Hardware

A truly Australian group and a pioneer in the manufacture and design of electrical fittings for the electrical contracting industry is the sixty-five-year-old Gerard Industries Pty. Ltd., of South Australia. Noting the total importation of these devices in the early 1920s, the founder, A. E. Gerard set about to design a suite of fittings which would overcome the widely varying tolerances shown by imported items and overcome the thermal expansion/contraction problem in Australia. The result was a novel design of fittings developed from sheet metal.

The range of fittings grew through the twenties and with the arrival of compression moulded bakelite plastics, a whole new generation of fittings was developed in the early thirties. These products were not only novel to Australia but in the world. The range at this period encompassed more than 3500 different items for the contracting industry.

Strong emphasis has always been placed on the style of the large range of switches and power points, as for example with the round nylon base miniature architrave switch, which was a 'first' in the industry. The safety of power switches for domestic and industrial uses was greatly enhanced by the design and development of a novel earth leakage protection circuit inbuilt into the switch itself in 1981. A further innovative Australian first came with the development of consumer switchboards to comply with Australian standards whilst offering labour saving advantages and ease of maintenance. Offshore manufacturing facilities have been established in Malaysia and in the United Kingdom indicating that the novelty and utility of the range of products are acceptable on a world basis.

Mechanical components

Clyde Industries Limited had its origins about 1855 with the construction of William Hudson's joinery shop in Hudson Street, Redfern. Hudson, described as a 'skilled mechanic' according to the ship's registrar, had brought his family from England to Sydney via New Zealand, seeking work as a cabinet maker in 1843. His sons were trained to follow him in business.

A later shop that opened at Granville gradually extended into rolling stock carriage work which was strongly influenced by the American style of the period. Later rolling stock of all types was manufactured, together with the manufacture of agricultural machinery, which was the driving demand of many engineering activities in Australia at this time. Amongst these products was the 'Clyde Windmill' which earned for it the description, 'designed on current American principles it can take over the work of horses and steam engines and is Australian made for Australian needs'. In later years, an innovative design yielded a pasture development seed drill which plants the seed with minimum damage to the existing grasses, and allows the planting of seed into wheat stubble to provide a second crop in the minimum of time.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering