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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 only one of the Kosmoid operations to achieve actual commercial success, the tube works involved the construction of substantial plant and buildings, involving "machinery ... of a novel pattern. It is said to be the patent of an American, and draws the tubes from a solid ingot." (Glasgow Herald, January 1912, quoted in Davie, p. 29). Following the departure of Shiels and the official winding up of this arm of the operation in 1910, the assets were purchased by a newly formed enterprise, the Dumbarton Weldless Tube Company Ltd. under the control of James Denny and Daniel Jackson, two of the initial shareholders of Kosmoid Tubes. Also on the board were representatives of the successful. U.S.-headquartered engineering firm Babcock & Wilson, who were sufficiently impressed with the operation for their firm to take it over completely in 1915, and continue its operation on the same site until its closure in 1997. Anonymous: "Valemen and Women at Babcock and Wilcox" https://www.valeofleven.org.uk/babcocks.html
Kosmoid Ltd.
In many ways the most secretive of the three operations, the exact purpose of Kosmoid Ltd. was never spelled out except "to operate patents and licences", although Shiels was successful in attracting persons of some significance to both this company and to a (on paper) control group the "Metallurgical Syndicate"; according to Harvie, "the directors of the company were Janes Denny (the Dumbarton shipbuilder and engineer); Alexander Shiels; Charles W. Fulton, of the prosperous Paisley textile firm; George Grandison Millar, a wealthy art publisher; and, at various times, a number of influential ironmasters, engineers and merchants", while The Metallurgical Syndicate was a group of 18 persons, among them Alexander Shiels; G. G. Millar; Charles W. Fulton; Archibald Coats; William Donaldson; Archibald Denny; James Denny; Walter Brock; Peter Coats; and William Coats, with the stated aim of "the commercial development of the products of certain secret processes of manufacture known to Alexander Shiels, known respectively as the Quicksilver Process and the Copper Process, by which quicksilver could be produced from 1ead and copper from iron." Having established this control group with an initial capital of £30,000, the members then yielded complete control to Shiels, in exchange for Shiels depositing a sealed packet, by arrangement, in the Syndicate's bank; this packet contained 'full information and instructions regarding the secret processes'. (Davie, p. 17). Meanwhile, again according to Davie, "between 1903 and 1906 he [Shiels] had signed agreements and a deed of partnership with John Joseph Melville, a self-confessed alchemist who had a life-long career of controversial and scandalous business dealings. Shiels employed Melville and installed him in the Dunbarton factory, with complete freedom to operate according to their own agreements relating to 'the secret quicksilver process' and without interference from any of the Kosmoid directors." (Davie, pp. 29-30)
Operations on the site
From late 1904, Shiels embarked on a building program of facilities for some or all of these companies. According to Davie:
The Glasgow architects firm of Dykes and Robertson were busy planning and erecting a number of large buildings on the Dumbuck site. The first building was a two-storey general engineering shop measuring 250 feet x 60 feet, followed by the tube mill, 250 feet x 150 feet; the electric power station, 300 feet x 45 feet and most impressive of all, the fireproof stores, four-storey, 210 feet x 45 feet; in addition, there was the gas plant, 150 feet x 120 feet and a small boiler house, 70 feet x 50 feet containing 4 boilers (28 more were ordered from Babcock & Wilcox Ltd). The various buildings on the site were linked together by about 8,000 feet of railway tracks, which also provided connection with the adjacent lines of the Caledonian and North British Railways. The fireproof stores building was constructed to specifications which suggest that it was designed to be much more than simply either stores or fireproof; the walls were of 2 feet thick concrete, clad in places with armoured steel plate; the floors were of concrete, supported by curved steel plate, further supported by re-inforced steel beams of 18 inches x 7 inches section and 75 lbs/ft and in rows down the building every 10 feet there were cast-iron columns of 11 inches diameter and 2 inches thick iron. The fireproof stores, like the other buildings on the site, was owned by the Metallurgical Syndicate; this was the building which was later known - according to legend - as the Transmutation Building.
(Davie, pp. 22-23)
In 1906 the headquarters of the three companies, previously at 2 addresses in Glasgow, moved on site to Dumbuck House, but the same year, the "directors became more and more nervous in the face of public speculation and demands by Shiels for increased bank loans and overdrafts"(Davie, pp. 25) and in September 1906, Shiels simply disappeared; it subsequently transpired that he had moved to England, continued his work as a consulting engineer in a different capacity, however by autumn 1907 he suddenly died, collapsing on the platform of Willesden Station and then being removed to his new home in Earl's Barton, Northhamtonshire where he died 3 days later.(Davie, p. 28). The companies did not survive his departure with both Kosmoid Ltd. and Kosmoid Locks being wound up by the summer of 1907, the Metallurgical Syndicate in 1908 and only Kosmoid Tubes being deemed worthy of rescue as described above.
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.