Adshead's handy guide to Glasgow , 1902 , Page 80
"A short distance to the north-west, along the banks of the Forth and Clyde and Monkland Canals, is Port-Dundas. There are factories, storehouses, and granaries on every side, and here also is the famous Townsend Stalk. It is 454 feet high, and at the base has a diameter of 50 feet, thus forming the tallest chimney in the world."Tourists Guide to Glasgow, 1887 ,Page 33
Wrong height. Too small !
"We may add that to the right, climbing up a small ascent, lies Springburn ; and that from thence the visitor may return into Glasgow by way of Sighthill Cemetery and the immense chemical works of St. Rollox, with their colossal chimney shaft 400 feet in height."The Chemical Age , 1922 , Page 874
Demolition of Tennants Chimney and mistake that it was at any time taller than Tennants Chimney post completion
"Members who are familiar with Glasgow will miss a conspicuous landmark owing to the collapse in March last of the chimney at the St. Rollox Chemical Works, known as “ Tennant’s Stalk,’’ which, at the time of its erection 80 years ago was reputed to be the highest chimney in the world. Originally 453 ft. high, this remarkable-structure was only rivalled in height (after it had been shortened) by a chimney at the chemical works of Joseph Townsend, Ltd., Port Dundas. Although the following extract from The Land We Live In of 1856 describes the St. Rollox Works as they then were, great changes have since been made: ‘“‘ They [the works] are, necessarily, black and dirty ; and some of them are as infernal in* appearance as we can well imagine any earthly place to be. The buildings occupy an immense square, from which shoot up numerous chimneys. Many of these chimneys are equal to the largest in other towns; but they are here mere satellites to the monster of the place—the chimney ! ”
and a link to the George Dodd section referred to above
The Land We Live In , George Dodd, 1853 , Page 320
"From whichever side we approach it, we are forcibly struck with its vastness : area, number, height — all are there : the area of the whole works, the number of chimneys, and the height of the giant ' stalk,' as factory people call the great chimney. "
"The buildings occupy an immense square, from which shoot up numerous chimneys. Many of these chimneys are equal to the largest in other towns ; but they are here mere satellites to the monster of the place — the chimney "ICI Magazine 1964 August, Page 5
Ignore that they have the wrong year on the image caption. That may be the Townsend Chimney in the back right
"The Chimney” was, of course, Tennant’s Stalk, built between 1841 and 1842 which rose from the ground to the dizzy height of 447 ft. 8 in. The depth of the foundations was 14 ft. 10 in., the diameter of the chimney at base 45 ft. and at the top 14 ft. 10 in. This remarkable chimney was built so that it could float off muriatic and other noxious fumes far above the now surrounding houses, and to do so the better it was built as a cone within a cone to prevent the cooling and condensing of hydrochloric gases. When, however, the chimney was ready, the process had been so improved by earlier condensation that very little hydrochloric acid gas went up the stalk, which was used mainly to convey away the products of combustion from about 120 tons of coal a day, some of the conveying flues being 400 yards long. “The Chimney” was a triumph of the building art, with over one and a quarter million bricks in its construction. Before it went into use, the braver spirits among the officials were hoisted to the top, whence from a platform they toasted the view and future success in champagne. Two mighty cracks developed in the outer casing two years afterwards. For a time it was thought that a controlled captive balloon might be used to survey the damage, for ordinary scaffolding would have been too dangerous and too costly, but ultimately an ingenious climbing machine was developed that also permitted effective repair, so that the Stalk remained until demolition in the early 1920s. Perhaps like some humans and other tall chimneys, “it showed, in the course of years, a slight deviation from the perpen¬ dicular, but this had no effect upon its stability."The Glasgow Herald, June 27th 1842 , Page 2
Readable but not great scan. References a Guardian article from the previous Friday ( June 24th ). Pre completion within the next few days and talks about the trips given to the public to the top
Post completion
This book seems unwilling to admit that the Townsend Chimney existed and was taller than Tennants
Page 224 Appendix III is a reprint of an article in The Mirror 4th December 1841
The cover and some illustrations show the Tennants Chimney. In particular this dramatic photo;
shows the Townsend chimney as it is plate 4 but the only shown parts of the Townsend chimney are figures 4,5,6 and 7 on Plate 1. Figs 8 and 9 are sections of the St Rollox Chimney. There has been confusion between figure numbers and plate numbers
This is Plate 1 Page 136 with the relevant figures
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