158 NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM 
of Thornaby, the Seaton Carew Iron Co. and the Consett 
Iron Co., firms of very high importance, are referred to 
more fully in subsequent pages. Other undertakings con- 
tributing largely to the industrial life on the engineering 
side of the two counties are: R. Hood, Haggie & Co., at 
Newcastle; Haggie Bros. and Peter Haggie & Co. at 
Gateshead, well known as makers of steel wire ropes for 
colliery winding engines; the Bede Metal & Chemical 
Co., and the Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Co., old firms of 
copper smelters at Hebburn, where are also the lead works 
of Foster, Blackett & Wilson, and the foundries of the 
Birsley Iron Co. In addition to these firms, which by the 
scale of their operations and length of tenure are among 
the most noteworthy on the North-east Coast, there are 
large numbers of others, such as iron and steel founders, 
and forgers, producers of steel structural works, boilers 
and tanks, locomotives, railway wagons, electrical goods, 
brass and aluminium castings, cables, hemp and wire rope, 
ships’ steering gears, winches, deck machinery, boats, pro- 
pellers, pumps, steam packings, wire, paints, anti-fouling 
compositions, and galvanisers, all of which are essential to 
the activities of the North-east Coast shipyards.