.jpg/1495px-William_Macadam_(1783-1853).jpg)
Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
William Macadam
William Macadam (3 November 1783 – 1853 ) was an industrialist, a burgess and bailie of Glasgow. He owned a weaving mill and calico printing works in Kilmarnock near Glasgow.
He was the patriarch of a small dynasty of chemical scientists including his sons William Macadam, John Macadam and Stevenson Macadam, grandsons William Ivison Macadam and Stevenson J. C. G. Macadam and great granddaughter Elison A. Macadam.
A burgess and a bailie of Glasgow, he became a prominent Glasgow businessman who owned and operated a mill near Glasgow and a mill and textile, calico (and shawl) printing works at Greenholm in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, south of Glasgow on the River Irvine.
William was the son of John McAdam and Margaret Finlay. His father had also been a burgess of Glasgow and an owner of the Mile End Spinning Company.
William Macadam's operation together with that of his fellow industrialists in similar business, used new chemical processes in textile printing which enabled them to develop into large scale industries for the printing of cotton fabrics, which the plants in the area soon became internationally known for. Producing colours for textile printing required extensive chemical knowledge coupled with technical expertise. Each colour and its varying degrees of brightness had to withstand the different fixing processes and this was particularly difficult when printing Turkey Red.
The fabrics were then made into cotton polka dot handkerchiefs (particularly favoured in France), cotton calico scarves, shawls, garments and chintzes that were used in Britain and exported to Europe and throughout the world. His plants seemed to have been largely involved in the weaving and printing of the heavier of these cotton cloth materials. The process required a lot of water hence the location on the River Irvine and Clyde.
After Macadam's death in 1853, the US Civil War (1861–1865) reduced the vital cotton supplies through Glasgow from 8,700 tonnes (171,252 cwt) in 1861 to 366 tonnes (7,216 cwt) in 1864. Without the basic raw material for their needs, this became a period of major hardship for these companies until India and West Africa became major exporters. Thus Macadam's former Kilmarnock plant was sold and part of it was converted into a flour mill.
Originally burgesses were inhabitants of a city where they owned land and who contributed to the running of the town and its taxation. The title of burgess was later restricted to merchants and craftsmen, so that only burgesses could enjoy the privileges of trading or practising a craft in the city through a Guild or own companies (Macadam belonged to the Weaver's Guild). Only burgesses had the right to vote in municipal or Parliamentary elections. However, these political privileges were removed by the Reform Act in 1832, and the burgesses' ancient exclusive trading rights through their Guilds were abolished in 1846. Thereafter a burgess became a title which gave social standing to the office and usually carried with it a role which involved charitable activities in a Guild, as it does today.
Hub AI
William Macadam AI simulator
(@William Macadam_simulator)
William Macadam
William Macadam (3 November 1783 – 1853 ) was an industrialist, a burgess and bailie of Glasgow. He owned a weaving mill and calico printing works in Kilmarnock near Glasgow.
He was the patriarch of a small dynasty of chemical scientists including his sons William Macadam, John Macadam and Stevenson Macadam, grandsons William Ivison Macadam and Stevenson J. C. G. Macadam and great granddaughter Elison A. Macadam.
A burgess and a bailie of Glasgow, he became a prominent Glasgow businessman who owned and operated a mill near Glasgow and a mill and textile, calico (and shawl) printing works at Greenholm in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, south of Glasgow on the River Irvine.
William was the son of John McAdam and Margaret Finlay. His father had also been a burgess of Glasgow and an owner of the Mile End Spinning Company.
William Macadam's operation together with that of his fellow industrialists in similar business, used new chemical processes in textile printing which enabled them to develop into large scale industries for the printing of cotton fabrics, which the plants in the area soon became internationally known for. Producing colours for textile printing required extensive chemical knowledge coupled with technical expertise. Each colour and its varying degrees of brightness had to withstand the different fixing processes and this was particularly difficult when printing Turkey Red.
The fabrics were then made into cotton polka dot handkerchiefs (particularly favoured in France), cotton calico scarves, shawls, garments and chintzes that were used in Britain and exported to Europe and throughout the world. His plants seemed to have been largely involved in the weaving and printing of the heavier of these cotton cloth materials. The process required a lot of water hence the location on the River Irvine and Clyde.
After Macadam's death in 1853, the US Civil War (1861–1865) reduced the vital cotton supplies through Glasgow from 8,700 tonnes (171,252 cwt) in 1861 to 366 tonnes (7,216 cwt) in 1864. Without the basic raw material for their needs, this became a period of major hardship for these companies until India and West Africa became major exporters. Thus Macadam's former Kilmarnock plant was sold and part of it was converted into a flour mill.
Originally burgesses were inhabitants of a city where they owned land and who contributed to the running of the town and its taxation. The title of burgess was later restricted to merchants and craftsmen, so that only burgesses could enjoy the privileges of trading or practising a craft in the city through a Guild or own companies (Macadam belonged to the Weaver's Guild). Only burgesses had the right to vote in municipal or Parliamentary elections. However, these political privileges were removed by the Reform Act in 1832, and the burgesses' ancient exclusive trading rights through their Guilds were abolished in 1846. Thereafter a burgess became a title which gave social standing to the office and usually carried with it a role which involved charitable activities in a Guild, as it does today.