Surveying the
whole story of Mather & Platt Ltd it is possible to
draw certain conclusions concerning the economic success
of the Company in relation to its technical development.
Economic success depended on close knowledge of existing
market needs and shrewd awareness of new market
opportunities. Technical development, as we have seen,
depended on scientific co-operation and internal
organisation. As market needs and market opportunities
changed, the Company was quick to adapt itself, and.
technical development never lagged far behind business
necessities. There was
obviously scope in the early nineteenth century for a
business firm in Manchester which would not only
manufacture machines for an expanding industry, but would
also install and repair them as occasion might demand.
Until 1850 in an industry like calico printing the number
of firms was large and their machine capital limited.
Maintenance and servicing were as important as the
provision of new equipment. In the latter half of the
century, however, the number of firms was reduced and
capital concentration, rather than an increase in the
number of firms, marked the new form of economic
expansion. During this
second period in the history of the textiles industry
Mather & Platt Ltd. began to specialise on the
provision of finishing apparatus. The emphasis on
machinery for washing, steaming, dyeing and finishing
cotton, linen and woollen fabrics can be seen in the
patents taken out by Colin and William Mather from 1850
to 1881. Twelve out of sixteen were concerned with
washing, bleaching and dyeing, (2) three with
printing, (3) and only one with weaving
(4). None of the inventions protected by these
patents was labour saving in its essentials. All were
cost reducing through improved technical performance, or
concerned with new processes like the fixing of colours
upon the fibres of fabrics. With the exception of
improvements in automatic warp—stop motion devices,
the firm was not intimately connected with weaving but
focussed its attention on the many branches of the
finishing industry.
Safe within the
confines of that specialised territory and producing
machinery for finishing cotton “as good as any in
the world”; (1) Mather & Platt Ltd.
could afford to let other firms tackle different sectors
of textile machinery design and production. If the fortunes
of’ Mather & Platt Ltd. had been tied to
textiles, and increasing specialisation had been the only
theme in the Company’s history, the possibilities of
business expansion would have depended on finding new
markets or acquiring new patents. Both of’ these
possibilities were indeed realised and the work of the
General Machinery department was extended to include the
manufacture of equipment for industries other than
textiles but the period of real expansion began when
centrifugal pump, electrical machinery and, later,
fire-fighting equipment were added to the lines of
production. The
timing of the development of these other lines of
production followed and in some ways anticipated national
economic trends, but the continued success of the
increasingly diversified enterprise depended upon
business sense as much as upon technical superiority.
Part of the success lay in the willingness of the
Directors of the Company to stop producing certain
unprofitable lines of output and to resist developing
inventions which, although marketable as well as
technically efficient, would have disturbed the balance
of the enterprise. Among the casualties have been two
complete department's -the Gas Engine Department and the
Water Purification Department - as well as certain
electrical products like electric traction plant,
electric conveyers and turbines. Even before these
activities were dropped, the manufacture of steam engines
and of the Mather & Platt patented piston had been
abandoned. The case
of gas engines provides a good example of the factors
involved in the deliberate abandonment of a particular
line of production. The theoretical advantages of large
gas engines as prime movers were widely canvassed from
1881 onwards, when Dowson introduced a self-contained gas
engine plant, incorporating first a pressure and later a
suction-gas producer. Mather & Platt Ltd. took up the
manufacture of large gas engines about 1900, after they
had become popular in Germany. The Korting type engine
was manufactured as the result of an agreement with
German producers, and was capable of developing more than
700 brake horsepower in a single cylinder (2).
Later on two cylinder types were developed, which did
much to counteract prevailing criticisms of gas engines,
particularly as compared with steam turbines; first that
they were not fully reliable and second that the cost of
installation was far too high. (3) The firm
ceased producing gas engines because the department
concerned with their manufacture and installation
consistently lost money.
In the inter-war
years this decision was more than justified by the
gradual disappearance of the gas engine from industry
largely owing to the increasing popularity of oil
engines, using cheap fuel oil and running far more
efficiently than their earlier prototypes. The
abandonment of gas engines was not the only example of an
apparent opportunity being deliberately discarded. Far
more important historically was the decision not to
produce motor cars. The temptation to pass from large
internal combustion gas-engines to engines’ for
motor cars must have been a real one in the 1900’s,
but John Taylor, who was responsible for the decision to
drop gas engines as a whole, firmly resisted the
challenge. His reasons, that the demand for motor cars
would be dependent on fashion, whereas Mather & Platt
Ltd should produce for performance and output rather than
for appearance, were justified by the subsequent history
both of the firm and of the automobile industry as a
whole. To produce motor cars would have upset the whole
balance of the enterprise. As it was the British motor
car industry developed in a different part of England and
was dominated either by new firms, drawing upon older
firms for accessories and parts, or by concerns, which
found that old lines of production had ceased to pay. By
the 1890’s the diversified enterprise of Mather
& Platt Ltd. was in a flourishing condition and the
Company was contemplating the extension of facilities for
producing existing lines on a new site rather than the
taking up of new specialities. A full economic study of the inter-relationship of inventions, patent law, profit expectations, industrial fluctuation and the degree of competition would involve a far fuller set of statistics than is available in the case of most firms. Indeed it is easier to proceed in those fascinating fields of enquiry by means of models than by means of real examples. Certain broad conclusions emerge however from the story of Mather & Platt Ltd. Business initiative, whether in an entrepreneurial age like the nineteenth century or a managerial age like the twentieth, depended both upon technical insight and an eye for openings; the development of new lines of output depended not only upon the technical and economic possibilities they seemed to afford, but also on the profitability of existing lines of production; terms of borrowing, the rate of interest, or the state of the capital market had little effect on the emerging strategy of the firm; the acquisition of patents, sometimes from foreign sources, carved out the shape of productive enterprise for years to come; and finally the flexible policy which enabled the directors to drop unprofitable lines was as important as the ingenuity which made them take up new ones. The willingness to discard risks as well as to accept them made for the success of the Company. It resulted in a diversified modern structure, which ran counter to the many tendencies in British engineering, which were making for combination, integration and specialisation. Its success and its transformation from a family business into a large scale modern undertaking was based on its willingness of its directors to allow each department to follow its own course, while securing the benefits of unified control. |
A History of Mather & Platt
Ltd.