Ralph Hart Tweddell and the Portable Hydraulic Rivetter

The introduction of hydraulics to the company in 1871

D7338/15/5/2 Ralph Hart Tweddell (1843-1895)
Gloucestershire Archives
An early portable hydraulic rivetter
D5926, Gloucestershire Archives

In 1871, Fielding & Platt were approached by a brilliant engineer named Ralph Hart Tweddell (1843–1895).  Tweddell had been a schoolboy at Cheltenham College and it is said that, whilst he was there, he went with a rowing party to the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal and had toured the Atlas Works.

Tweddell had invented a portable hydraulic rivetter, a machine which used hydraulic pressure to join together metal parts with rivets (permanent mechanical fasteners).  Until then only stationary rivetters, such as the massive Vulcan rivetter, had been used in engineering.

Fielding & Platt realised the possibilities of Tweddell’s invention and decided to use their manufacturing expertise to produce it.  Fielding & Platt became the co-patentees and sole manufacturers of the “Fielding Portable Hydraulic Rivetter” incorporating the Tweddell system.

For further information and to read the papers of Ralph Hart Tweddell, please click on this link.

If you have any comments, please share them with us by clicking on the words at the bottom of the page Add a comment about this page.

Comments about this page

  • This is a copy of a message from Robert Thompson, posted recently on the website ‘Messages’ section.

    “Ralph Tweddell was my great-grandfather.  I have a bound collection of his inventions, assembled by his father, with detailed drawings, talks to societies, etc.  Are there any surviving examples of his machines or the Tweddell system? These could be either in Gloucester or in the North-East of England.  Robert Thompson”.

    By John Bancroft (17/03/2016)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.