills of Surrey", Surrey History, 4/1, 1989. 

[1].E. Ballard, Report on the alleged nuisance, LGB, nd

[1].F.A.Winsor XE "Winsor" §, Account of the most ingenious, 1804.

[1].C.H.Spiers, "William Thomas Brande", Ann.Sci., V.25,3.

[1].T.K.Derry & T.I.Williams, A Short History of Technology, 1960

[1].King's Treatise, op cit.

[1].ICE Trans, 11th June 1844, No. 687.

[1]..Clow &.Clow,  op cit.

[1]. H.Davy, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 1814.

[1]. E.J. Russell, History of agricultural science, 1966.

[1].Clow, op cit

[1].A. A. Croll, "On the Purification of coal gas, ICE, 1844, III

[1].G.K.Roberts, The Royal College of Chemistry John Hopkins, PhD, 1973.

[1].Lawes Chemical Manure Co. DM, 10th February 1872.

[1] JGL 9th November 1869

[1] W. Merrison, History of Tottenham & Edmonton Gas Co., 1947

[1]. Boase, Modern English Biography,  1965.

[1] Everard, op cit.,  'The Battle of Bow Bridge', nd

[1] Everard, op cit

[1] J.L. Kieve Electric Telegraph ,1973

[1] Proceedings and testimonial, 1871

[1].JGL, 25th October 1859.

[1] JGL, 2nd March 1869

[1]. K.G.Ponting,  "Important Natural Dyes of History' IARev., Vol.II, No.2.

[1].Clow, op cit

[1].Derry & Williams,  op cit 

[1].D.W.F.Hardie & J.Davidson Pratt, History of the Modern British Chemical Industry, 1966.

[1] JGL 19th April 1872

[1].ICE Trans. Obit, op ci