HF and IDJ: Up until 1926 steam power was used to drive the Peak Tram. In that year an electricity-powered haulage gear Ward Leonard system was installed incorporated within the double reversible funicular railway. Details of this system are provided below under the basic concept first link. I don’t fully understand this and wonder if anyone can provide an even simpler […]
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Double click to magnify twice. Thanks to Carles Brasó Broggi for this image of South Sea Textile Mills which comes from an undated Annual Report from the 1960s. The text reads “Covering an area of about 18 acres, the premises of The South Sea Textiles Mills are situated in the New Territories of the Kowloon Peninsula, about 9½ miles from the island […]
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HF: This article has been extracted from Twentieth Century Impressions…All images are attached to the article. I cannot find any information about the “Imperia del Mundo” Manila cigars mentioned in the article or the “special brand known as El Oriente”. “It was in 1868 that Mr. Kruse, a shrewd man of business, laid the foundation of the extensive import trade […]
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HF: “This industry [porcelain decoration] is quite important in Ping Chau, and there are five such factories there. The porcelain comes from Japan, and occasionally from Kiangsi. When the goods arrive, there are no designs on them, and the pieces are unpacked so that designs are painted on them by hand and later taken to the clints to seal them […]
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Shiu Wing Steel Limited was briefly mentioned in Newsletter 8 as the only steel rolling mill currently in Hong Kong and located at Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun. Before relocating to its present position the company was in Junk Bay, present day Tseung Kwan O, from 1958 to 1991. IDJ provides interesting information about the Shiu Wing Steel Company’s time in Junk Bay. […]
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HF: The “Two Girls” of Kwong Sang Hong Limited, founded in 1898 [?] by Mr. Fon Fook Tien, was the first cosmetics brand in Hong Kong. The brand started promoting its products using printed materials as early as the 1920s. Kwan Wai-nung, the renowned “Master of Calendar Posters”, was commissioned to draw calendar posters which were well received by the customers […]
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This is an advertisement of Continental Rubber Factory Ltd. published in the Pictorial Record of the 7th Exhibition of Chinese Products, promoting the products of the company and the its exhibition booth in the venue. This factory was established in 1938, at Winslow Street, Hung Hom and a sale office on Des Voeux Road. The factory produced rubber shoes, sores, […]
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Hugh Farmer: The article, Needle Hill Tungsten Mine, says that, “The deposit was discovered in 1935 by a civil engineer, Mr G Hull, who was working on the construction of the Jubilee Reservoir (now known as Shing Mun)…Hull obtained a mining licence in the same year but the lease was subsequently transferred to Marsman Hong Kong China Ltd. Marsman undertook prospecting […]
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HF: The manufacturing of rubber products was one of Hong Kong’s six leading industries in the late 1950s. And part of that industry was the production of rubber footware. Even in the early 1950s there were over 60 factories producing such items employing over 8,000 people. This initial article brings together a few items we have gathered about the industry in […]
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Mike T: According to “The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation” by Philip Snow, South China Iron Works was owned by the Chinese Nationalist government (ie. Sun Yat-sen’s anti-communist Kuomintang) as of the 1940s. [This information provided by Mike was originally a comment he made below our article, The South China Iron Works – post WW2 producer of […]
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