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Kosmoid (Metallurgical enterprise)

The early 20th-century, Scottish Kosmoid group of metallurgical operations (represented as "Kosmoid Ltd." plus 2 other associated companies) was in existence for only a short period of time (1904-1906), however was touted as a potential major employer in the vicinity of Dumbarton, Scotland; it collapsed in disarray after the abrupt departure of its founder, Dr Alexander Shiels, in 1906. The main area of operation of the enterprise created as "Kosmoid Ltd." was never explicitly made public, despite the construction of a set of substantial buildings for unexplained purposes; it was later generally asserted to have been associated with an attempt to produce quicksilver (mercury), copper, and possibly also gold and silver via transmutation, in other words, alchemy via industrial processes, which is now known to be chemically impossible. However, one of the Kosmoid companies, Kosmoid Tubes Ltd, did establish a successful manufacturing operation for weldless metal tubes, and was subsequently acquired by the firm of Babcock & Wilcox who operated the facility on the same site until 1997.

History

The Kosmoid Company portfolio, represented by three entities—Kosmoid Ltd., Kosmoid Locks Ltd., and Kosmoid Tubes Ltd.—was founded by a medical doctor and self taught engineer and inventor, Dr Alexander Shiels of Glasgow and London, in 1904 and wound up in about 1907, utilizing a site of 53 acres on the Dumbuck estate near Dumbarton, Scotland. In its brief life span it promised employment to "6,000 workers" who would be housed in a a new "garden suburb" to be constructed on the slopes of Dumbuck Hill. The exact aims of the main operation, Kosmoid Ltd, were never spelled out in detail; according to a prospectus cited in xxx, they described themselves as follows:

The Kosmoids, Limited, as engineering works, foundries, rolling mills and tube mills, copper smelters and refiners, makers of high conductivity brass bars, cumulator segments, copper strip, copper wire, copper sheets, copper cables, copper tubes, phosphor bronze, and cuferal metals.[refxxx]

The same entry goes on to say that the firm is manufacturer of Kosmoid's patented special non-synchronising spring axles, hollow lathe spindles, high-speed engines, petrol engines, dynamos, motors, motor omnibuses, motor launches, change-speed gear, steam condensers, steam separators, steam generators, oil colours, time recorders, locks, and spanners.

Private legislation (Scotland) procedure. Journal of proceedings upon applications to the secretary for Scotland for provisional orders under the Private legislation procedure (Scotland) act. 1899 1906 A-B, p. 92 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109842382&seq=566

During negotiations for potential water supplies from Dumbarton, it was subsequently stated that "Kosmoid had taken over the whole of the Dumbuck estate, and intended to cover it with works and dwelling-houses. They also intended to erect 6000 cottages for their workmen. If they took the average population per house, that meant a population of at least 30,000, and the whole thing was to be completed in six or seven years from now. In two years Kosmoid's would require 1,000,000 gallons [of water] per day. When the works were completed they would require another 1,000,000, and the increase of population would require about 2,000,000 more." At that date (May 1906), the understanding was that Kosmoid's employed 80 persons. Ibid, p. 120 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109842382&seq=594

At a later session with the Waterworks Committee the same month, it was reported that, according to a conversation with Dr Shiels, "On the low-lying part [of the Dumbuck estate] he spoke of a church, a school, and other such erections ... He spoke about terracing the slopes of Dumbuck [Hill] and building cottages all over the estate ... every man was to have his own house and his own garden." Ibid, p. 126 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109842382&seq=600

Kosmoid Locks Ltd.

Kosmoid Locks was registered in January 1904, as a result of an agreement between Shiels and John Smalley Campbell, an American physician and dentist then resident in London, who like Shiels was a sometime inventor on the side, with over 20 patents registered at the U.S. Patent office, some relevant to dentistry but a significant subset (9 of 22 listed) related to locks. It is presumed that Kosmoid intended to manufacture locks using the principles espoused in Campbell's patents, but no further details of this operation appear to be available. Following the abrupt disappearance of Shiels in September 1906, Kosmoid Locks Ltd. was wound up "by the summer of 1907". (Harvie, 1986, p. 28).

https://patents.google.com/?inventor=John+smalley+campbell&oq=John+smalley+campbell

Kosmoid Tubes Ltd.

The operation folded under mysterious circumstances in 1907, with the exception of the tube making facility, which was successfully purchased and re-launched as the Dumbarton Weldless Tube Company, subsequently subsumed by Babcock & Wilcox in 1915, an operation which lasted on the site until 1997. Evidence suggests that the real objective of Kosmoid Ltd., a company controlled very secretively by Shiels and employing a self confessed alchemist, one John Joseph Melville of Hampstead in London, was the (physically impossible) transmutation of base metals into higher value ones, such as quicksilver (mercury) from lead, copper from pig iron, and even gold, from an un-named precursor. Shiels was successful in raising initial capital from a group of investors, as well as a (supposed) control group the "Metallurgical Syndicate", although their oversight was quickly usurped solely by Shiels. A number of industrial buildings were constructed on the site but the employment for "6,000 workers" never materialised and nothing was ever produced, in the metallurgical context at least. Shiels died in 1907, having departed from the company; whether he was a "con-man" or himself believed that the future of metallurgical processes lay in alchemical principles will probably never be known.

Background

Alexander Shiels, b.1865, was a medical practitioner in Glasgow, Scotland, who carried out a second, parallel career as a self taught inventor and engineer, registering more than a hundred British patents for a range of engineering-related processes, some together with his brother-in-law, William Elliot of Lanark.