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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

McCoskrie And Son

McCoskrie And Son, Engineers, Boilermakers, Iron and Brass Founders, Importers of Motor Cars, Motor Cycles, and all descriptions of Electrical Machinery, Chapel Street, Auckland. The firm of Messrs McCos-krie and Son has been in existence since 1885, but the business was first established by Mr. Samuel McCoskrie, in 1877. The premises, which have since been largely added to, were then on the present site, in Chapel Street. Originally the buildings were of wood, but in 1885, just after the completion of the Victoria Arcade, a large brick building was erected for offices and for the housing of new and improved machinery. The present premises have a frontage of 125 feet on Chapel Street, and a depth of 110 feet. Roughly speaking, there are five distinct departments —namely, fitting and erecting rooms, the main machine room, the pattern store, the smithy and the moulding room. The machinery in the main machine room and fitting shop includes seven lathes, five drilling machines, one planing machine, a shaping machine, key-seating machine, and three screwing machines for bolts and pipes. It is run by an eight horse-power engine; but the shop is also equipped with improved tools for hand work. To the novice the ease with which the iron and brass is turned, almost as though it were of wood, is especially interesting. The moulds in the moulding room consist of black sand, and the shape is formed by placing a wooden pattern in the sand and building around it. After the pattern is removed the molten metal is poured in and a cast taken from it. The room contains a huge casting pit, ten feet deep, for making hydraulic cylinders for [gap — reason: illegible], so arranged that the cast can be made on end. Casting of all kinds of light and fancy work in iron and brass is turned out, as well as heavier work. There is a Root's blower in connection with the three furnaces, which are capable of casting up to three tons and a half, and in another portion of this department there is a large stove for drying the “cores” of pipes. When a cylinder or pipe is to be cast a mass of sand is hard-baked in the shape and size necessary for the hollow; this is called the “core,” and the cast is moulded around it. A large travelling crane is provided for the moving of the heavier casts. The patterns for the moulds are first drawn by a skilful engineer, and then taken to the pattern department, where models in wood are made from the drawings. The utmost care must be taken that the models are exact and true in every particular, as any deviation from the proportions given in the drawing would result in the cast proving a failure, and thus time, money, and material would be lost. It therefore follows that the carpentering work done here is of a delicate and mathematically correct type. The smithy is equipped with anvils, furnaces, forges, etc., etc., and with a huge steam hammer. Here the heavier work is done, including the completion of the various parts of the machinery turned out by the firm, which does a large business in stationary and machine engines, sawmill machinery, millwright and agricultural machinery, land and marine boilers, and makes a specialty of hydraulic machinery for lifts, etc. More than half the lifts in Auckland have been made and erected by Messrs McCoskrie and Son. In addition to the manufacturing business, a great deal of repairing is done to every variety of machinery and improved agricultural implements. The business has grown to be a very extensive one, and orders come from all parts of the colony. The manufacture of bolts, screws, and nuts forms no inconsiderable feature of the trade, and fancy brasswork is also a big item. Messrs McCoskrie and Son give continuous employment to twenty-six hands, but it is often found necessary when there is a rush of business to increase the number. The firm is one of the oldest in Auckland.

Yard on Messrs McCoskrie & Son's Premises.

Yard on Messrs McCoskrie & Son's Premises.