Asquith Hydraulic Jigger

Hydraulic jigger made by Asquith, Manchester, 1895.

In the 1880s Manchester was booming. Across the city-centre, warehouses stored, packed and shipped all manner of goods. Offloading these cargos with cranes and hoisting goods around warehouses needed power. Long before electricity supplies, much of this power was supplied by small steam or gas engines, either directly or pumping water to power hydraulic machines. But running your own engine to power a hoist was inconvenient. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to get power from a tap?

In 1891 an Act of Parliament allowed Manchester Corporation to build a hydraulic power network. Thick iron pipes were laid beneath the streets and a pumping station built at Gloucester Street. In February 1894, the hydraulic power was switched on.

Many warehouses had hydraulic cranes or jiggers like this one fitted to the outside walls – a hydraulic ram operated through a system of chains and pulleys to provide a powerful lifting force with minimal movement of the machine. By 1930 over a thousand hoists, jiggers and cranes for lifting goods were connected to the hydraulic power network.