Kosmoid was an early 20th-century group of Scottish metallurgical operations, represented by "Kosmoid Ltd." and two associated companies. It operated briefly (1904–1906), but was promoted as a potential major employer at Dumbuck, near Dumbarton, Scotland. The group collapsed following the abrupt departure of its founder, Dr. Alexander Shiels, in 1906. One subsidiary, Kosmoid Tubes Ltd., established a successful manufacturing operation on the Dumbuck site, which was subsequently acquired and operated by the firm Babcock & Wilcox until 1997. A small number of "Kosmoid Time Recorders" – workmen's clocking-in clocks – were manufactured in two versions, the second by a different company "Rusmoid" in the 1920s; both versions occasionally appear on the antiques market. The general story of Kosmoid's attempted manufacture of gold and other metals was later recounted in lightly fictionalised form in the 1911 novel The Gold Makers, written by an investor who had lost money in the venture.
History The Kosmoid Company portfolio, comprising Kosmoid Ltd., Kosmoid Locks Ltd., and Kosmoid Tubes Ltd., was founded by Dr. Alexander Shiels, a medical doctor and self-taught engineer and inventor based in Glasgow and London. By the end of 1903, Shiels had filed 26 patents covering a wide range of engineering interests, from automatic temperature regulation in closed rooms and improvements in pneumatic tyres to developments in automatic milking machines.Google Patents: Inventor: Alexander Shiels In 1904, Shiels acquired the use of a 53-acre site on the Dumbuck estate near Dumbarton, Scotland, for his new "Kosmoid" projects. In its brief life, Kosmoid promised employment to around 6,000 workers, who were to be housed in a planned "garden suburb" on the slopes of Dumbuck Hill. The exact aims of the main company, Kosmoid Ltd., were never clearly defined. A prospectus cited in Private Legislation (Scotland) Procedure, 1906 described the work as follows: The Kosmoids, Limited, as engineering works, foundries, rolling mills and tube mills, copper smelters and refiners, makers of high conductivity brass bars, accumulator segments, copper strip, copper wire, copper sheets, copper cables, copper tubes, phosphor bronze, and cuferal metals.Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 92During negotiations over potential water supplies from Dumbarton, it was reported that Kosmoid had "taken over the whole of the Dumbuck estate" and intended to cover it with works and dwelling-houses. They also planned to construct 6,000 cottages within six or seven years, implying a population of at least 30,000 workers to be housed. It was estimated that Kosmoid would require one million gallons of water per day within two years and a further three million gallons once the works and population were fully established. At that time (May 1906), Kosmoid was understood to employ about 80 people.Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 120
At a later meeting with the Waterworks Committee the same month, according to a conversation with Dr Shiels, "On the low-lying part [of the Dumbuck estate] he spoke of a church, a school, and other such erections ... He spoke about terracing the slopes of Dumbuck [Hill] and building cottages all over the estate ... every man was to have his own house and his own garden."Private legislation (Scotland) procedure, 1906, p. 126
Kosmoid Locks Ltd. Kosmoid Locks was registered in January 1904 following an agreement between Shiels and John Smalley Campbell, an American physician and dentist then resident in London. Campbell, like Shiels, was an occasional inventor, with over 20 patents registered at the U.S. Patent office,Google Patents: Inventor: John smalley campbell ranging from dentistry to locks. He is also credited with patenting the first horizontal drilling technique using a flexible shaft, originally developed for dentistry but later regarded as a precursor of modern oil and gas drilling methods. It is presumed that Kosmoid Locks Ltd. intended to manufacture locks based on Campbell's patents, but no further details of its operations appear to be available. Following the abrupt disappearance of Shiels in September 1906, Kosmoid Locks Ltd. was wound up by the summer of 1907.Harvie, 1986, p. 28
Kosmoid Tubes Ltd. Kosmoid Tubes Ltd. was the only Kosmoid company to achieve lasting commercial success. Its tube works involved the construction of substantial plants and buildings that reportedly used novel machinery. It is said to be based on an American patent, which drew the tubes from solid ingots.Glasgow Herald, January 1912, quoted in Harvie, 1986, p. 29. The company's description in the Post-Office annual Glasgow directory, 1905-1906 reads: "manufacturers of weldless hot and cold drawn tubes of iron, steel, copper brass, and cuferal metal; hollow shafting, hollow railway axles, &c".Post-Office annual Glasgow directory > 1905-1906, p. 411 After the departure of Shiels and the official winding up of the operation in 1910, its assets were purchased by the newly formed Dumbarton Weldless Tube Company Ltd., controlled by James Denny and Daniel Jackson, both initial shareholders in Kosmoid Tubes. The board also included representatives of the U.S.-headquartered engineering firm Babcock & Wilcox, which acquired full ownership of the works in 1915 and continued operation on the same site until its closure in 1997.Anonymous: "Valemen and Women at Babcock and Wilcox" The reference to "cuferal metal" is notable, as cuferal-- a proposed but ultimately non-existent "super alloy" of iron and copper--appears to have been central to Shiels' ambitions for the Dumbuck plant (see below).
Kosmoid Ltd. In many ways the most secretive of the three operations, the exact purpose of Kosmoid Ltd. was never spelled out except "to operate patents and licences", although Shiels was successful in attracting persons of some significance to both this company and to a (on paper) control group the "Metallurgical Syndicate"; according to Harvie, "the directors of the company were James Denny (the Dumbarton shipbuilder and engineer); Alexander Shiels; Charles W. Fulton, of the prosperous Paisley textile firm; George Grandison Millar, a wealthy art publisher; and, at various times, a number of influential ironmasters, engineers and merchants", while The Metallurgical Syndicate was a group of 18 persons, among them Alexander Shiels; G. G. Millar; Charles W. Fulton; Archibald Coats; William Donaldson; Archibald Denny; James Denny; Walter Brock; Peter Coats; and William Coats, with the stated aim of "the commercial development of the products of certain secret processes of manufacture known to Alexander Shiels, known respectively as the Quicksilver Process and the Copper Process, by which quicksilver (i.e., mercury) could be produced from lead and copper from iron." Having established this control group with an initial capital of £30,000 (equivalent to over £4.5 million in 2024), the members then yielded complete control to Shiels, in exchange for Shiels depositing a sealed packet, by arrangement, in the Syndicate's bank; this packet contained 'full information and instructions regarding the secret processes'.Harvie, 1986, p. 17. Meanwhile, again according to Harvie, "between 1903 and 1906 he [Shiels] had signed agreements and a deed of partnership with John Joseph Melville, a self-confessed alchemist who had a life-long career of controversial and scandalous business dealings. Shiels employed Melville and installed him in the Dumbarton factory, with complete freedom to operate according to their own agreements relating to 'the secret quicksilver process' and without interference from any of the Kosmoid directors."Harvie, 1986, pp. 29-30.
Operations on the site From late 1904, Shiels embarked on a building program of facilities for some or all of these companies. According to Harvie: The Glasgow architects firm of Dykes and Robertson were busy planning and erecting a number of large buildings on the Dumbuck site. The first building was a two-storey general engineering shop measuring 250 feet x 60 feet, followed by the tube mill, 250 feet x 150 feet; the electric power station, 300 feet x 45 feet and most impressive of all, the fireproof stores, four-storey, 210 feet x 45 feet; in addition, there was the gas plant, 150 feet x 120 feet and a small boiler house, 70 feet x 50 feet containing 4 boilers (28 more were ordered from Babcock & Wilcox Ltd). The various buildings on the site were linked together by about 8,000 feet of railway tracks, which also provided connection with the adjacent lines of the Caledonian and North British Railways. The fireproof stores building was constructed to specifications which suggest that it was designed to be much more than simply either stores or fireproof; the walls were of 2 feet thick concrete, clad in places with armoured steel plate; the floors were of concrete, supported by curved steel plate, further supported by reinforced steel beams of 18 inches x 7 inches section and 75 lbs/ft and in rows down the building every 10 feet there were cast-iron columns of 11 inches diameter and 2 inches thick iron. The fireproof stores, like the other buildings on the site, was owned by the Metallurgical Syndicate; this was the building which was later known – according to legend – as the Transmutation Building.Harvie, 1986, pp. 22-23. Some additional information on these buildings is given at a DSA Building Design Report at the former site for the Dictionary of Scottish Architects.Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Factory for Kosmoid Ltd
In 1906 the headquarters of the three companies, previously at 2 addresses in Glasgow, moved on site to Dumbuck House, but the same year, the "directors became more and more nervous in the face of public speculation and demands by Shiels for increased bank loans and overdrafts"Harvie, 1986, p. 25. In September 1906, Shiels disappeared. It subsequently transpired that he had moved to England to continue his work as a consulting engineer. However, by autumn 1907, he died suddenly after collapsing on the platform of Willesden Station; he was removed to his new home in Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire, where he died three days later.Harvie, 1986, p. 28. The companies did not survive his departure with both Kosmoid Ltd. and Kosmoid Locks being wound up by the summer of 1907, the Metallurgical Syndicate in 1908 and only Kosmoid Tubes being deemed worthy of rescue as described above.