Birmid workers to reunite
Former engineering workers are to reunite this weekend at an exhibition to celebrate an historic Black Country firm which opened its doors more than 100 years ago and grew to become the largest producer of car cylinder blocks in Europe.
Birmid Industries, known locally as The Birmid, gave jobs to tens of thousands of men before its closure in the 1980s.
It was made up of 10 firms engaged in the metal engineering industry in the Midlands, four of them in Smethwick.
They were Midland Motor Cylinder, known as Midcyl, Birmingham Aluminium Castings, or Birmal, Dartmouth Auto Castings, known as Darcast, and Pneulec.
Birmal, founded in 1903, was one of the first two aluminium foundries in the country and made the first die-cast aluminium pistons in the world. It pioneered aircraft engine casting during the First World War and in 1920 amalgamated with the Midlands Motor Cylinder Company, based in Dartmouth Road.
In 1938 Birmal was turned over entirely to aircraft component castings and munitions. A Birmal-managed factory erected in Stourbridge made one million magnesium incendiary bombs a month.
Midcyl was established in 1914 in Fawdry Street, Smethwick, by AE Pearce and P Pritchard with a capital of £350 with the aim of producing motorcycle cylinders.
Their first order was 50 cylinders for the Radco motorcycle but by the following year the company had moved into the aero-engine business, making the 8-cylinder 104A engines that powered bi-planes, and in the early 1920s joined with Birmal.
In the 1950s and 60s Midcyl was the largest producer in Europe of automobile cylinder blocks with an output that also included brake drums and camshafts.
Darcast, founded in 1933, was one of the most highly mechanised foundries in the country, its products chiefly for tractors, refrigerators, compressors, pumps and car parts.
Pneulec was established to provide an engineering service for foundries, moulding machines capable of taking a load of 20 tons, many of which they developed and patented.
The exhibition, part of The Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust's roadshow, will take place from 10.30am to 4pm on Saturday at the Smethwick Baptist Church in Regent Street.
