Glenbuchat Heritage

6 William McHardy Foundry in Brazil

William McHardy in Campinas Brazil

Above Photographs show:

1. The staff at McHardy Factory in Brazil 1898 (Is that William McHardy with hat, moustache and tie, in the centre?)

2. Advert for McHardy Steam engine

3. McHardy Logo on a Coffee Peeling machine

4. The McHardy Factory in Campinas Brazil

5. Newspaper reports of Yellow fever outbreak in Campinas

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Details of the McHardy Foundry in Campinas Brazil

CURIOSITIES OF CAMPINAS: McHardy Company
From http://campinassim.blogspot.com/2018/09/curiosidades-de-campinas-companhia-mc.html

The McHardy Company was the second foundry industry in Campinas. It was founded by industrialist William McHardy.

Guilherme McHardy was a Scottish mechanic from Drumblair, who arrived in Brazil in 1872 to work at the Lidgerwood Company in Campinas. In 1875, he founded his own company, the McHardy & Cia Company, beginning to produce coffee processing machines, tools and iron utensils, and, years later, engines and boilers

Not without some difficulties, he was able to develop his business and in 1880 was able to expand his facilities. To this end, he organized a double partnership, constituting the firm Guilherme McHardy & Cia, respectively, having as partner John James Ross and McHardy & Cia – Foundry Campineira de Ferro e Bronze – for which he associated with Joseph James Sims. John Ross came straight from England at McHardy's request specially to assist him in expanding the establishment; as for Sims, he was already living in Campinas, when he joined Mc-Hardy.

Joseph J. Sims took care of training the labour he needed in the foundry, bringing together 54 apprentices, mostly Brazilians, who worked under his direction.

The McHardy Company initially established itself at Rua Bom Jesus, n°23, now Avenida Campos Salles, with the expansion of the establishment moved to Avenida Andrade Neves, n° 1 and 15, where a vast workshop and a foundry was set up that occupied 8,000 square meters, and the land that was acquired for further expansions is not added to these numbers. The buildings were located in the block formed by the streets General Osório, Barão de Parnaíba, Bernadino de Campos and Dr. Ricardo.

Already in the twentieth century, one of the buildings was sold to the Columbia Brewery, and today belongs to sociedade de Saneamento e Abastecimento de Água S.A – SANASA. One of the blocks, where the company's office existed, was in front of the bus station. This building was sold to Roque de Marco after the company faced financial problems in the late 19th century.

In the 1920s, McHardy bought another block on Avenida da Saudade, where today is the Senai School.

On October 9, 1883, the inauguration of the new and large foundry workshops of Mr. Guilherme McHardy & Cia took place.

In October 1886, during emperor Dom Pedro II's last visit to Campinas, McHardy participated in the street reception for the imperial couple, forming a wing composed of 160 of its workers. The McHardy Music Club, carrying its flags and its banner, was present among the numerous bands and groupings of schoolchildren and workers who also participated in the scheduled festivities.

In 1889, a sad time when Campinas was violently hit by a first outbreak of yellow fever, Guilherme McHardy lost his two partners and collaborators, Ross and Sims, who died when the epidemic spread through the city. But Guilherme did not discourage himself that by associating himself with a group of peasant personalities, he tried to transform his commercial and industrial establishment into a corporation.

In 1891, Guilherme McHardy became the McHardy Manufacturing and Importer Company, a corporation that aimed to act in what was related to the manufacture and import of machinery, materials for railway, water supply and dependence for lighting, import in general and works, exploitation of privileges, concessions and contracts, supplies for civil constructions, marine and hydraulic, in addition to acquiring, selling and founding factories, making installations, being able to exploit, lease or sell them.

The new company was constituted with a share capital of 4,000 contos de réis, divided into 20,000 shares. The first board was composed of the farmer Barão de Ataliba Nogueira, the industrialist Guilherme McHardy and the lawyer Gabriel Dias da Silva, all resident in Campinas. In 1893, in place of managing director Guilherme Mc-Hardy, who remained in Europe, at first in the service of the company and then for health reasons, was appointed manager the shareholder Roberto Paton. They signed the company's status in 1893, Gabriel Dias da Silva, as director of the company, and The Baron of Ataliba Nogueira, as president.

It is interesting to note that among the shareholders of the McHardy Manufacturing and Importer Company, in 1893, several businessmen, immigrants, coffee farmers and important politicians from the city of Campinas and the State of São Paulo appear. The largest shareholders in 1893 were: Banco dos Lavradores with 27.9% of the total shares, Guilherme McHardy with 25.2%, Gabriel Dias da Silva with 3.2%, Roberto S. Paton with 2% and Barão de Ataliba Nogueira with 25 of the company's shares.

In 1883, it totalled 140 to 145 employees. In the year 1900 there were already 320 employees.

In 1894, William McHardy returned to his homeland, and died in 1914 at the age of 84. His body was buried in the city of Aberdeen.

From 1913, Dr. Júlio Gerin, who from the beginning of the 20th century had held the position of engineer manager of the company, took over the management, having remained in this position until the early 1940s, when mc-hardy's controlling interest was acquired by the Irmãos Duarte Group of Americana.

Around 1935, the workshops were transferred to a building of its own located on Avenida da Saudade, and the company's sector for the commercialization of products remained on Avenida Andrade Neves.

Until the 1950s, the McHardy Company was the main equipment manufacturer in the city of Campinas and already diversified its products, manufacturing drills, saws... In the early 1960s, the company also entered construction.

It is known that the McHardy Company ceased its production activities in 1975, although legally the company continued to exist.

Around 1983, Helcosa – Engenharia, Comércio e Indústria de Metais Ltda., located at Km 99 of the Anhanguera Highway, incorporated McHardy's machines into its heritage.

That year, the McHardy Company closed its doors permanently and left in Campinas a success story, which survives in its ruins seen, above all, the Avenida Andrade Neves.

Among the articles manufactured by the McHardy Company throughout its activities can be highlighted: Machines to benefit coffee from all systems: boilers, locomotives and fixed; central mills for the manufacture of sugar and brandy; circular and vertical saw mills; double pickers; folded and simple fans; discarders with graduation on the outside; suction fans; said to kill ant; water wheels; mills of all qualities; simpes and pressure hydraulic pumps; sugarcane grinds; common and automatic looms for cotton, sea and there, boilers, turbines, cast iron, steel, machine tools (FMH-50 drill), steam engines, stills, etc.

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