Many consider the Wright Brothers’ first flight of the Kitty Hawk in 1903 to be the starting point of the modern aviation industry. William Rowland started out as an ironmonger in 1830.
Today, William Rowland Limited is a major supplier of metals to foundries, producing castings for aerospace application and land based turbines.
The UK Automotive industry dates back to 1885 when Gottlieb Daimler patented a design for an internal combustion engine. William Rowland became an iron and steel merchant in 1871, just before the demand for vehicles powered by this type of engine escalated. The car and metals supply industry have both been through significant change since then.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815 just five years before William Rowland was born. The defence industry has come a long way since then and today’s defence equipment requires a high combination of both design and engineering.
In 1867 civil engineer John Roebling started design work on the Brooklyn Bridge, New York. Roebling like William Rowland was initially the owner of a wire dealing company. Deviating from tradition, Roebling introduced the use of steel, which he called "the metal of the future”, for the four cables. In 1871 forward thinking William Rowland became an iron and steel merchant foreseeing that metal would play a major role in the future of construction.
Although the first iron ship was classed with Lloyds register in 1837 it was not until about 1860 that steel was first used in ship building. In 1865, just some five years before William Rowland became an iron and steel merchant, a second industrial revolution occurred, which included the invention of useable steel products for steam ships.
In 1871 just as William Rowland was expanding into the wire dealing business, Harry Brearley, credited with the discovery of stainless steel, was born in Sheffield. This metal, discovered by Brearley in 1913, forms the core of the food processing sector today. The inert and non-toxic nature of stainless steel allied to its corrosion resistant properties makes it the ideal material for the production of all food processing equipment.
Formed in the age of gas lamps and oil stoves, William Rowland Limited now sources and supplies metals to the petrochemical sector, which is fundamentally the preserve of the oil and gas industry.
