Sikes Manufactures

There were many manufactures of the Sikes Hydrometer during the 19'th and 20'th century. There were also many more Private Label Sike's than actual original manufacture's. Private labels were those made by say, Farrow and Jackson, but labelled for a private victualler such as "Wood Abraham's". There is no positive proof to back this statement up (at the time), but it makes far more sense. There simply would not have been enough demand for the instrument to justify manufacture by the number (of unique labels) I have found to date. The following is a compilation of known Sikes Manufactures, Private Labels and Calibrators: R.B. Bate London The First Sikes hydrometers to be made were from R.B. Bate. Bate had an actual or near monopoly until the 1840's as supplier to the exise (it could not have hurt that Bate was Sike's son-in-law). He made several thousand of them during the time. Anyone curious to learn more information about Bate can find it in this fine and scholarly monograph: Anita McConnel R B Bate of the Poulty The Life and Times of a Scientific Instrument-Maker Published by the Scientific Instrument Society, London, 1993 * Special thanks to Paul Zoller for information regarding Bate. Original Manufacture DRING & FAGE 19 & 20 Tooley Street Makers To The Revenue OF THE UNITED Kingdom & Colonies Original Manufacture T. O. BLAKE 57, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON MAKER TO THE ADMIRALTY & CUSTOMS Original Manufacture FARROW & JACKSON, LTP LONDON & PARIS Click on the images below to see a large, full detail page from the Farrow & Jackson catalog, published in 1898.   Original Manufacture BUSS Hatton Garden LONDON Maker to the REVENUE of the UNITED KINGDOM Original Manufacture LOFTUS 320 Oxford Str LONDON Original Manufacture J.J. Hicks Maker to the INLAND REVENUE 8, 9 & 10 Hatton Garden, London England Original Manufacture J.D. Potter Successor to R.B. Batf 31 Poultry, London Original Manufacture Joseph Long 20, Little Tower Street Successor to the late Dicas & Co.  Original Manufacture Wood Abraham's Liverpool & Manchester (only inscription currently available is from the thermometer) Private Label (thought to be) Hearn & Harrison Montreal Private Label (thought to be) Gaskell & Chambers Dale End Works Burmingham Private Label (thought to be) Thomas Armstrong & Brother 88 & 90 Deansgate Manchester a 112.Bold St. Liverpool N9 1472. Private Label (thought to be) T. Bedwell London (only inscription currently available is from the thermometer) Private Label (thought to be) J. Lizars 73 Victoria St. Belfast Private Label (thought to be) Varley & Varley Lacelles Hall Brewery Kirkheaton Huddersfield Private Label (thought to be) A. O. Jones 17 Devonshire Sq., London E.C. Private Label (thought to be) L. Lumley & Co. Ltd. London Private Label (thought to be) W. Reeves London Calibrator P. Stevenson Edingburg Calibrator Back to Index