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Date |
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Comment / Photos |
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1840 |
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Haematite (Iron ore) discovered at Delves Lane, Consett |
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Bee Hive’ furnaces built at Crookhall |
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1901 |
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E.P. Hooley discovers ‘Tar Macadam' |
In 1901, E.P.Hooley, the county surveyor of Nottinghamshire, noticed that a barrel of tar had burst and run over a road near Derby Iron Works in Derbyshire, which had been lightly covered with slag from the nearby blast furnaces to form makeshift macadam. He observed that a dust free hard wearing surface resulted from this accident.
This discovery was quickly exploited in the locality and gradually spread.
When Hooley’s patent expired, the technology was taken up by others, including ‘Tommy’ Swan at Consett. Tommy set up mixing plants on the Crookhall site to utilise the readily available (and cheap) blast furnace slag to produce very durable tar macadam. |
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1920 |
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Crookhall Slag Works founded |
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1926 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. founded by Tommy Swan at Crookhall, Consett, County Durham. |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. was founded in 1926. Operations expanded and in 1931 an office block was erected at Crookhall. The company prospered as tar macadam technology developed and spread. Large scale supply / application contracts were undertaken throughout the UK and abroad e.g. Spain.
With the rapid development of the oil production industry after World War II tar macadam gave way to bitumen macadam, a structurally superior (and cheaper) material. However, there were inherent problems with bitumen. It did not adhere to blast furnace slag, or indeed quarried stone, as well as coal tar did.
It would not stick to damp stone and, in some circumstances, would ‘strip’ from dry stone if wet conditions were encountered after mixing. This was a great drawback especially for the softer or ‘cutback’ bitumens. A solution to this problem was essential.
In 1947 it duly arrived, via a quirk of fate! Tommy’s son, Robert Douglas Swan, married the daughter of an American who had recently been associated with the development of a product, NOSTRIP, to solve precisely that problem. |
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1931 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. office block built at Crookhall |
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1947 |
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NOSTRIP licence acquired and chemical manufacturing of Wetfix begins. Wetfix was designed to help bitumen to stick to wet road surface stones. |
Following the acquisition of the NOSTRIP licence ‘Tommy’ quickly built a plant for the manufacture of an equivalent product at Crookhall, which he called WETFIX.
This anti-stripping or wetting agent, a cationic surfactant, was to revolutionise the business. Not only was it used in the company’s own macadam, but it was also sold to other manufacturers and, more significantly, to bitumen suppliers such as Shell Oil UK.
Further developments in the chemistry of the product resulted in a specialised range of improved, more efficient wetting agents. The emphasis on chemical technology increased with the introduction of a range of specialised industrial paints in the early 1950s under the name SWANCOTE. Because of these developments, macadam manufacture gradually diminished in importance and was eventually discontinued in 1958.
Further exploitation of the basic Wetfix chemistry gave rise to synthetic waxes and a range of curing agents for epoxy resins, along with SLURRY SEAL, a specialised sealing material for aircraft runways and other surfaces. |
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1955 – mid 1970’s |
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Dialkyl amino amines introduced |
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Specialised range of industrial paints under the
name SWANCOTE introduced |
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1958 |
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Macadam manufacture discontinued |
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1960s |
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Alkyl imidazolines introduced |
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CASAMIDS introduced |
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1962 |
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Robert Douglas Swan, son of Tommy Swan, takes control of the family
business
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Robert ‘Douglas’ Swan took over the business from his father, developing the chemical business in domestic and international markets, managing it for about 10 years.
Douglas Swan had a more informal approach to managing the business and his calculations of deals and prices on the back of an envelope were legendary to those that worked with him. |
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1966 |
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Tommy Swan, founder of Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. retires |
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1968 |
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Tom Swan, grandson of the founder, starts work for Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. from Dow Chemicals
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From the first Wetfix derived products, the company emerged as a chemical company focusing on performance chemicals, fine chemicals, contract manufacture and technology licensing.
During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the company developed a range of unique water dispersible epoxy curing agents with world wide applications. This technology was sold to Air Products (USA).
A variety of products emerged during the late 70’s and early 80’s notably CASAMIDS, CASABETS, CASAQUATS, CASATERICS and CASATHANES.
POWDER COATING compositions were beginning to evolve as the new ‘green’ technology for coating metal, reducing the use of wasteful and harmful solvents. The company entered this market in the early 80’s and, since then, products such as CASAMIDS 1416, 1457, OTB and, latterly, 2228 have been introduced.
Throughout the 90’s, new product ranges were either developed or acquired, notably Casamid ink resins, Casabond rubber adhesion agents and the Pepton series of rubber peptising agents.
The company continued to grow through business acquisition, technology acquisition and in-house developments.
By the early 1980’s a contract manufacturing arm of the company was firmly established, with a wide range of customers including multi-nationals - using Thomas Swan’s expertise and facilities to make materials on their behalf. |
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1970s onwards |
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Polyurethanes introduced |
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Tri-butyl tin fluoride introduced |
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1971 - 1974 |
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CASATHANES introduced |
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1975 - 1976 |
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CASABETS, CASAQUATS and CASATERICS introduced |
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1976 |
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Tom Swan takes control of the family business. |
Tom Swan, the grandson of the founder, has been largely responsible for the modernisation of the business and its diversification into new and innovative technologies. |
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Toll Manufacturing starts |
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Late 1970s – early 1980s |
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CASATHANES and powder coatings introduced |
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1984 |
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PCMX production started |
In 1984, in conjunction with a UK university, the company started to manufacture a range of organo metallics for use in semi conductor research, including gallium nitride, gallium arsenide and indium phosphide.
Production of these chemicals proved to be an important stepping stone to the manufacture of the related semi conductor research equipment. Indeed, such was the potential for new developments in the equipment area that the company abandoned the manufacture of the chemicals themselves, in 1986.
A new division was subsequently created, concentrating on development of MOCVD (metallo organo chemical vapourising deposition) research equipment. Names like Epitor (computerised gas handling equipment), Epifold (quick switching gas manifold – a key component of the Epitor machine) and Epison (gas flow analyser) became world leaders.
This equipment is used in the development of novel semi conductors, which find application in many areas of electronics e.g. LEDs. These devices consist of many very thin layers of compound semi conductor materials on a substrate known as a ‘wafer’. LEDs provide alternative solutions to a wide range of lighting applications.
This division was sold to a German company in late 1999. |
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Thomas Swan Scientific Equipment founded |
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1985 |
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Fungicides introduced |
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Statue of Liberty refurbishment uses Thomas Swan epoxy curing agent Casamid 360 |
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1990s |
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Ink Resins, Casabond rubber adhesion and Pepton series of rubber peptising agents introduced |
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1999 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. acquires dye specialist Organic Specialities Ltd. and Fort James Speciality Chemicals |
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Thomas Swan Scientific Equipment sold |
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2000 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. becomes the first company in the world to gain external verification on its Responsible Care Management system |
Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. has always sought to create wealth through the pursuit of innovation.
From a beginning in road stone to the Hubble Space telescope, from opto-electronic switching to protein separation and advanced materials Thomas Swan has improved the quality of life by commercialising some of the best new ideas of the time. The company actively seeks out and supports research into emerging technologies at UK universities.
The core competency of chemistry has been enhanced by the addition of continuous flow supercritical catalysis and micro reactor methods that position the company amongst the most innovative in the world. |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. launches World’s first continuous-phase Supercritical Fluid Plant |
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2001 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. named a ‘Top 20 World innovator’ by leading American Chemical publication |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. celebrates 75th Anniversary |
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New offices built at Crookhall |
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2002 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. announced as Chemical Industries Association Responsible Care Award Winner |
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2003 |
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Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. announced as Chemical Industries Association UK Green Chemical Technology Awards Winner |
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2004 |
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Carbon Nanomaterials Business launched and Elicarb® carbon nanotubes introduced |
In April 2004 Thomas Swan launched a carbon nanomaterials business for the production of single and multi-wall carbon nanotubes. The chemical vapour deposition (CVD) plant was designed and built at Consett following a collaboration lasting 4 years with the Department of Materials Science and Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. The company became the first in the UK to manufacture commercial quantities of single-wall carbon nanotubes for use in a wide range of academic and industrial applications. |
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Colours Division launched |
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2006 |
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New website launched |
Harry Swan, the Great Grandson of Tommy Swan is made Managing Director.
Tom Swan remains Executive Chairman of the Company. |
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Harry Swan made Managing Director |
