Benjamin Hick was a mechanical engineer. He was born at Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 in 1790 and trained at Fenton, Murray and Wood, the well known makers of steam engines, textile machines and other machinery. In 1810 Hick moved to Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

 as manager of Rothwell's Union Foundry. It later became known as Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell

Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell

Rothwell, Hick and Rothwell was an engineering company in Bolton, England.Set up in 1830, the partners became interested in the production of steam locomotives after the Rainhill Trials...

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The firm made stationary steam engine

Stationary steam engine

Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...

s, (a number of which were featured by John Farey, Jr.

John Farey, Jr.

-Biography.:Farey was the eldest son of John Farey, Sr., the geologist, and was born at Lambeth, London on March 20, 1791. Details of his education are obscure, but he undertook a systematic study of the manufacturing industry of London between 1804-5...

 in the second volume of his Treatise on the Steam Engine, 1827) as well as general engineering products such as crane

Crane (machine)

A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...

s. In 1830 they made the locomotive Union for the Bolton and Leigh Railway

Bolton and Leigh Railway

The Bolton and Leigh Railway was the first public railway in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It opened in 1828 for goods.-History:...

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Hick had married in 1814 and with his wife had two sons who he trained as engineers. In 1833 they set up their own manufactory, Benjamin Hick and Sons

Benjamin Hick and Sons

B. Hick and Sons, later known as Hick, Hargreaves & Co, was a British engineering company, based at the Soho Ironworks in Bolton, England....

, at the Soho Foundry, Bolton. They made the locomotive Soho for the Bolton and Leigh Railway, and soon became well-known as suppliers to British and foreign railway companies. (See Marshall, below, for a list of them.)

Benjamim Hick died at Bolton 9 September 1842.
A photograph of a bust of Ben Hick is shown below.

Hick, Hargreaves & Co

The firm continued under the management of his son, John (1815-1894). In 1845 he took into partnership William Hargreaves and the firm was renamed Hick, Hargeaves & Co.. Locomotive building continued until 1855, and afterwards production was concentrated on marine engines of which they made a large number. At the end of the nineteenth century they began the manufacture of steam engines for electricity generating power stations, and from 1911 began the manufacture of diesel engines. In World War I the firm did much war work, and began making high vacuum condensing plant, used in power generation. This was greatly expanded in later years as centralised power generation was adopted in Great Britain.

In 1933 they acquired the records, drawings and patterns of three defunct steam engine manufacturers and did a lucrative business in making repairs and supplying spare parts. Large stationary steam engines were still used by many textile manufacturers in the Bolton area until the collapse of the industry after World War II.

After World War II the firm expanded its work in electricity generation, and branched out into food processing, oil refining, petrochemicals and offshore oil equipment production. In 1968 the firm was sold to Electrical & Industrial Securities Ltd.. By 2002 the firm was part of the BOC group, and the historic records were deposited with Bolton library.

Later The BOC Group plc was taken over by Linde A.G. of Germany who intended to return the combined group to a 'pure gas' business and so sold off Linde sells BOC Edwards the "BOC Edwards" engineering division into which Hick Hargreaves of Bolton had been placed where it had been combined with the Edwards High Vacuum business of BOC Edwards based at Crawley, West Sussex. The business of the vacuum company was sold to private shareholders CCMP Capital and on 1st June 2007 was re-established as an independent UK private limited company "Edwards Limited".

The old Bolton site was sold and became the site of a Sainsburys supermarketSainsburys-superstore-bolton in centre of Bolton.

The Bolton site of Edwards Limited is now a design shop with outsourced UK and foreign manufacture and has moved to new office premises in Lostock, where it continues to sell some steam ejector, feed heater and de-aeration technology of the old Hick Hargreaves business as a Process VacuumProcess Vacuum part of Edwards Limited.