If you have a Demster & Moore machine tool of any type, or any literature associated with the Company, the writer would be pleased to hear from you.
Demster & Moore can be traced back to 1878 when they were based in Corporation Street and St Andrew's Works, Glasgow. Initially appearing to be iron mongers who supplied a wide range of equipment to the then thriving Glasgow region shipbuilding industry. As machine tool makers there range was wide and included lathes, shapers, drills and planing machines.
From Graces Guide via the Glasgow Herald:
1938 The manufacture of precision machine tools is an industry new to the Falkirk area, and, indeed, almost unique in Scotland. Messrs Dempster, Moore & Co. (Machinery), Ltd., established their works at Bonnybridge as a branch from their Glasgow establishment five years ago, and it was decided at the time that the Bonnybridge works should engage primarily in the manufacture of grinding machines and general purpose lathes, as well as drilling machines having a capacity up to 1 1/2in.
New Type of Lathe
At the present time the range of lathes manufactured at the Bonnybridge works covers from 5 1/4in. centres to 12 1/2in, centres, with beds up to 20ft. long--a very extensive range indeed. At Bonnybridge there has been produced a new type of lathe, which has been specially designed for installation on Diesel-engined vessels, the essential part of the engine-room equipment of which is now a fully-fitted workshop where it is possible to carry out heavy running repairs. These marine-type lathes, in centres from 6in. to 10in., have been constructed and supplied to the leading shipbuilders throughout the country. It is interesting to note that during the past two years upwards of two hundred of these lathes have been installed in British-built vessels. The high quality of the company's products is shown the fact that the latest machine-tool equipments supplied comprise those for the s.s. Queen Mary, and the complete machine-tool equipment for the Queen Elizabeth, which was launched this year by Her Majesty the Queen. The company are also supplying the entire machine-tool equipment for the Mauretania, now under construction at Birkenhead. An equipment of fourteen machines has also been despatched to Vickers Armstrongs for installation on board naval destroyers.
Mobile Workshop Machines
Some three years ago 71/2". centre precision tool-room lathes were produced to meet the requirements of the Ordnance Department of the War Office. The design of these machines incorporated many special features, including very rigid and deep section bed, as the lathes are intended for mounting on the frame of mobile workshop lorries for gun repair work in the field. This necessitated careful design of the bed section to avoid distortion with twisting of the lorry frame.
These lathes are constructed with limits of accuracy close as one quarter of thousandth of an inch per foot, and the construction has entailed the training of fitters to a very high degree of accuracy. This machine has now been adopted by the Ordnance Department of the War Office for installation on mobile workshop lorries, and a slightly lighter model has been adopted the Army Service Corps as a standard machine for installation on Army Service Corps mobile workshop lorries.
Training of Employees
Nearly all the labour employed at the works is drawn from the Bonnybridge and Falkirk area. With one or two exceptions, almost all the employees have' been trained in the Bonnybridge works under expert guidance. This training was necessary in view of the impossibility of obtaining in the Falkirk area experienced men with an understanding of the high degree of accuracy involved in the production of precision machine tools. The necessity for training, is important to note, has created new class of precision labour in the district.
At the present time the company has nearly twelve months' work in hand, principally for the War Office, The Bonnybridge works have been recently extended, and complete machining and fitting of the company's productions is carried out at Bonnybridge. This includes all gearcutting.
High Degree of Accuracy
The range of drilling machines built comprises machines from high speed sensitive drills up to heavy duty 1 1/2in machines, and in grinding machines these are made for general purposes and tool grinding in sizes from 8in. to 30in. The Rollo 7in, centre precision tool-room lathe (illustrated in this issue) is arranged with eight spindle speeds, Timken taper roller bearings in gear head, and forty-speed feed and screw-cutting gear-box. It is constructed to the limits of accuracy of one-quarter of a thousandth of an inch per foot.
The company is in a position to carry out gear-cutting and precision machining of any type. It can also undertake the building of special machines and the designing of such machines to suit particular purposes.
The head office is at St. Andrew's Works, Bonnybridge, and the Glasgow office and warehouse at 73 Robertson Street, C.2. The London office is at 22 Victoria Street, S.W.I..