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William Thomas Sugg 1832 - 1907

Welcome to my Web site!

Hello, my name is William Thomas Sugg and I was born on 17th October 1832.  I died on 28th February 1907 around 100 years ago and I have entrusted my great grandson, Christopher, with telling you something about my life...

I was born 4th into a family that eventually reached 10 children.  Mind you, that's nothing because in my time I had 15 children!  Of course things were very different in those days.  My father was also called William and he gave me two names so we didn't get muddled but I always wanted to be just William so after Father died I stopped signing myself W.T.Sugg and reverted to William.  Of course I didn't realise just how difficult it could make things for the future but at least no-one could mistake William Sugg & Co as being anything but my company!

Our family had lived in Somerset for generations but it was great grandfather John who made the big step away from rural life to the Metropolis.  Unfortunately it was because he had failed in business as a grazier and bleacher in Crewkerne!  He had, however, one big asset in his young wife.  She was one of three sisters of the Faulkner family also from Crewkerne.  One sister married a Mr Gibson of Fenchurch Street and the other married a Mr Price of York Street, Westminster, so when things went wrong you can just imagine the three sisters getting together and how John might have been persuaded to follow the others "to seek his fortune".  We are talking of a date in the last quarter of the 18th century - around, say, 1785 when John would already have been 55.  They remained a close knit family as we find that two of John's children worked for their uncles in London at various stages.  The one we are going to follow is my grandfather, Thomas, who was the youngest born in 1771 and, like the other three, lived in Crewkerne before the move to London.

My grandfather, Thomas, must have been a remarkable man.  On the basis of the date above he would have been only about 14 when the family moved to London and you can just imagine the excitement for a young person arriving in London.  The numbers of people, the noise, the traffic compared with their country life.  Of course he would have been expected to work for the family's joint living and it seems that he got a job with Uncle Price in Westminster who was a "tinman".  This title was given to craftsmen who worked in metal and produced products of a wide range.  In later centuries you would call them "tinsmiths" or "sheet metal workers".  As his skills developed he became a fully fledged "ironmonger" and moved to High Street, Hoxton where he set up shop.  Many of you reading this would only know an ironmonger as a shop full of pre-packed nuts and bolts and loads of practical items but, as you might guess if you thought about the name, an ironmonger was a man who dealt in all things metal and practical and made anything that was needed.

By now Thomas had a wife, Sarah, who he married in St John the Evangelist, Millbank in June 1793.  Life must have been really tough for the young married couple because when they had their first son Henry, in 1794, they simply could not afford to keep him.  It may seem unlikely in your century where so much support is available but, if you had no money then, you didn't eat and an extra mouth could push you over the edge.  Fortunately, families were very close in those days and little Henry was adopted by second cousin Sarah who was married to Henry Hatchard and I believe could not have children of her own.  They never forced him to change his surname and in due course on the death of his adoptive parents he became the owner of their business - Carpenter & Undertaker of York Street, Westminster and became a well respected member of the community, being a collector of taxes and churchwarden of St Margaret's, Westminster.

But I digress!  After Henry had been adopted it was another two years before Thomas and Sarah had their second child.  Exactly when Thomas made the move to Hoxton I am not sure but it wasn't until he was 36 in 1807 that he laid the foundation of what was eventually to become 'my' business. 

There are a number of people who lay claim to having been the inventor of gas lighting, Friedrich Albrecht Winzer (later anglicised to Frederick Albert Winsor) born in Germany in 1763, was certainly one of them - despite the fact that he had 'borrowed' his knowledge from Philip Lebon in Paris. What Winsor did through a number of advertisements and pamphlets was to attract public attention to a series of experiments and lectures at The Lyceum Theatre in London from about 1803, on the subject of "Gas Light".  Here he described the advantages, its freedom from sparks which so often caused fires with other sources, the absence of smoke and the intensity and steadiness of the flame.  It does sound as if everyone in London began to talk about gas lighting and it seems very likely that grandfather Thomas Sugg decided to go and have a look for himself.  It is barely 3 miles from Bacchus Walk in Hoxton to Pall Mall and I suspect that once he had seen what Winsor was up to, Thomas offered his very practical services to assist in the demonstrations, especially in the manufacture and installation of the pipes to carry the gas from Mr Winsor's house in Pall Mall a considerable distance to the wall of Carlton House Terrace.  According to contemporary accounts, the pipes were of tinned iron with soldered joints with the long pipe being 1.1/2" diameter.  The contemporary account of the first public demonstration in the Monthly Magazine of July 1807 states that it took place on 4th June 1807 to coincide with the birthday of His Majesty King George IV.

I don't intend to tell you any more about the early development of the gas industry other than through the products of William Sugg & Co, as it is well documented elsewhere.  However, you now have the link between Sugg and gas.  Grandfather Thomas went on to have 10 children with Sarah and unfortunately died in one of the outbreaks of cholera in 1832, the same year that I was born.

My father, William, was Thomas and Sarah's fifth child and he was born on 23rd July 1803, so he was only 3 years old when his father got involved with gas.  It is clear that there was a huge amount of interest in the developing industry and, with the practical nature that seems to run through our family he went to work for "Edges", a meter maker in Great Peter Street, Westminster.  At the end of 1837 he 'started for himself' at 19 & 20 Marsham Street, Westminster where he worked until he died.

William Sugg 1803 - 1858, The Founder.
 

My mother was Elizabeth Aincham and she and father married in 1826 when father was just on 23.  In no time the family began to grow, Robert in 1827, Susannah in 1829, Elizabeth in 1831 and then me, William Thomas, in 1832!  I won't bore you with names and dates any more but suffice it to say that my next brother and two of my sisters all died very young, leaving just 7 of us.

The very first issue of the magazine "The Builder" dated 31st December 1842 carries the following advertisement:

"William Sugg & Co., No.19 Marsham Street.  Brass and Iron Founders, Gas Engineers and Fitters, Makers of Improved Patent Gas Meters, Manufacturers of every description of plain and ornamental bronze, brass and iron work for OIL or GAS.  Fan lights, passage and lantern, plain or ornamental, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation.  Casting for the Trade."

You can see from this that only 5 years after he started, father had his sights set high! What it doesn't show you is just how badly things had been going!  Of course I didn't know anything about this at the age of 10, although I am sure the atmosphere between my parents was sometimes not very comfortable!  What I hadn't realised initially was that father had set the business up as a partnership. 

The Original Co-Partnership Agreement of 1837

The original partnership agreement of 1837 showed that father entered into an agreement with two of his contemporaries:

“To carry on the trade and business of Manufacturers of Gas Meters, Brass Founders, Gas Fitters, Smiths and Engineers.” 

Father was to receive £3 per week, William Parsley Pywell, 50 shillings per week and Craswell P.Jobling one shilling per hour, presumably to ensure that he took his position seriously!  I feel sure that these two partners brought practical skills to the business and Father decided that they should have a status as originators of the business whilst still making it clear who was the boss! 

Just four years later, however, it becomes clear that things were not going well.  An accountant, Mr William Gould, the third party to an agreement dated 9^th March 1841, indicates that he was prepared to take on the responsibility for the Company debts against everything the remaining two partners owned!  In addition, the 26 creditors are listed at the bottom of the agreement with their names and the sums that each are owed, varying from 14 shillings right up to 290 pounds 7 shillings and 5 pence to the aforementioned Mr William Gould! The two other signatories are Father and Pywell.  The lowly paid Mr Jobling would clearly not add a lot of security to the agreement and he was discounted.  In fact Mr Pywell is also not heard of again and may well have been frightened off by thoughts of the poor house.  Father, on the other hand was made of sterner stuff and his advert in the Builder, above, less than two years after this agreement tells us that he was going to trade out of the problems.  Exactly how they got into such a situation in only four years I was never clear but it would be familiar to many small businesses even in your age, especially as the age of banking had yet to provide 'working capital'.  When I joined the business it was all over and I don't even know what happened to Mr Gould.  My job was to help the business to succeed.

What interested me was the design and technology, the detail of the business.  It was clear to me very soon after joining Father that nobody really knew much about how things worked and why.  I spent a great deal of time experimenting with how gas burned and why.  It seems our efforts began to turn the business around as in 1847, the same year as our last and surviving brother was born, Father took a house in Hanwell so that we no longer lived 'over the shop'.  The business actually remained in the original premises for nearly 30 years.

My father died in the May of 1858 when I was still 25.  However by then I had really got my feet under the table and the business passed to me without any complaint! Now was my chance to really do something in this fast accelerating industry. 

The Marsham Street Factory

Of course I cannot proceed further without a little more personal history because the family is so intertwined with the Company.  By the time I took over the business I had been married for 5 years and we had one son, David William who was 5, one daughter, Lizzie, 4 and  my wife, Jane, was pregnant with what was to be our second son, Walter John, who became known as Jack.  So you see I married not long after my 20th birthday -- and it turned out to be a big mistake.  I have to admit that Jane Parker was one of those women who is a young man's dream.  She was a barmaid and I was tempted.  I am not going into the details here but I will tell you that David was born just 4 months after we were married.  Unfortunately, my choice of Jane as a wife showed a lack of judgement for a long term relationship.  I was eventually forced to use a private detective to obtain evidence of her unfaithfulness.  In those days it was only a few years since it had required an Act of Parliament to obtain a divorce and so it was necessary to collect the evidence very carefully.  I still have the account from the detective in which he lists all the details of his time and the costs.  It did cost me a fortune but in the end I was granted a divorce in 1862  with the co-respondent being named as a Charles Moore.

As you might imagine, I was very upset and frankly put off the whole marriage business.  I buried myself in my work and, funnily enough - or maybe understandably, this was one of my most productive periods.  It was to be another 9 years before I ventured into the marriage stakes again at the age of 38 in 1871 and, what is more, I have my work to thank that I met Marie Jenny Fleurot!

By 1866 the Marsham Street works was unable to cope with the amount of business that was coming in and, fortunately, I was able to secure some new premises close by in Regency Street between Page Street and Vincent Street.  As you can see from the illustration below I called the premises Vincent Works and this became the heart of the business for nearly a century, albeit with several enlargements. 

Vincent Works 1866
(The eventual extension to the factory was to the right of this frontage which appears to have remained almost untouched apart from the level of the road.)

The sign indicates the location of our showroom in Charing Cross - 'nearby the Post Office', a description that would mean a lot more in those days than in the 21st century!  1 & 2 Grand Hotel Buildings was just a stones throw from Trafalgar Square and provided a fabulous central location for our friends in the various Gas Company's and the householder who wished to familiarise himself with the latest labour saving products and lighting designs.  Trafalgar Square was a great showroom in itself with numerous Sugg lamps mounted on the surrounding walls and on posts at the junctions of several of the major roads where they joined the Square.  At the end of the 20th century during the refurbishment of Trafalgar Square, three original William Sugg lamps still in their original positions were refurbished by Sugg Lighting and re-mounted on new cast lamp posts erected back in the Square, whilst a set of slightly smaller scaled versions were designed and manufactured and fitted around the Square on the walls from which the originals had been removed.  It has to be admitted that all these fixtures are now operating with electric lighting sources but it is more important that the original Sugg designs can still be seen (even if they are not recognised by the millions who pass through the Square each year.)  Let us hope that this website will help to educate just some of those millions!! (Installing a lamp post in Trafalgar Square is in itself a problem as much of the Square is over the Underground station!  The 'new' Sugg posts are bolted to 1 metre diameter steel plates just below the original stone slabs! CS.) 

This is one of the new smaller scaled lanterns placed on the original pedestals around the wall of Trafalgar Square  They are based on 3 original Sugg Lanterns which were refurbished and repositioned on new posts within the square.

Reverting back to 1866 and the move to Vincent Works, I had been working hard with the "Argand" burner, designed originally by monsieur Argand as an oil burner with a circular wick.  Having worked previously on plain gas jets, I felt that if I could achieve a circular ring of gas flame with combustion air passing up the centre as well as around the outside in a controlled fashion I would be able to produce a perfect, controllable, luminous bright flame.  Many experiments later I achieved my goal and in 1869 the Gas Referees were persuaded by the result to adopt my "London" Argand as the Standard Test Burner for the Metropolis.  In my promotional material I was allowed to quote their statement that:

"This burner of Mr Sugg's excels all others."

(The Gas Referees were a body set up to assure the quality of gas production from the hundreds of gas manufacturing plants around the country. Because the variety of coal mined in various parts of the country varied, it was important to be able to check that the gas produced was of a suitable and preferably equal quality which would provide the customers with good quality lighting.  To do this the Referees needed a burner which would provide a basis for comparison when burning the different gases.  The 'London' Argand was initially adopted for the Metropolis and subsequently is quoted as "prescribed in most Gas Companies' Acts of Parliament.)

The Argand Burner is described and illustrated in the Lighting Section - Burners - Christiania & Argand.

This success spurred me on especially in the field of photometrics which is the science of the measurement of light.  It is all very well to burn gas to produce light but without knowing what that meant there is no way to make comparisons or improve efficiency. 

Many years ago I realised that it was necessary to establish a unit for the measurement of light and in 1862, when I had been working on the lighting of the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons, I decided on an observational experiment.  I made some pencil markings on a piece of paper and took half a dozen men to read the paper at whatever distance they found convenient.  The answer was one ft candle, i.e. one candle at a distance of one foot.  This provided me with a basis of comparison for all other measurements of light and, indeed, became the unit in common use.

This commentary is drawn from a paper read to the 'Civil's' by Alexander Pelham Trotter in 1892 on 'The distribution and measurement of illumination' which was attended by William.  In the following discussion Mr W.J.Dibden said that Mr Sugg first proposed the ft candle thirty years ago as the unit for illumination.  WTS then added several observations from which the one above is drawn.  He also commented that the room in question was the only room where he had been able to feel satisfied in the lighting. (This important reference was found for me by Geoff Brundrett - a co-member of the CIBSE Heritage Panel who had remembered reading it on some occasion and finally unearthed it! CS)

Eventually we had an excellent lighting laboratory which was not improved until my grandson Crawford Sugg joined the Company in the 1930's and designed the very clever 'mirror head' device - about which more later!  By the turn of the nineteenth century, however, the Company was able to provide a huge range of scientific technical equipment as part of their sales effort and this is illustrated in the Technical Section.

Whilst working on the Argand burner I had not forgotten the flat flame burner.  In my mind there was always room for both types of burner.  The Argand was always going to be more complicated and thus more expensive than the flat flame burner and was likely to require more maintenance.  The glass chimneys were always going to suffer from breakage where the flat flame had none. 

I decided that the best approach for interior lighting was to design a range of fixtures which could use either burner in a common structure and apply careful aesthetic design to the whole.  So it was, in 1869, the same year as the London Argand was adopted that my "Christiania" flat flame burner sold in huge numbers.  (Look in the Lighting Section - Burners - Christiania & Argand for more information on these important products.)

Original photographs of a selection of Christiania burners

One of the features that made the Christiania fixtures popular was the beautiful hand painted glassware that I obtained from France.

This was not my only connection with France, as gas lighting was in demand all over the developed world.  Paris had adopted gas lighting in 1820 and by the 1870's our burners and fixtures were being used so widely that I decided to open an office in that beautiful city.  Unfortunately, the Franco Prussian War which led to the four month Siege of Paris 1870 - 1871 was a major problem!  It did however lead to my meeting Marie Jenny Fleurot. (Frances Robinson, granddaughter of William & Jenny who remembered her grandmother well, told me in 1987 that Jenny was actually rescued by William during the siege and she was left with nothing. The siege ended on 27th January 1871 but there were continuing problems and it may well have been after the signing of the armistice but before the arrival of the Paris commune with its own trials and tribulations. CS.), to cut a long story short, we were married in July 1871 when my bride was just 19 and I was 38!

Marie Jenny Fleurot and William Thomas Sugg the day before they married July 1871

We were married twice, once in Paris and once in London to satisfy all sides!  Jenny, as she was known to everyone was a very special lady.  Of course my French improved enormously and all our children were bilingual.  In fact Jenny would chat away in French to her daughters in particular and, when there was anything of importance she would always speak or write in her native language.  In due course I became the translator on the many trips that I took to France with the Gas Institute and other groups!

Our family grew, along with the business and we were blessed with 12 children and only poor Robert Pierre died after only 8 months.  Our last child was born in 1888 when I was 56.

Jenny remained in contact with her family in Paris and many of our children have the same French names as her family.  (Another confusion for the genealogist!)  Because Jenny was so much younger than me it was clear that she would live many years beyond me and her family, as well as our own family, were very important to her.

Great grandson Christopher has a substantial computer based family genealogy archive which he started as a card index back in 1969.  Much of the early information had been collected by my first cousin John Walter Sugg who was born in January 1835 a little over two years after me (not to be confused with Walter John mentioned earlier).  He also married one of my sisters, Rebekah Ann so we were very close. (Yes, his first cousin).  John was the son of the Henry I mentioned earlier who was adopted by the Hatchard family and became the owner of their business as carpenter and undertaker.  John followed that side of the family and I suspect that his interest in the family history is connected to both his father's adoption and his calling!  He carried a small notebook in which he listed all the family members and cousins and second cousins and more that he could record.  Fortunately it survived and provided a major starting point for the family archive.

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I was always determined to record the progress of my inventions by giving lectures and publishing both these and a number of books setting out the development of the many products over the years.  The aim was to educate and of course provide both the Industry personnel and the interested private user with the added confidence that leads to increased sales!  For the same reason we showed our wares at many national and international exhibitions and won many medals (which also survive into the 21st century.)  They were often used in our advertising as another means of confidence building for our customers.

My 1880s headed paper looked like this

The following list of medals is made up from two original lists which vary only slightly in content.  One, however, starts in 1862 and runs to 1906 describing what the award was for, whereas the other was started on 30th June 1888 and continued being updated until 1913 with 'comments' obviously intended to clarify the whereabouts of the medals in 1906.  With the death of William in 1907 it may have been that medals were not considered to be so important or that the whole world of exhibitions was becoming an expense that the Company no longer wished to bear.  Exhibitions as far away as Melbourne (twice) and Calcutta must have been a considerable drain on the Company's fortunes.
 

Place	Year	Award	Comment!
London	1862	2 Bronze Medals (Highest)	1 only had, in safe
for Gas Burners, Photometers and Gas Apparatus
Paris	1867	2 Bronze (Highest)	1 only had, in safe
for Gas Burners and Photometrical Apparatus
London	1871	Diploma (Highest)
for Improved Jet Photometers
Paris	1878	2 Gold Medals (Highest)	1 only had, in safe
for Gas Burners, Governors, Illuminating Power Meter & Photometrical Apparatus
York	1879	1 Bronze (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners and Fittings
Melbourne	1880?1881?	2 Silver (Highest)	1 only had
for Gas Burners, Shadowless Lamps and Photometrical Apparatus
Shown as 1880 in one list and 1881 in another.  Needs to be confirmed.
Glasgow	1880	1 Bronze (Highest)	In hand of Sotors? Re Nelson
for Gas Governors
Eastbourne	1881	1 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Governors and Burners
Brighton	1881	1 Bronze (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners and Fittings
Tynemouth	1882	1 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners and Shadowless Lamps
Stockport	1882	3 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners, Shadowless Lamps and improved "Colchester" Sun Burners
Stockport	1882	1 Bronze	In safe
for Consumer's Governors
Middlesbro’	1883	5 Silver (Highest)	Diplomas only had
for Gas Burners (Ordinary & with Governors), Street Lamp Governors, Patent "Vincent" Light and High Power Street Lamps
Crystal Palace	1883	5 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners, High-Power Gas Lamps, Heating Stoves and Patent "Therma" or Instantaneous Water Heater
Calcutta	1884	1 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners, Lamps etc
Falmouth	1884	1 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Sugg's Patent "Taj" Lamps for lighting Churches, Halls, etc
Crystal Palace Intl.	1884	Dipl. of Honour (Highest)
for Gas Burners, Lamps, etc
International Health	1884	1 Gold (Highest)	In safe
for Gas Burners, High-Power Lamps, etc
International Health	1884	1 Silver	In safe
for "Charing Cross" Gas Fires, Gas Kitcheners etc
Intl. Inventions	1885	1 Gold (Highest)	In safe
for the "Cromartie" Gas Lamp, Photometrical Apparatus etc
Intl. Food & Cookery	1885	1 Silver (Highest)	In safe
for Dining-Room Lights, "Christiania" Gas Burners etc
Berkhamsted	1886	1 Silver	In safe
for Gas Burners, Lamps etc
Liverpool	1886	2 Gold (Silver gilt)
for Gas Burners "Cromartie" Lamps etc
		1 Silver	In safe
for Dock and Harbour Lamps
Edinburgh	1886	1 Silver
for Gas Lamps and Burners
Univl Food & Cookery	1888	1 Gold (Silver gilt)
for Gas Kitcheners
Melbourne	1888	Silver, First Order of Merit (Highest)	In safe
for Patent Lamps, Burners etc
Royal Polytechnic Society, Falmouth	1889	1 Bronze (Highest)
for Gas Burners
Univl Cookery & Food	May 1889	1 Gold (Highest)
for Gas Kitcheners, Grillers and Hot Plates
Paris	1889	1 Gold (Highest)	In safe
for Patent Ventilating and other Gas Burners, Lamps, etc.
Intl. Food & Cookery	Nov 1889	1 Gold
for Gas Kitcheners, Grillers, Hot Plates, Gas Fires. etc.
Intl. Cookery & Food	1890	2 Gold (Highest)
for "Westminster" and other Gas Kitcheners, Hot Plates, etc
Amsterdam	1890	1 Bronze (Highest)	In safe
for Lighting and Cooking Apparatus
Sanitary Institute	May 1892	Medal of The Institute	In safe
for Cromartie Lamp
Univl. Cookery & Food	May 1892	Dipl. of Honour (Highest)
for Gas Cooking Apparatus
Hague Health	Aug. 1892	4 Prizes of Hon (Highest)	1 list has a medal in safe
for Gas Burners, Ventilators, Cooking, Lighting and Heating Apparatus
Health, Portsmouth	Sept 1892	Certificate of Merit
Highest award for Gs Cooking Appliances for "Westminster" Gas Kitcheners
Gonda Gas Exhibition	Oct 1892	3 Gold (Highest)	I list has 1 silver in safe
for Gas Lighting Apparatus, Gas Stoves and Burners
Sanitary Institute	1893	Certificate of Merit
for Gas Kitcheners
Univl. Cookery & Food	1893	Gold (Highest)	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for "Westminster" Gas Kitchener
Intl Bakery, Amst'dam	1894	Gold Medal & Dip of Hon.	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for Gas "Confectioner" Ovens etc
Univl. Cookery & Food	1895	Gold (Highest)	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for Gas Cooking Appliances
Univl. Cookery & Food	1896	Gold (Highest) & Silver	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for Gas Kitcheners
Univl. Cookery & Food	1897	Prix d'Honneur (Highest)	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for Gas Cooking Appliances
Institute of Cookery & Food	1899	1 Silver Gilt	Does not exist on one list. In safe on other
Univl. Cookery & Food	1903	Prix d'Honneur (Highest)	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for Gas Cooking Appliances
Univl. Cookery & Food	1904	Dipl. of Honour (Highest)
for Gas Cooking Appliances
Intl. Gas Exhibition	1904	1 Silver	Does not exist on one list. In safe on other
Sanitary Institute	1905	3 Bronze	In safe
for High-Pressure Incandescent Gas Light for Street Lighting, Gas Cooker & Billiard- Table Light
Univl. Cookery & Food	1906	Gold (Highest)	I list, 1 Silver Gilt in safe
for High-Pressure Gas Cooking Stove
Antwerp	1913	1 Silver Gilt	Does not exist on one list. In safe on other

As you can see several exhibitions are in European cities, one in India and two in Australia - a long way to go in 1881 especially as it seems they only 'had' one of the two silver medals awarded! C.S.

To help my staff gain skills in the areas of design I sent many of them to study design at the college in South Kensington and the result can clearly be seen in the aesthetic balance of the many hundreds of lighting products that poured out of the factory some of which can be seen particularly in the Lighting Section - Interior Lamps.  Even practical products can be made to look attractive and by displaying them to their best will always sell to the discerning customer even over less expensive products.  (See Lighting Section - Burners - Open Flame  for a burner display case for example)

Very Early Full Colour Advertising Illustrating the Improvement Obtained Using Sugg Christiania Burners.
 The paper being read by the gent says 'Roasting and Cooking by Gas' alluding to other Sugg products. Never waste an opportunity!

I did spend a lot of money on advertising and promotion and was convinced that this was an essential element of the progress of the Company associated with the production of quality products.  Apart from the offices at 19 rue des Pyramides in Paris I also opened offices at Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Amsterdam. 

I was equally keen that the works staff had as good a life as possible and I think you will agree that these wonderful pictures of the men and the women of the works which were taken by one of the staff with a pin-hole camera and found by Christopher, illustrate a workforce who enjoyed their work.  The pictures seem to have been taken at lunch time as you can see the men's sandwiches!   

                                                          

Men and Women of the Sugg Workforce surrounded by products
probably photographed with a pin-hole camera by a colleague about 1880.

Irish gas workers in Dublin in front of contemporary advertisements.

Picture provided by Noel William Sugg, another of my great grandsons - born in the same year as Christopher.  The Irish branch of the Sugg family started when my son, Jack, by my first wife decided to leave London for Dublin to take up a managerial post with the then Dublin Alliance and Consumer Gas Company where he worked until he retired.  Jack, whose full names were Walter John had 11 children several of whom became officers in the merchant navy and one, Walter Reginald was the advertising manager with the Dublin Evening Mail for nearly 40 years. 

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Business was hugely exciting, we were now truly famous for quality and attention to detail of all my products.  Typical of a third party comment came from Charles Dickens, Jr in his 'Dictionary of London'

Victorian London - Directories - Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 - "Illuminations"

GAS BURNERS.—The argand and fishtail burners, made by Sugg, of Westminster, and supplied by all respectable gasfitters, are unquestionably the best. It is often supposed that if a good fishtail or flat flame burner is employed, it burns equally well whatever shape of globe be used; this is not the case, the best form of globe is spherical, with a large opening, say 3 ¼  in. at the bottom, and 3 ½  in. at the top. Melon or pine shaped globes are bad, saucer shaped are still worse. For reception and bedrooms the opal Christiania shade or globe, with a No: 4 or 5 flat flame steatite burner, gives the best and most agreeable result with the least consumption of gas. The Bronner burner is economical, but must not he used in places exposed to much draught. For basement offices the No. 4 flat flame burner will answer every purpose. The constant complaint of consumers about the “bad gas” either means that the supply of gas is deficient or that it is improperly consumed: with deficient supply it must rest either with the gas company, whose service pipe may be stopped, or with the consumer, whose fittings may be choked up or too small: in the case of bad burners the remedy is an easy one. The comparison on the same chandelier of a No. 5 flat flame burner with 7 ½ .in. Christiania shade, will at once show whether the old burners and globes are or are not of the right kind. And when a good, burner and globe are obtained it is necessary to keep them free from dust, by using a soft duster for the former, and by washing the latter twice a week. It should always be remembered that what the consumer wants and pays for is so much light rather than so many cubic feet of gas. And while the quality of the gas supplied in London does not appreciably vary, it is only by using the best burners, fitted in the best and most intelligent manner that satisfactory results can be obtained. 

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879

It became clear that to continue at this level of enterprise the business would require more capital to expand.  We had connections all over the Empire and in the New World and, as sole proprietor I had to hold the whole thing together.  Of course I had good and faithful staff but it became clear that there was only one course and that I would have to give up the proprietorship of my Company and the expansion would have to be funded by selling shares and converting to a Limited Liability Company.  Obviously I had considerable misgivings about this step but I was getting no younger and was persuaded that this would ensure the future of the name and the resulting new Company to be known as "William Sugg & Co Ltd."

An agreement was drawn up and signed on 29th June 1881 between me, William Sugg on the one hand and James Combs Giffard, Henry Laurence Hammack, Napoleon Edward Byron Garey, Stonhewer Edward Illingworth and Robert Hesketh Jones as Trustees for a Company on the other hand, whereby it was agreed that:-

"The said William Sugg should sell, and the Company, or the said Trustees on its behalf, should purchase, the Letters patent , business, hereditaments and other property therein specified for the considerations and on the terms therein contained." 

The following day, 30th June 1881, the first 'Subscribers' - or shareholders as they would eventually become known drew up the following document:
(Transcribed from the original to simplify reading. Question marks indicate difficulty in transcription!)

We the several persons whose names and addresses are subscribed, are desirous of being formed into a Company in pursuance of this Memorandum of Association, and we respectively agree to take the number of Shares in the Capital of the Company set opposite our respective names.

                                                                                                        (Total 1312shares of £10 each)

Dated this 30^th day of June 1881
Witness to the above signatures
Ernest S Coulson, Solicitor
And clerk to Messrs Argles & Argles
Solicitors, 85, Gracechurch Street, London

So the Company was sold - or that is how it felt to me! Shares were registered in the Register of Members from June 30th 1881.

As you can see from the subscribers list I was the major shareholder and all that time spent building the business was suddenly translated into wealth! Of course this was not relevant to me - money was never the top of my priorities except in so far as it allowed me to invest in the development of my - the - Company.  My new position was Managing Director, a position I retained for a further 26 years!

(Share No.1 was never sold and still exists along with the share certificate printing plate which is beautifully engraved in copper.) C.S.

(The following details are copied from an undated document promoting the Company and could possibly be part of the due diligence at the time of the sale or flotation in 1881.  It could equally be from a later date but it is important as it describes the various 'shops' and the tasks and products they produce. CS)

Brief Particulars
OF THE WORK CARRIED ON
IN THE COMPANY’S PREMISES
AT WESTMINSTER

There is also a plan of one floor of The Works showing these ‘shops’ to be added here

DRAWING TO ADD

At the bottom of the drawing it states:
These premises held on 999 Years’ Lease.  Total area about 26,100 sq ft.
Ditto                           on Separate Lease.       Total area about 3000 sq ft.
Adjoining Premises in other occupation.
(I believe the adjoining premise to the left was a pub although without the exact date of this document it could still be houses!)

--------------------------------------------

SECTION HERE ON CRYSTAL PALACE

-------------------------------------------

THE ENLARGEMENT OF VINCENT WORKS.

This wonderful pen & ink drawing of the newly enlarged Vincent Works was, I was always told, drawn by Berthe Francine Sugg, one of William's daughters who was without doubt a talented artist. It is dated 1887 and carries the initials BW.  As Berthe was born in 1878 this would mean that she was only 9 years old when she made this drawing - a prodigy perhaps? The close-up below shows the detail of the front entrance with the postman arriving at the steps.

This photograph was taken on the roof of the newly re-built Vincent Works to mark the jubilee of the House in 1887.  There are no less than 11 members of the family in this picture with a number of senior staff, as follows:
Back Row from the left:
Walter Stanley Sugg-Wright, Unknown, Unknown, Edwin Henry Sugg-Wright, Mr Barrett? Mr Ives, F.W.Abbott, H.Gray, H.J.Waller.
Remainder seated and standing from the left:
John Walter Sugg, Miss May Alberta Sugg, Miss Marguerite Eugenie Sugg, Mrs William (Marie Jenny) Sugg, Miss Marie Rose Sugg, William Sugg, Miss Berthe Francine Sugg, Mrs D.W.Sugg, David William Sugg, Unknown, W.S.Brown.

SECTION ON W.T.S. WRITINGS


Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply, & Sanitary Improvement.
Dec 9^th 1884
Review of: “The Domestic Uses of Coal Gas, as applied to Lighting, Cooking and Heating, and Ventilation” by William T Sugg, Assoc Inst C.E., M.R.I., Hon Member of The Gas Institute.  London: Walter King 1884

Gas & its Uses 
“Nobody can deny that Mr Sugg is a walking encyclopaedia in relation to gas apparatus.  He has devoted the greater part of his life to the improvement of this class of commodities and if it should be said that this is his business, it may also be pointed out that there is a distinction to be drawn between a mere manufacturer of common articles for sale at market prices, and a maker who tries to impart additional perfection to everything that passes through his hands.”

BUCKINGHAM PALACE LIGHTING 1901

The Centenary Booklet of 1937 described the order to light the exterior of Buckingham Palace in 1901 as a 'Signal Honour' and pointed out that these lamps "may still be seen in the same place today although the actual burners have of course been modernised from time to time"

The Sugg Buckingham Palace Gas Lights are still in use as can be seen in this marvellous picture of the specialist maintenance provided by British Gas continuing in the 21st Century.

Not only are the original Sugg lamps still on the outside of the Palace and there are many post mounted fixtures in the gardens but this is one of several Sugg Globes in their original position in the inner courtyard.  This particular one is mounted under the entrance canopy where there are also a number of suspended fixtures as shown below.

        
This Sugg lantern is one of several that hang under the entrance canopy in the inner courtyard of Buckingham Palace

AND IN 1903 ON VENTILATING TORPEDO BOATS

The text below the diagram says:

1905 FIRE

-------------------------------------------------------

THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THOMAS SUGG

Towards the end of my life I contracted a debilitating illness which prevented me from taking a full part in life.  As you can see from the last letter that I wrote to the President of the Institution of Gas Engineers I was unable to walk any great distance for some considerable time.  It did not stop me attending the office, however, until Tuesday 19th February 1907 after which I did not return.

----------------------------

William Thomas Sugg died at home in his bed at 'Morningside' just 9 days later on the 28th February 1907 in his 75th year.

June 26th 1906 
Reprint of letter from W.T.S re his illness

“Dear Mr President, - I am very sorry that I have been prevented from coming to the meeting of the Institution of Gas Engineers, and that I shall not be able to come to the Conversazione.  Since the Gas Exhibition (where I got cold upon cold), I have had a long illness, and the weather has been so generally bad and changeable that I cannot get myself quite right.  The last cold weather gave me a bad cold, which I have not got rid of yet; and the weakness caused by this long illness has affected the nerves of the legs, so that I can only walk a very short distance.  I am obliged to give up the idea of going with you to Boulogne to serve as one of your interpreters  I am very sorry; but I wish you and all the members of the Institution a fine and happy day, and hope you will all enjoy yourselves.

I am dear Mr President, yours faithfully,

William Sugg

 Obituaries

Born in Westminster – he always referred to with gratification; and his close connection with the ancient city was unbroken, for at the time of his death he was a Churchwarden of St.John’s.

His father established in 1838 a gas meter and fittings business in Marsham Street, and under him as an apprentice, and in the works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, under the late Mr Thomas Livesey, he acquired a knowledge of the manufacture of gas and the construction of the appliances used in its distribution.

In 1858 he joined his father, and on the death of the latter in 1862 acquired the business.

He had previously turned his attention to the improvement of gas burners; and had made the first argand steatite-top burner.

 He also made in1858 the first burner which might be considered as the standard burner used for the testing of gas in England.

1862 in conjunction with Dr Letheby an improved form of this burner, which became known as the Sugg-Letheby standard burner for 14 candle gas.

On Sept 5 1866 he took out what appears to have been his first patent for “an apparatus for regulating the supply of gas”.

In 1868 another patent was obtained for a similar purpose; and in the following year, one for “improvements in gas burners”.

Lots more!!

Ending__

Mr Sugg was twice married, and he leaves a widow and several sons and daughters.  The funeral takes place at two o’clock today, at Streatham Cemetery, Garratt Lane, Tooting; the internment being preceded by a service at the church of the Ascension, Malwood Road, Balham, at one o’clock