Discussion: Comparing British and German industries 1900-1940
- Thread starter Thomas1195
- Start date
Faeelin
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Oh yea? Well how does the British Merchant Marine compare to the German, Smarty pants?
Well they didn't have any merchant submarines so they must be 200% worse.....
Thomas1195
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And maybe that Vickers factory used labour-intensive methods rather than using extensive mechanization approach.
Thomas1195
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Dont you realize that a nation wide railroad upgrade program during the interwar period could help raise British steel and machine producing capacity? Earlier rearmament was far from the only way. Note that Britain did not adopted flat-bottomed rails as their main standard until 1950s, while other countries in US or Continentail Europe, well, had used them since the late 19th century. This is also an evidence of Britain's reluctance or slowness in investing in new technology.
Not to mention some other things could be done such as large-scale motorway construction or improvements (similar to Autobahn in Germany), systemic nation wide telephone development, as well as accelerating the progress of CEB's electrification works.
Thomas1195
Banned
Well, one of the reason for British decline compared to Germany was the fact that it stuck with the lunatic Gladstonian economic policies (well, ''lets cut government spending and intervention as much as possible'', like Snowden had done in the Great Depression) for too long, even when bold state intervention was needed to boost development.
Isn't that just a larger collection of similar sized sheds?
What's the benefit of putting them all together v splitting them up? Is vertical integration of the supply chain better than more competition?
Shed compared to Krupp
firstly, i posted 1 picture of 1 of the furnace sheds. feel free to look for other pictures of Consett Iron/Steel works showing more of the site
for a little town of less than 30k people the works were damn big
it goes to show just what our little 'cottage' industry was capable of
oh and remind me, who lost both world wars again??
I may be wrong but part of the reason could be that Britain built many more steam engines in the inter-war period, while German railways started to move onto diesels. The inter-war period was also a high point for British locomotive design, including freight locomotives, which meant that Britain had a lot at the start of the war. Also, British express locomotives such as the A3s, A4s, and Coronation class were often used to haul freight trains and were apperantly not too shabby at it either.
teg
Thomas1195
Banned
Economies of scale I repeated. Costs would reduce when production is concentrated and operate on a larger scale.
Well, you know, Britain was always slow in adopting new tech like diesel engines.
Krupp Essen alone in 1887 had 20000 workers. Total Krupp firm employed 70000 in the same year.
I'm not sure you get it - or are deliberately not getting it
Krupp Essen in 1887 had 20000 workers, Consett iron Company had 6000 workers in 1892
However the population of Consett at the time was roughly 30000, what was the population of Essen at the time (Essen current pop 589000, Consett current pop 28000) - i would wager somewhere in the region of 150k-200k
the point people are trying to make to you is that while the UK did'nt have massive industrial complexes with multiple industries all packed into a dense cluster, we had arguably the most dense transport system in the world and therefore did'nt need to jam pack everything in
In Consett's case, coal would come in via Newcastle (and later home coal from the substantial mines in County Durham), the iron ore was abundant in the area, then steel would either go back the way it came to Newcastle for the shipyards (or for export), or it would take a right turn and end up on Teeside
and i think the point that one small town in the middle of nowhere in the NE employed almost as many people as Krupp Essen did %wise at the same time means that the englander is not just some hick who spent all his days pottering around in his tiny shed at the bottom of the garden
I realised I just made a terrible error, the Vickers Machine Gun Factory at Crayford was the small one.
The Vickers Factory at Erith employed over 14,500 workers, at the same time Vickers Limited also had multiple shipyards, Aircraft Plants, Steel works and factories producing everything from Helmets to 18 Inch Artillery.
The largest single employer in British Industrial History was Royal Ordnance Factories in WWII with some 311,932 workers as of March 1942.
With 40,000 at just one site ROF Bridgend, chosen deliberately for its remoteness, hence difficulty to bomb, yet with excellent transportation and logistics. Right next to the main rail-line, with easy access to Best Welsh Anthracite for power ... no need for an electrical grid, and the Port Talbot Steelworks.
A 900 Acre (3.6 sq. km) site with over 100 buildings
The reason for the great spacing and dispersal of buildings was simple. It was a Munitions Filling Factory, and although there was never a single accident it was always a serious concern. Interestingly it was a temporary installation, it opened at the start of WW2 and closed at the end.
Also not the largest single Munitions plant in British history, that would be the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich in WW1. 80,000 workers on a 1,285 Acre (5.2 sq. km) site. Post war it was scaled back and during WW2 production was moved to a larger number of, slightly, smaller factories that weren't being bombed!
The Vickers Factory at Erith employed over 14,500 workers, at the same time Vickers Limited also had multiple shipyards, Aircraft Plants, Steel works and factories producing everything from Helmets to 18 Inch Artillery.
The largest single employer in British Industrial History was Royal Ordnance Factories in WWII with some 311,932 workers as of March 1942.
With 40,000 at just one site ROF Bridgend, chosen deliberately for its remoteness, hence difficulty to bomb, yet with excellent transportation and logistics. Right next to the main rail-line, with easy access to Best Welsh Anthracite for power ... no need for an electrical grid, and the Port Talbot Steelworks.
A 900 Acre (3.6 sq. km) site with over 100 buildings
The reason for the great spacing and dispersal of buildings was simple. It was a Munitions Filling Factory, and although there was never a single accident it was always a serious concern. Interestingly it was a temporary installation, it opened at the start of WW2 and closed at the end.
Also not the largest single Munitions plant in British history, that would be the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich in WW1. 80,000 workers on a 1,285 Acre (5.2 sq. km) site. Post war it was scaled back and during WW2 production was moved to a larger number of, slightly, smaller factories that weren't being bombed!
all we hear about is steel.....so can I ask just how many trucks Germany made???you know those things that make an army mobile....o sorry that particular army had a thing for horsies in both world wars........kinda backwards one would think.......but it worked.....oops no it didn t my bad.......hmmmmmm