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Kosmoid (metallurgical companies)

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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 largely 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 found 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, 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 "Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906", 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.

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.

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 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.

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 he spoke of a church, a school, and other such erections ... He spoke about terracing the slopes of Dumbuck and building cottages all over the estate ... every man was to have his own house and his own garden."

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".

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." . 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.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Meanwhile, again according to Harvie, "between 1903 and 1906 he 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."

Operations on the site

From late 1904, Shiels embarked on a building program of facilities for some or all of these companies. According to Harvie:

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.

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" 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, Northamptonshire where he died 3 days later. 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.

Aftermath

It is not known whether the proposed alchemical nature of the main planned Kosmoid operations was an embarrassment to any of its directors or owners at the time; in parallel, during the early part of the twentieth century numerous discoveries were being made in the physical and chemical sciences including the discovery of X-Rays in the 1890s, the radioactive element Radium in 1898, and more; in addition, explanation of the structure and properties of elements according to atomic theory had not yet occurred, so the transmutation of metals might have seemed plausible, especially with the high demand for copper for use in cables due to the rapid uptake of electrification in the developed world. Nevertheless, viewed from a suitable distance in time, the proposal of industrial-scale alchemy in the twentieth century seems bizarre to more recent observers. One tangible resulting artifact was a 1911 book, ostensibly a novel but clearly a thinly disguised account of the affair at Kosmoid, entitled "The Gold Makers" by George Grandison Millar, former Kosmoid director and Metallurgical Syndicate member, writing under the pseudonym "Nathaniel P. McCoy"; in this work the location is transposed to Boston, U.S.A., however the essence of the plot appears to completely parallel the Kosmoid operation, so far as relevant facts are known.

Whether Shiels was to some (or even a large) extent a successful confidence trickster, or whether he really believed that he had discovered the secret(s) of transmutation of metals and was thereby about to make not only his own fortune but that of his investors, may perhaps never be known. Nonetheless, G.G. Millar, writing after Shiels' death, appears to have been of the former mind, in his 1911 book making the following observations about the "Shiels" character (designated therein both as "Dr. Dexel" and "Professor Dexel"):

The confessions of the doctor's confederates, showed that he was really a most extraordinary man—a man without conscience, and with an infinite capacity for trickstering and insincerity. ... Whether he believed originally that he could transmute metals, or that his many patents were as valuable as he said they were, must ever remain a mystery. Possibly he had deceived himself, and having gone too far to retreat was forced to go on. A partial explanation may be found in admitting that his mind was some extent unhinged ... Even if we admit lunacy in some form, we cannot forgive the absolute cold-hearted villainy of this scoundrel.

Postscript: earlier in the novel, the "secret packet" of explanation for the quicksilver process by which quicksilver is transmuted into gold, the content of which had been told to the directors as worth a million pounds, is opened in their presence after the disappearance of the doctor, and found to contain nothing but a double sheet of blank paper.

References

  1. Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 92
  2. Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 120
  3. Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 126
  4. Google Patents: Inventor: John smalley campbell
  5. Harvie, 1986, p. 28
  6. Glasgow Herald, January 1912, quoted in Harvie, 1986, p. 29.
  7. Harvie, 1986, pp. 29-30.
  8. Harvie, 1986, pp. 22-23.
  9. Harvie, 1986, p. 25.
  10. Harvie, 1986, p. 28.
  11. Harvie, David. Alchemist of Kosmoid Hall. The Herald (Scotland), 24 May 1997. Available online at https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12324849.Alchemist_of_Kosmoid_Hall/ (subscription required).
  12. Harvie, 1986, p. 30-31
  13. McCoy, 1911, p. 294-295.

Bibliography

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112109842382, also https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Private_Legislation_Scotland_Procedure/0uJHAQAAMAAJ