Jennifer Field Lang: Aerial Ropeway circa 1911 at the gap on Mount Parker looking down the valley towards the Taikoo Sugar Refinery and Aldrich Bay (Source: Historic Photographs of China, G. Warren Swire Collection, University of Bristol, Image # 20390). In 1891, a 2.3-kilometer long aerial ropeway was constructed from a location near the Taikoo Sugar Refinery (approximately located at […]
» Read more
HF: Yates and Thom, (formerly W and J Yates), 9 Canal Ironworks, Blackburn, UK, were makers of engines for mills, collieries and waterworks. And the original engine for the Peak Tram which was opened for public service on 28 May 1888. Construction had begun іn September 1885. Initially a static steam engine was used to power the haulage cable “built […]
» Read more
York Lo: Wall of Fame: profiles of players in the HK wallpaper industry – Koo Sun Kee, Coda, Oriental, Sunray and Waly Earlier on the website, several articles were written about paint manufacturers. Another big business which emerged out of the need to cover the walls in the post-War housing boom in HK is wallpaper, which began to gain popularity […]
» Read more
HF: This article was updated on 14th August 2019 with information and cigarette packet images sent by Dheeraj Khiytani, see below. Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company was founded in 1904. At least in Hong Kong. This undated postcard, sent by IDJ, would appear to show its Hong Kong factory shortly after. I am presuming the white building on the right is not […]
» Read more
Dheeraj Khiytani was recently in touch. He writes: I’m a native of Hong Kong, born and bred with an interest in tobacciana. Specifically I have been collecting early US or English cigarette packs for a number of years. A dealer of mine recently offered me a pristine catalogue of coloured lithographs of cigar products manufactured by the Orient Tobacco Company, Hong Kong. […]
» Read more
HF: Any further information about this company or others involved in producing alcohol in HK, especially Chinese ones, would be welcomed. (see links below) While walking down Clear Water Bay Road on 21st Feb 2015 I glanced down a rather rough side road, saw a small, industrial looking building and decided to investigate. At the start of the road was a […]
» Read more
Amelia Allsop, Manager – Collections and Research at the Hong Kong Heritage Project, has sent A Century of Light – CLP Centenary Souvenir Book linked below covering the period 1901-2001. Amelia was kindly responding to an enquiry as to whether the Project has any information about Tai O Power Company which had been known as Tai O Union Electric Company. […]
» Read more
York Lo has found this extract from the Carl Smith book linked below. One of the early business enterprises in which Tong Mow-chee and his brother, Tong King-sing, were interested was the first sugar refinery built in Hong Kong. The sugar company grew out of a business parnership between Tong King-sing, William McGregor Smith and a Mr Dahlbeck. When the […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent this account, published in 1908, of Messrs. F Blackhead & Co.’s Soap and Soda Factory which was established in Shau Kei Wan around 1896. As IDJ points out the article is mistaken in suggesting that the distance between the city of Victoria (essentially Central) and Shau Kei Wan is two miles – it is at least seven […]
» Read more
HF: The following article has been extracted from the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. The article about George Ernest Marden and John Louis Marden was written by Robert Nield 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 […]
» Read more