Mobberley Mill
Kentish Times and Farmers’ Gazette 30 May 1885
In accordance with your wishes your deputation journeyed to Manchester to see Mr Mansfield and his system of making oil gas, and we beg to make the following report:- We visited Mobberley Mills on Wednesday the 29th proximo, in company with Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Rowland, to whose practical suggestions the deputations are much indebted, and found the engineer (Mr. Spencer), who had the apparatus fully at work making gas. The plant consisted of three producers (of Mr. Mansfield’s construction), with water condenser and pipes leading to a gasholder containing when fully charged 5,880 cubic feet of gas. This holder with its connections was originally constructed for reception of coal gas and has been in use for 20 years; we have but little doubt but that a certain escape of gas was taking place throughout the whole system, partly owing to the age of the plant, and partly from the loose way in which the manufacture was carried on. Owing to a confusion of Mr. Mansfield’s orders, or from a carelessness on the part of the engineer, we were unable to test(as we had intended to do) the exact cost of producing the gas, but as far as we could learn 1 gallon of oil produced from 80 to 100 cubic feet of gas, 11 gallons of oil produced from 1.000 cubic feet, 11 gallons at 9d., 8s, 3d; add 1s. 6d. per m, for coal 9d.9d. The cost of labour and wear and tear, together with depreciation and interest must necessarily depend on the size of plant and on other considerations, but from what we saw at Mobberley Mills, we are of opinion that with an increased cost for fuel, that light will not be manufactured at Wingham at less than 12s. 6d. per m., this price however should cover all etc…… |
The Mill closed at the end of the 1880s. Two employees went to Germany to show them how to manufacture the Crepe. One of them is now buried in St Wilfrid's where his headstone says that he died at Vohwinkel, near Wuppertal in 1890. See the Cawley page
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