Scottish shale Scottish shale

Bain & Carlile

Started:
c. 1860
Finished:
c. 1864
Registered office:

24, Howard St., Glasgow
81 St. Vincent St., Glasgow (from 1863)
23 West Nile St., Glasgow (from 1865)

Oil works:

Partners in the firm of Wm. Brown and Co., plus John Bain, formed the Clydesdale Chemical Company in 1855 and constructed Rosebank Oil Works on land owned by Bain in Cambuslang. Wm Brown & Co were declared bankcrupt in1858, leaving John Bain as sole partner. The case of E.W.Binnie vs Clydesdale Chemical Company, for infringement of Young's patent, resulted in a substantial financial penalty, and shortly afterward (probably in late 1860), the Clydesdale Chemical Company was wound-up. Bain and Carlile were then formed as a partnership between John Bain and works chemist Thomas Carlile to carry forward the business, producing oil as licencees of Young's patent. The firm was re-styled Thomas Carlile & Co. in c.1864.

The background to the famous trial is described by Redwood (see below), however not all dates that he quotes coincide with other evidence.

The firm is listed as "Bain and Carlile" in Glasgow Post Office Directories between 1860 and 1864, and subsequently at Thomas Carlile & Co. Between 1860 and 1863, Thomas Carlile is listed as resident at Rosebank house, Cambuslang.

Partners

  • John Bain
  • Thomas Carlile

  • Newspaper references
    • Redwood wrote;

      "In 1853 the Clydesdale Chemical Company, often erroneously called the Cambuslang Oil Company, started in the oil business, and its operation led to one of the most famous lawsuits ever tried by jury. The trial commenced on November 1 1860, and lasted over a week, during which time the services of Great Britain's most eminent chemists were brought into requisition by either one side or the other, their testimony being taken with a view to determining the line of demarkation between shale and coal.

      The Clydesdale Chemical Company's works were built at Cambuslang by Brown Brothers and Co., with Bain (on whose estates the works were situated) as sleeping partner. When operations were first commenced, crude oil was produced from Parrot Coal, but the company eventually resorted to the use of Boghead Coal which they retorted by the process known as the Continuous Distillation in Ovens, obtaining by this process a yield of 85 to 90 gallons of 880 specific gravity, crude oil per ton of coal.

      Refining operations were also carried out at these works, and everything went along prosperously for about seven years. As the company was using an infringement of Young's patent, it very naturally made every endeavour to prevent the nature of the work being made public; but notwithstanding every precaution being taken, word reached Young's ears of what was going on at those works, and he immediately started a law plea referred to and, being awarded favourable verdict by the jury, he stepped in and relieved the Clydesdale Co. of £6,000 and 3d or 3.5d for every gallon of crude oil manufactured by it.

      The result was disastrous to the company, which was completely ruined and Brown Brothers withdrew from the business in 1862; but Bain took Carlile (who had previously been acting as chemist for the company) into partnership, and the new firm carried on the business under the name of Thomas Carlile and Co. until the year 1867, when the work was finally abandoned. "


    Additional Resources

    Bain&Carlile.jpg

    1. From The Glasgow Herald, 2nd February 1861
    2. From The Glasgow Herald, 9th February 1861
    3. From The Paisley & Renfrewshire Advertiser, 23rd February 1861