Category Archives: WW1

Robin Ltd., Incandescent Gas Mantle Makers, Lonesome

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1910 OS Map

1910 OS Map

The company experienced a boom in its business of making and selling incandescent gas mantles during World War 1. Gas mantles, the part of a gas lamp that glows, were made from Thorium, which was extracted from sands mined in Brazil. Before the war, Germany was the only country that produced Thorium from these sands, as pointed out in a letter to the Daily Express. With the war, imports from Germany ceased, and Thorium had to be bought from the US.

Robin Ltd. stated in a military service tribunal of 11th August 1916 that:

owing to the import of German mantles being stopped since the war their business had increased enormously, and they now employed 500 hands.

The factory was bought by Beck & Co. Ltd. of Southwark in 1939. They used part of the factory for production of water meters, petrol pumps and steam valves. Source: Mitcham Borough Council minutes, page 476, volume 5.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Germany and the Gas Mantle

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From letters page of the Daily Express, 29th February, 1916

To the Editor of the Daily Express

Sir.—Mr. Arnold White’s criticism of our lack of method and foresight can be multiplied many times over. He speaks of wolfram. This is found in Cornwall, and yet the deposits are only worked in a half-hearted manner.

An important case which might have been mentioned by Mr. Arnold White is the question of thorium supplies, on which the manufacture of incandescent gas mantle, depends. Thorium is obtained chiefly from the monazite-baring sands of Brazil, which contain from small quantities to 2 per cent of thorium. This sand went before the war to Germany, as that country has the only plant capable of dealing with it! We now have to purchase thorium, I understand, at ridiculous prices from the United States.

May I ask how Mr. Arnold White obtains his information about china clay? The freight to the Potteries used to be 7s. When was the freight to the Rhine “three shillings lower” – 4s. -?

M.E.
Hampstead, N.W.