Records of Babcock International Group plc

152 metres

This material is original.

The American engineers Stephen Wilcox and George Herman Babcock patented their first water-tube boiler design in the United States in 1867 and in the United Kingdom in 1873. Their firm, Babcock & Wilcox Co., opened a sales office in Glasgow in 1881. By 1883 they were producing boiler parts by sub-contractors in Scotland and the first completely British-built Babcock boiler was manufactured at the Singer Works in Clydebank in 1885. A British company, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd., was formed on the 4 July 1891, with a capital of £240,000. Its sphere of operations was to include the world outside the United States and Cuba.

The firm established its own manufacturing facility at Renfrew in 1895 and increased capital to £1,575,000 in 1900. The firm rapidly became a leader in both land-based and marine boilers and opened subsidiaries and production facilities around the world. The group developed a large defence business during the two world wars, producing tanks and munitions in addition to their naval boiler business.

From the 1960s onwards the group became increasingly involved in nuclear energy, taking the lead in the design and construction of Hinkley Point Power Station. The group continues to be heavily involved in boiler and turbine technology, power plant construction and nuclear energy. After merging with FKI plc in 1987, Babcock demerged in 1989 and continues as a multinational energy engineering group, with Babcock International Group plc as the parent company and Babcock Energy as the principal operating company in the UK.

The records of Babcock International Group plc consist of:

• minutes and other corporate records
• ledgers and other financial records
• order books and other sales records
• job books and other production records
• technical, employee and property records
• photographs and price lists

• Boilers
• Boiler-makers
• Engineering
• Manufacturing Industries
• Military Supplies
• Nuclear Energy
• Power-plants
• Steam-boilers, Marine
• Steam-boilers, Water-tube
• Tanks (Military Science)
• Turbine Industry

• Babcock | George Hermann | 1832-1893 | American engineer
• Wilcox | Stephen | 1830-1893 | American engineer

• Babcock & Wilcox Co | 1881
• Babcock & Wilcox Ltd | 1891-1987 | boiler & power plant manufacturers
• Babcock Energy
• FKI plc
• Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. | 1860-1986 | railway wagon manufacturers | Gloucester (England)
• Singer Works

• Clydebank (Scotland)
• Cuba
• Glasgow (Scotland)
• Great Britain
• Renfrew (Scotland)
• Scotland
• United States