Albany Pumps

The Albany pump was born in 1902 in the Old Kent Road area of South London in a small workshop controlled by R. White & Co. Mineral Water Manufacturers. This workshop and associated brass foundry had already existed for about 10 years. In 1904 a patent (No. 25,222) was obtained and through the years various improvements to gear pump design have led to other patents and product features.
Albany was located in London until the factory was destroyed on the third day of the Blitz in 1940. The firm's wartime wanderings included five years in farm buildings in Hitchin, Herefordshire, before settling in the present 2 acre site at Lydney in Gloucestershires Forest of Dean (England) in 1946.

Here is a timeline of the company history:

1900 Albany company formed in London

1904 First patent obtained

1930 Centrifugal Pump manufacturer J.Stone of Deptford taken over

1940 Company premisis destroyed in the London Blitz

1940-1946 Company operated from farm buildings in Hitchin

1946 Albany starts working from the current premises in Lydney, Gloucestershire

1951 AP Pump range introduced

1973 Handoll Pump & Engineering Co. Ltd and Associated Pumps of Croydon, London taken over

1973 HD Pump range introduced

1981 Brooke Brooke Tool Systems Limited of Birmingham was acquired along with Warwick Pumps

1987 Barclay Kellett Pump company, Bradford taken over

1988 Crown Pump company taken over

1992 Stanhope Company taken over

1992 Autocad software first used for drawing pumps

1999 Stothert & Pitt Pump division taken over, adding lobe and screw pumps to the company range

2002 FF Pumps, Ireland, taken over.

2005 Solidworks first used for solid modelling of pumps

The company continues to operate from its Lydney site, with a smaller manufacturing site at Bradford, England.
The original gear pump design has been developed into modern and reliable machines capable of working for up to 40,000 hours on important lubrication duties.

Fighting fire for over 100 years

Seen here is a photo of a 1910 fire engine for export to Calcutta with an Albany rotary water pump fitted.  Contrast this with Albany’s foam concentrate pump sets, diesel driven, for export to Qatar delivered in June 2010, below.

The foam pump delivers 1460 l/min and is fitted with an in-built relief valve.  ASA 150 lb flanges and gunmetal casing.  Albany makes a range of foam pumps to over 3000 l/m using rotary gear and twin screw pump designs.  Water turbine driven foam pumps for up to 1200 l/m are an Albany pump speciality.

Historical note: The Calcutta pump was part of a range of external bearing gear pumps designed in 1908.  Water pumping was a regular solution from London based Albany at the time.  In today’s fire industry this low pressure pump has been replaced by high speed centrifugal pumps at, at least three to four times the pressure.

You may be interested to see the original sales information on the Calcutta F.B.
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