Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

GLASGOW
GLASGOW
of tlie hot blast, to 4000, and this has since again more
than doubled. In place of the 489 tons that had been
sent to Virginia in 1772, there were sent in 1860, to
America alone, no less than 78,000 tons, and though
this in 1861 fell in consequence of the war to 35,000
tons, France increased its consumption by 14,000 tons,
and Spain increased hers by the same amount. In
1880 the total shipments of iron from Glasgow amounted
to 259,425 tons. In 1881 this was much exceeded, as
the shipments amounted to 339,407 tons, and for the
present year (1882), up to the end of September, the
shipments are 44,709 tons over those for the correspond-
ing period last year, while at the same date the stock
stored in Glasgow amounts to 626,766 tons.
Another of the great sources of Glasgow's prosperity
and success has been the abundance of coal in the sur-
rounding district, which has not only provided fuel for
the iron-works, the factories, and the steamships, but
has also formed in itself an important article of export.
When the coal in the neighbourhood began to be worked
is not exactly known, but we know that in Scotland in
the 14th century coal was a common article of merchan-
dise, and was exported and sometimes taken as ballast
for ships. The first notice we find of the Glasgow coal-
field is in 1678, when the Archbishop let the ' coil-
heuchtis and colis within the baronie of glasgw ' for the
space of three years at the yearly rent of £40 Scots
(equal to about £5 sterling at the time), and 270 ' laids '
of coal (the ' laid ' being, according to Mr Macgeorgo,
about 320 pounds). These coal pits were probably in
Gorbals. In 1655 the town council let these pits, or
others probably in the same quarter in ' the muir
heughe,' at a rent of £33, 4s., the tenants to employ
eight hewers, and not to charge more than 4d. for nine
gallons. In 1760 the price per cart of about half a ton
was Is. 3d., but they became after this rapidly dearer,
for in 1778 they were 3s. for about the same quantity.
In the latter year the whole quantity taken to Glasgow,
including what was used for Glasgow, Greenock, and
Port Glasgow, as well as what was exported elsewhere,
was only 181,800 carts, or about 82,000 tons. In 1836
there were 37 pits in the neighbourhood, from which
561,049 tons of coal were brought to Glasgow, of which
124 were exported, and 437,047 tons were used in the
cit}^ In 1852 the exports were 200,560 tons, and the
whole quantity brought into the city was probably
about 1,074,558. In 1858 the quantity of coal, cinders,
and culm exported coastwise was 76,744 tons, and
abroad 56,696, or a total of 133,440 tons. The follow-
ing table shows the later growth of the trade : —
Year. | Coastwise.
Foreig:n.
Total.
1S60, .
1S71, .
1878, .
ISSl, .
104,031
187,159
271,178
65,058
153,256
295,542
129,038
159,989
340,415
566,720
The coal and iron combined have made the Clyde also
the great centre for the construction of iron ships,
marine steam engines and boilers, and a vast amount of
kindred work, as is highly fitting, seeing that it was
tlie cradle of steam navigation. Henry Bell, as has
been already mentioned, had the Comet built at Port
Glasgow by Messrs John Wood & Co. in 1811. The
Comet made her trial trip on 18 Jan. 1812, and on
her first trip from Glasgow to Greenock she made
5 miles an hour against a head wind. She was only
of 28 tons burden and with an engine of 4 horse-
power, and cost but £192 ; yet from this small begin-
ning dates the great and important shipbuilding in-
dustry on the Clyde. Bell's invention was not patented,
and was promptly seized by able, enterprising, monied
men to be copied and improved. By 1813 she was fol-
lowed \>y the Elizabeth (W horse-power), by the Clyde{\i
horse-power), and the Glasgow (14 horse-power), all
built by Wood at Port Glasgow, and engined respec-
tively by Thomson of Tradeston, by Robertson, and by
Bell. The new navigation was at first supposed to be
124
suitable only for smooth inland waters, and did not for
a little pass beyond the waters of the Clyde ; but a
steam vessel of better build was put on trial by David
Napier to carry goods and passengers in the coasting
trade in the open Channel, and the trial proved so suc-
cessful that its results are now apparent in every sea
that has been navigated by civilised men. The building
of sailing vessels on the Clyde went on increasing with
the increase of commerce, and now the building of
steam vessels became of rapid importance. During the
eighteen years, however, after the Comet's first voyage,
all the vessels were small and mostly of timber, and the
whole aggregate did not exceed 5000 tons, but now
many large ones came to be required, and both small
and large were eventually constructed of iron. Many
other improvements in construction were also made, a
considerable number of them being due to David Napier,
who had made the boiler of the Comet, and who
ultimately combined shipbuilding with his former
trade of marine engine-making, and started on a career
that was highly suecessful from every point of view.
Besides his many improvements in boQers and engines,
Napier first suggested the improved clipper bow by
making the stem taper instead of coming in with a
sharp round bend. The shipbuilding, however, though
connected with Glasgow, lies rather within the limits of
the Clyde, and further details in connection with it will
be found in the article Clyde.
The Harbour. — The harbour and docks of Glasgow
afford one of the most magnificent illustrations that can
be found, of the assistance that may be given to nature
by the artifice and skill of man. 'Nowhere,' says
M. Simonin, in an article on Glasgow and the Clyde,
published in the Nouvclle Revue of Nov. 1880, ' as
at Glasgow is there revealed in such luminous traits
all that can be done by the efforts of man, combined
with patience, energy, courage, and perseverance, to
assist nature, and if necessary to correct her. To widen
and deepen a river previously rebellious against carrying
boats, to turn it into a great maritime canal, to bring
the waters where it was necessary to bring the largest
ships, and, finally, to gather a population of 750,000
inhabitants, all devoted to commerce and industry upon
a spot where only j'esterday there was but a modest
little town, almost destitute of every species of traffic — ■
such is the miracle which in less than a century men
have performed at Glasgow. ' Within the last hundred
years or so the Clyde navigation works have, says Mr
Deas, the engineer to the Trust, converted the river
Clyde ' between Glasgow and the sea, from a shallow
stream, navigable only by fishing wherries of at most 4
or 5 feet draught, and fordable even 12 miles below Glas-
gow, to a great channel of the sea, bearing on its waters
the ships of all nations, and of the deepest draiight, bring-
ing to this City of the West the fruits and ores of Spain,
the wines of Portugal and France, the palm-oil and
ivory of Africa, the teas, spices, cotton, and jute of
India, the teas of China, the cotton, cattle, corn, ffour,
beef, timber — even doors and windows ready-made — •
and the numerous notions of America, the corns of
Egypt and Russia, the flour and wines of Hungary, the
sugai', teak, and mahogany of the West Indies, the
wools, preserved meats, and gold of the great Australian
colonies, the food supplies of the sister Isle, and the
thousands of other things which go to make the imports
of the two-mile-long harbour of Glasgow, which, until
a few years ago, was simply the river Clyde itself lined
on both sides with wharfs and quays, and carrying away
to India, our colonies — even to Fiji, and to every foreign
land — the varied products of this great city, and of the
whole South and West of Scotland, from the coal and
iron of our mines to the finest products of our looms,
and the most improved types of our varied machinery.'
The details of the deepening of the river Clyde have
been already given in the article Clyde, and the details
here given ^vill be confined to the harbour proper. The
harbour extends along the river for a distance of practi-
cally over two miles and a half. It is for this distance
from 400 to 500 feet wide ; and besides the natural