Hi, my name is Louise, and I am currently doing my year 12 Work Experience with the Royal Gunpowder Mills, due to my fascination with history and interest in the scientific aspects as well, evidenced in my A-level choices of Biology, Chemistry, and History. I have fond memories of exploring and visiting here when I was younger with my grandparents where I learned more about the local history and how instrumental the Royal Gunpowder Mills were to the scientific development and production of nitroglycerin and cordite. I chose the Royal Gunpowder Mills for my work experience to develop these interests and gain more behind the scenes knowledge.

 As part of this experience, I was allowed to explore the Royal Gunpowder Mills artefact store, which has many objects with an interesting and complex history behind each one of them. Upon further excavation of the store, I found a vintage Buck and Hickman Speed Indicator, boxed, and shelved in exceptional condition, behind a large model of an atoms molecular structure, and have chosen to write an academic piece on its history, purpose, and relevance to the Gunpowder Mills.

A Buck & Hickman tachometer-

-Pictured below- the Buck & Hickman tachometer found in the archive.

An introduction to tachometers- 

To begin with, tachometer typically refers to the revolutions per minute (RPM) of a shaft or disk, for example it has uses in motors or other machinery. Further, it almost appears clock-like with its display, which allows for easy direct readings. Moreover, more modernised versions of tachometers are found in cars, measuring the RPM on the dashboard therefore representing the engine speed using a needle and a gauge, which is used crucially in everyday life when driving on the roads, to ensure that you are not breaking the legal speed limit.

The style of this specific speed indicator is of an analogue tachometer, which is easily recognisable as a needle and a dial interface, so they have no storage for any data readings and cannot calculate an average or deviation as it primarily measures a constant physical variable without digital technology.

This design and purpose of revolution counters were most used approximately 150 years ago, measuring rotational speed for various machinery and equipment. Inferences can be made that as it was found in the depths of the Royal Gunpowder Mills’ storage archive, that it was potentially used in some of the old machinery that operated here when it was a functional industrial site, perhaps used in conveyor systems, machine tools, automative assembly lines or the automotive industry.  

The history of Buck & Hickman-

The manufacturer Buck & Hickman, has a deep history rooted back under the original name of the company, Buck & Co, which was founded originally by Matthew Buck in 1830 near Waterloo, before he died, and his daughter married John Roe Hickman and named the family business Buck & Co. This legacy continued with Ann's sons’ acquisition of the business, where he apprenticed under his uncle and the business evolved into Buck & Hickman in 1859, choosing to specialise in tool manufacturing. Expansion continued and by the 1940s they had opened branches in Alperton and Birmingham, and this only continued to develop. In the twenty first century (2017), Buck and Hickman joined forces with Brammer, who then cofounded RUBIX with the IPH group, where they continue to manufacture  and distribute industrial products and services. 

The Buck & Hickman tachometer in the Royal Gunpowder Mills artefact store, pictured above, was initially put up for sale in approximately the 1980s or early 1990s. It has an RPM range of around 100-4000 and features an enticing inscription on the case “See that adapter is on correct range”, which is an ironic statement considering it should be common sense, equated to the saying “may contain nuts” on an almond packet. See image below. It shares many of its visible features with the Elliott line of tachometers produced in mass quantities after 1917, for implementation into naval ships.

-An image of the side of a Buck & Hickman tachometer.

Scientists’ comments-

As part of my work experience at the Royal Gunpowder Mills and the writing of this piece, a draft was emailed to some of the scientists that used to work here, asking if they had any insights or comments. I was then lucky enough to speak to two scientists in person, Len and Martin who gave some excellent and informative feedback.

Martin had some more ideas around what the tachometer would have been used for. He suggested that it may have been more recently used than what my research concluded. He thought perhaps it was an instrument in the factory production of cordite or other organic material and was used to ensure that the machinery’s motor did not exceed a certain RPM measurement. 

Len was kind enough to show me the Royal Gunpowder Mills’ Rocket Vault display, where a modern version of a tachometer which is visible within a rocket. He then explained the purpose behind the evolution of design, as tachometers now are a very small black box within a motor or projectile system, highlighted by the purple arrows within the below images. There is also the evolution from an analogue tachometer, such as the Buck & Hickman, to a digital one with no face. A digital tachometer feeds the data back to a large data recorder, something that Buck and Hickman tachometers could not do, and thus demonstrates the development of modern technology.

-An image of a modern tachometer in the Rocket Vault in the Royal Gunpowder Mills, where the tachometer is represented by the purple arrows.