PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Messrs PLYMOUTH TAR DISTILLERIES Ltd
The Plymouth business house of Messrs Plymouth Tar Distilleries Ltd was located at Cattedown, Plymouth.
At the time of their visit, the works was receiving about 2,500,000 gallons of crude tar per year from the various gas companies in Devon and Cornwall. Much of it arrived in rail tank wagons, of which 25 were in constant service, but the tar from smaller gas works often came in barrels. Two steam lorries were in use to collect the crude from the local gas works, one not far away in Sutton Road and the other at Keyham. Only one of them, a Sentinel, was normally required but the second, a Yorkshire, was held in readiness as a reserve. [1] From that crude tar the Distillery produced some 2 million gallons of road tars, 200,000 gallons okf creosote, 12,000 gallons of crude carbolic acid, 15,000 gallons of crude cresylic acid, 7,000 gallons of crude pyridine acid and 50,000 gallons of motor benzole and other white spirits. [1] The tars received from the various gas works varied in standard according to the type of retort used and the quality of the coal carbonized. Therefore, much care had to be taken to ensure that the tar put into the stills was of the same standard every day and they were often mixed to produce this standard throughout the year. [1] From the settling and mixing tanks, the tar passed into a preheater and then into one of four 3,000 gallon tar stills. There it was distilled using fire heat from either Scottish or Midland coal. The full process was long and complicated. [1] At the end of the manufacturing process, the road tar was distributed either in rail tank wagons or in barrels. Each of the rail wagons had a steam heating coil and large and small outlets fitted at the bottom to suit the requirements of each of the Company's customers. Some 12,000 barrels were needed and four coopers were fully employed dealing with minor and major repairs to keep them in service. New ones were bought in to replace any that had to be condemned. [1] Steam power was much in evidence for the heating required and for driving pumps and machinery. This was supplied by a single 32 feet Lancashire boiler. [1] When the gas industry was nationalised in 1948 the business was taken over by the South Western Gas Board and a subsidiary company, the Plymouth Tar Distilleries Ltd, was created to operate the works. Mr J W Dean was one of its directors and eventually he became manager of all the tar distilleries owned by the South Western Gas Board. [2]
The distillery was taken over by a national company but closed down in 1970-71 and the whole area of the works became part of the Conoco Ltd and Esso Petroleum Company Ltd site. [4] Sources:
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