A Fine Album Documenting the Career of a Pattern Maker at Hans Renold, Ltd.

[Manchester]: N.p., [1907-1941]. This album documents the career of John Cecil Smith, a licensed patter maker at the Manchester firms of Hans Renold, Ltd. it contains 33 original photographs (most 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches but some differ) corner-mounted on thick leaves which are all bound on stubs. It also contains other memorabilia of Smith's time with the company. Quarto (7 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches), half black roan over gilt-ruled green cloth. Spine is absent but the album remains firm and the photographs are very bright indeed.Swift joined Renold's as an apprentice in 1907, and, following a career path that is almost unheard of today, went on to spend his entire working life with same company: an apparent testament to the success of the enlightened management techniques instituted by the firm's founder. Bound and laid in are Swift's 2 pp. apprenticeship agreement, printed and manuscript, dated 18 September 1907; as well as his apprenticeship agreement, printed and manuscript, dated 18 September 1907. The photographs are of the items produced by this forward-thinking firm. Of special interest are the nine photographs highlighting thier stand at a 1930s trade exhibition [Renold and Coventry Timing Chains]. Pesumable John Smith manned the booth.“Hans Renold (1852-1943) was a Swiss/British engineer, inventor and industrialist in Britain, who founded the Renold manufacturing textile-chain making business in 1879, and with Alexander Hamilton Church is credited for introducing scientific management also known as Taylorism to England….Soon after starting the business in 1879, in 1880 Hans Renold invented the bush roller chain. This represented a great advance on the common pin-and-link chains of the day and laid the design foundation upon which all modern precision roller chains are based. The firm immediately extended its business from textile chains into cycle chains for the new safety bicycle invented by J. K. Starley. Renold was not only a brilliant engineer and a model employer who built around him a very skilled labour force, but was also a very astute businessman. His business prospered and he steadily ploughed back his growing profits into the premises and plant. He moved the business to Brook Street, Manchester in 1881. In 1889 a rapid expansion of the business took place and a new factory, Progress Works, was built in Brook Street. In 1906, Hans Renold planned and started construction of Renold Works on open land at Burnage, five miles to the south of Manchester. Renold had long been devoted to the ideal of establishing a firm sense of community among his employees and their families and in 1909 gave his active support to the establishment of the Hans Renold Social Union for the encouragement of a wide range of leisure activities.Hans Renold Limited was formed as a private limited company in 1903. It merged with The Coventry Chain Company Limited and was registered as a public limited company named Renold and Coventry Chain Company Limited in 1930. It was renamed Renold Ltd. in 1967, and later became Renold PLC. Nowadays the company still bears his name.” (Wikipedia)