Scottish shale Scottish shale

Rankine & Mitchell

Company number:
Not known
Share capital:
£?
Started:
1863 or earlier
Finished:
1863 or later
Registered office:

Drumgray Oil Works

Oil works:

An article published in the Scotsman on 19th October 1863 stated

"....apparatus on a very extensive scale of carrying on the process of distillation is in course of being erected at Drumgray, about three miles out of town, where beds of shale exist in almost inexhaustible quantity. The proprietors of the latter works are Messrs. Rankine & Mitchell of Airdrie, in conjunction with the Wareham Oil Company, a firm largely engaged in the trade in England. So much of the works have been already completed as to make a beginning of the manufacture, which is not however completed at Drumgray, the oil being simply distilled there and afterwards shipped via Bo'ness to Poole in England, to be refined. "

Nothing more is known of this firm, which appeared to by operating without a licence at a period when Young's patent remained in force.