HF with thanks to IDJ for the two adverts. The cable used in the Aerial Ropeway constructed to link Takoo Sugar Refinery and its Sanitarium was made by Bullivant & Co. which began as a UK company. William Munton Bullivant was an early innovator in the stranded wire cordage field, invented in the mid-19th century by German mining engineers in the […]
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HF: Jan Hendrik Marsman, was born in 1892 in the Netherlands and died in 1956, I think in the Philippines. He was known as Hank to his friends. He started his working life as an engineer and later developed extensive business interests in the Philippines. Marsman is of interest to us because he became involved, through his company Marsman Hong […]
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IDJ writes – This excerpt comes from a very useful book published by the Hong Kong government’s Department of Commerce and Industry dated 1955. It is a typical 180 page government handout to prospective overseas buyers outlining where Hong Kong is in the world and what the colony can sell or make for you. Essentially a commercial buyer’s guide […]
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Kader Industrial Company Limited was founded by Mr. Ting Hsiung-chao in 1948. He had previously established the Wei Ming Flashlight and Battery Works and the Pau Chiu Light Bulb Factory, both successful businesses in Shanghai before 1949. Mr. H.C. Ting believed that success is built upon diligence and a dictum that nothing short of perfection was acceptable. Being an unusual […]
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Hugh Farmer: Following our recent articles about the Lok On Pai ‘desalting’ plant I visited the site on 4th December 2014 to see what remains. We know from recent aerial photographs and maps that the main building exists extending west to east, with one main arm at right angles to this running south towards the sea. Here’s what the site […]
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Preece, Cardew and Rider were the consulting engineers for a proposed extension of Hok Un power station, Hung Hom in the 1930s. “In 1934 a committee consisting of directors and senior staff was formed to deal with the extensions proposed. It met regularly for the next several years and made many important decisions based quite often on the advice of […]
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The following article about Augustine Heard and Company was written by Gillian Bickley, Peter E Hamilton and George Cautherley and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright over this material from 2012. This article incorporates one […]
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IDJ and HF: The origin of Schmidt & Co., (Hong Kong) Limited can be dated back to 110 years ago when Paul Schmidt founded the Schmidt Group of Companies in Tokyo under the name of Schmidt Shoten in 1896. The Group opened its first office in Beijing, China in 1911. In the following years, additional branches were established in major […]
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HF: I would be very interested if anyone could tell me some of the companies that occupied space in Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate, or about other factory estates in Hong Kong. Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate was a factory estate in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, owned and managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It comprised up […]
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HF: John Laird Wright worked for MacDonald and Company’s shipyard in Hong Kong from 1907 to 1908. He then worked for Green Island Cement Company in Macau which he left in 1910. This obituary comes from an Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituary in 1934: John Laird Wright was for seventeen years a member of the Anglo- Persian Oil Company’s staff in various […]
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