1883. At York he considered whether the ‘monstrous waste’ of the steam-engine might not be avoided by electrical methods of obtaining power. In 1863 he had pointed out that ‘whether we use heat or electricity as the motive power, we must equally depend upon chemical affinity as the source of supply. . . . But where are we to obtain materials so economical for this purpose as the coal we derive from the earth and the oxygen we obtain from the air?’ But in 1883 the advance of electrical science suggests to him that a thermo-electric engine might ‘not only be used as an auxiliary, but in complete substitution for the steam-engine,’ because it might be used to utilise ‘the direct heating action of the sun’s rays.’ He calculated that ‘the solar heat, operating upon an area of one acre in the tropics, would, if fully utilised, exert the amazing power of 4,000 horses acting for nearly nine hours every day.’ He foresaw that, ‘whenever the time comes for utilising the power of great waterfalls, the transmission of power by electricity will become a system of vast importance’—a prophecy which has been fulfilled in a notable manner in subsequent contrivances for the utilisation of natural sources of energy at Geneva, Niagara, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile the great Elswick works were rapidly growing alike in the engineering and ordnance branches. To these departments a third—that of shipbuilding—was finally added. In 1868 the Elswick firm began to build ships in the Walker yard of Messrs. Mitchell & Swan.
From a very early date Armstrong had devoted much attention to problems in connection with the mounting and working of guns on ships, and kindred matters of design. He was a steadfast believer in guns as against armour. He had himself worked at the improvement of armour plating. He had produced steel of high tensile strength and great toughness by tempering it in an oil bath. For some years before the introduction of high explosives he had taken special interest in the design and construction of the cruiser type, which was indeed to a considerable extent originated by him. The Elswick firm built several vessels of this class at the Walker yard, leading up to the Esmeralda, constructed for Chili in 1882, which may be described as the first modern protected cruiser. Armstrong strongly advocated the construction of a large number of vessels of this class of moderate size. He believed that they would be most effective protectors of commerce, and that several acting together might even be more than a match for an ironclad. He enumerated their chief features as including ‘great speed and nimbleness of movement combined with great offensive power . . . little or no side armour, but otherwise constructed to minimise the effects of projectiles.’ On the introduction of high explosives Armstrong modified his views to the extent of recommending that even cruisers should be protected by side armour.
In 1882, the shipbuilding firm of Messrs. Mitchell & Swan joined forces with Armstrong’s company, and the united firms became Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell, & Co., Limited. In 1883 a new ship-yard was established at Elswick, where, under the management of Mr. White, now Sir William White, chief constructor to the admiralty, and subsequently of Mr. P. Watts, a fleet of splendid warships was built. The development of the ordnance department of the great concern went on at the same time without interruption. In 1885 a branch factory was opened at Pozzuoli on the bay of Naples to make guns for the Italian government. In 1897 Sir Joseph Whitworth’s works at Openshaw, near Manchester, for the manufacture of the Whitworth guns, were incorporated, and the title of the combined concerns was changed to Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, & Company. Limited [see Whitworth, Sir Joseph]. At the date of Armstrong’s death in 1900, the company own, at Elswick alone, two hundred and thirty acres, and ‘a recent pay-sheet shows 36,802l. paid in a single week’ to twenty-five thousand and twenty-eight workmen (N. C. Mag. November 1900). Born of Armstrong’s genius, the Elswick works and their offshoots were almost to the end of his life largely indebted to his suggestions. But the enormous growth of the enterprise was perhaps chiefly due to his judicious selection of able colleagues, and to the wise liberality by which he stimulated and encouraged them to do their best. More modern developments were mainly initiated by his partner, Sir Andrew Noble.
Armstrong’s varied activities brought him great wealth, which he always put to enlightened uses. In 1863 he purchased some land on the east of Rothbury, and among the beetling crags of a rugged chine he built a stately home, ‘Cragside.’ He laid out roads upon its rocky slopes, he trained streams and dug out lakes. He sowed flowers, planted rare shrubs, and covered the ground with millions of noble trees, till the bleak hillside was transformed into a magnificent park, and the barren wilderness
