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United Wire Works Manufacturers of Wirecloth - Granton Park Avenue, Granton |
© Copyright: Peter Stubbs. Please contact peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk Photograph taken May 27, 1991
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United Wire Works Wire Weaving |
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Background When I visited United Wire Works in 1991 and 1992, the company manufactured much of its own wire, copper, nickel, etc, but not stainless steel. That was bought in. However the United Wire Works wire manufacturing plant closed around 2001. The company now buys in all the wire that it weaves, most of it being stainless steel. |
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Manufacturing the wire In the photo above, furnaces are along the left-hand side of the picture. They are filled from the gallery, top-left. Scales for weighing the ingredients for the furnace can be seen on the gallery. The furnaces produced wire in the form of 4 or (as here) 8 continuous strands of wire from each furnace at the rate of 5.5 ins per minute. This photo shows the strands of wire being spooled. |
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Drawing the wire The wire produced was then drawn through a succession of machines, each time becoming longer and thinner. It was also annealed by heating to soften it and restore some of its properties after having been stressed by the drawing. Sometimes the drawings continued until the wire was only 0.25mm thick. |
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Weaving the Wire Looms were then used to weave the wire. Here is one of them, photographed in 1992. |
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