The Sirocco Works (Davidsons)

Reference code: HOYFM.ACL2024.15
Level of description: Fonds
Title: The Sirocco Works (Davidsons)
Scope and content: Sirocco Works was an engineering business founded in Belfast in 1881 by Samuel Davidson. It sold specialised convection stoves that blasted hot air across a room; one of Davidson's planter colleagues remarked that it reminded them of the 'Sirocco winds' in the Mediterranean, and so he named the product and company accordingly. It’s likely Mervyn Kidd, a member of the Royal Navy on the HMS Caroline, was involved in this company to some degree based on the collection's labelling, history, and the fact that Kidd studied engineering, as evidenced by his notebook. Alternatively, the Navy may have used Davidson's products, for which Kidd took possession of their manuals, etc. Contents: Kidd's exercise book supplied by the British Naval and Military school, dated 1958, containing notes, diagrams and definitions on engines and heat convection; Napier Deltic diesel engine manual (1963); various pages on engineering subjects; a 'Sunny Memories' picture book containing black and white photographs of experiences on the HMS Caroline, MFA Carrigan Head, and other vessels, containing pictures of crewmembers, friends, ships, landscapes (undated), multiple photographs of Lieutenant Sloan one dated 1919; Engineering Manual for His Majesty's Fleet, annotated and trimmed on various pages (1939); The Sirocco Story; various Harland and Wolff magazines; various motor ship and engineering magazines; Landing Craft Technical Memoranda (1944); two car care manuals; a ship plan; speculative reflections on engineering and the drawing office by C.C. Pounder, director of Harland and Wolff Ltd. (1955); instructions on steamship surveying, volume I (1928); the Davidson Air Preheater Manual; Instructions for the erection and use of Sirocco stoves (1889); The Sirocco record of 1966; two presidential address booklets at the Belfast Association of Engineers (1965–66); Harland and Wolff stamped Turbine Engineering Handbook (1958); two diesel instruction books; Water under the Bridge (1989); Heavy Oil Engines of Akroyd Type informational book (1931); paper on inspecting pistons and cylinders with photos, figures, and diagrams by a Danish author in 1972; Stal-laval instruction book.