page_title: Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: 5. Dampffest auf der Zeche Hannover (Industriemuseum) in Bochum. 1910 gebaute Dampfzugmaschine “Back us boys” von Ransomes, Sims &amp; Jefferies, Ipswich, GB, die beim Hersteller bis 1940 als Auslieferungs- und Transportfahrzeug eingesetzt wurde, und dann 18 Jahre im gleichen Ort in einem Sägewerk und Holzgroßhandel als Zug- und Antriebsmaschine. Gewicht 7 t. English: 5th steam festival in Bochum, Germany 2007. Traction machine "Back'us Boys" from Ransomes, Sims &amp; Jefferies, Ipswich, GB, built 1910 Engine details Manufacturer: Ransomes, Sims &amp; Jefferies Type: Light steam tractor (traction engine) Works no: 23266 Built: 1910 Cylinders: Compound Gears: 2 NHP: 4 Reg. no.: DX 792 More pictures: http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/?pc=/engines/ransomes-sims-jefferies/tractor/23266/
context_page_description: Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Limited was a major British agricultural machinery maker also producing a wide range of general engineering products in Ipswich, Suffolk including traction engines, trolleybuses, ploughs, lawn mowers, combine harvesters and other tilling equipment. Ransomes also manufactured Direct Current electric motors in a wide range of sizes, and electric forklift trucks and tractors. They manufactured aeroplanes during the First World War. Their base, specially set up in 1845, was named Orwell Works.
  Ransomes' railway equipment business was hived off in 1869 with a different ownership as Ransomes & Rapier and based nearby at Waterside Ironworks.
context_section_description: In 1809 Robert Ransome, now aged 56, was looking for someone younger to take the business forwards. His eldest son James returned from Great Yarmouth to become his father's partner, bringing with him several of his skilled craftsmen. Now called Ransome and Son, the business prospered, with output doubling over the next six years. Another period of social unrest followed, with agricultural depression and the introduction of the Corn Laws in 1815. Robert had employed William Cubitt in 1812 as the company engineer, and they diversified so they were not solely dependent on the sale of agricultural products. They cast the components for Stoke Bridge, Ipswich, which was swept away in a flood in 1818. Cubitt was responsible for the new design, and the bridge lasted for over 100 years. Cubitt's designs for wind-regulating vanes for windmills and a treadmill for grinding corn in prisons were also manufactured, and he then supervised the installation of gas lighting in Ipswich, which included the construction of a gasometer near to the foundry. Cubbitt became a partner in the firm in 1821, but continued to carry out consultancy work in his own right. He was in such demand that he moved on in 1826, to pursue his civil engineering career, for which he was later knighted.
  In 1826 James's son known as Allen but technically James Allen Ransome (1806–1875) went to live at Yoxford, Suffolk, where he established a branch of the business. In 1839 Allen Ransome moved from Yoxford to Ipswich and under his direction the firm of J, R & A Ransome (James, Robert and Allen Ransome) was to assume huge proportions. Charles May had joined the company in 1836, and played a major part in the expansion, as he was a brilliant chemist and scientist. In 1837 William Worby the works manager was asked to find a new location for some of the workforce, as the St Margaret's Ditches site was no longer big enough. He found an old shipyard on the eastern bank of the River Orwell, covering 10 acres (4 ha). This became the Orwell Works, and the company embarked on the construction of a dock scheme, to give them over 900 feet (270 m) of quay on the eastern edge of the new wet dock, construction of which had begun in 1837, and continued for some five years. The designer and chief engineer for the wet dock was Henry Robinson Palmer, assisted by James Jones, one of the founder members of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He left the scheme in 1842 to become Ransomes' manager, a position he held until 1852. 
  After about 1841 the manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural machinery was supplemented by production of portable, traction and other steam engines and thrashing machines.
  In the middle decades of the 19th century the company produced heavy iron work for astronomical telescopes, mountings, and observatories.
  These included
  The Airy Altazimuth Telescope for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (1847)
  The dome of Arthur Kett Barclay's observatory in Bury Hill, Dorking, Surrey (1848)
  The Trophy Telescope (1851)
  The Airy Transit Circle for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (1851)
  The Great Equatorial for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (1857)
  In 1851 export trade was initiated which by the early 20th century was more important than the home market and included distributing agencies throughout the world with a branch establishment in Odessa.
  In 1869 four engineers, Allen, who remained the senior partner in the parent firm, his elder son R.J. Ransome, R.C. Rapier and A.A. Bennett, took the firm's railway department aside from the parent business and established Ransomes & Rapier at Riverside Works, Ipswich.
  An independent factory was set up for the manufacture of lawn mowers of every class Ransomes produced the 'Automaton' hand-powered lawn mower in 1867.
caption: Preserved, 1910-built, 4nhp light steam tractor "Back' us Boy"
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