Merz & McLellan

Merz & McLellan

Industry	Electrical engineering consultants
Founded	1902
Defunct	2000
Fate	Acquired
Successor	Parsons Brinckerhoff
Headquarters	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Key people	Malcolm Kennedy (Chairman)[1]

Merz and McLellan was a leading British electrical engineering consultancy based in Newcastle.

History

The firm was founded by Charles Merz and William McLellan in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902 when McLellan joined Merz's existing firm established in 1899.[2] The partnership was instrumental in designing the United Kingdom's first three-phase electrical supply network, on Tyneside,[2] and for the next century continued to advise other Commonwealth countries on setting up their own networks.

In the early 1960s, Merz & McLellan started a scheme in the interest of reclaming land owned by the London Brick Company in Peterborough; James Price took up the position of senior resident engineer. This became known as the "Peterborough Dust Disposal Scheme".

In 1995 the partnership merged with the Parsons Brinckerhoff consultancy, and in 2000 the new owners announced that the Merz & McLellan name would be discontinued.[3]

In 2010, Mott MacDonald consultancy announced[4] that it had bought Merz and McLellan South Africa.[5]

Selected contracts

• 1901: Neptune Bank Power Station
• 1904: Carville Power Station, Wallsend, UK
• 1908 & 1912: Electrification of Melbourne suburban railways in Victoria, Australia.[6]
• 1911: Electrification of North Eastern Railway (UK)
• 1914-18: Mobile power stations for the battlefield[7]
• 1921: North Tees Power Station
• 1925: Report on electrification of the New Zealand suburban systems in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.[8] (including the Lyttelton railway line between Lyttelton and Christchurch[9]
• 1933-51: Dunston B power station, Dunston, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
• 1940s: Orlando Power Station, Johannesburg, South Africa
• 1950s: Kariba South dam power generators
• 1950s: Wairakei Power Station Geothermal Power Station, New Zealand
• 1953: Blyth A Power Station, Cambois, Northumberland, UK
• 1960s: Bell Bay Power Station, Tasmania, Australia
• 1962: Blyth B Power Station
• 1967–76: Cerros Colorados Complex Plant Transmission System, Argentina
• 1969: Longannet Power Station
• 1980–1993: Kariba South dam hydroelectric upgrade
• 1989: Subiya oil-fired power station, Kuwait

Merz & McLellan firms still independent

• Sinclair Knight Merz (Australia)[10]

References

1. An exciting time for electrical engineers The Independent, 22 January 1998
2. Charles Merz – Lessons from Boston Archived 2010-05-31 at the Wayback Machine Institute of Engineering & Technology
3. Speech by Dr Malcolm Kennedy Archived 2012-08-04 at archive.today The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2004
4. Mott MacDonald acquires African power consultant Merz and McLellan
5. Merz & McLellan South Africa
6. Churchman, Geoffrey B. (1995). Railway Electrification in Australia and New Zealand. Sydney & Wellington: IPL Books. pp. 45, 46. ISBN 0-908876-79-3.
7. Tyne and Wear Archives
8. Churchman, Geoffrey B. (1995). Railway Electrification in Australia and New Zealand. Sydney & Wellington: IPL Books. pp. 16, 17. ISBN 0-908876-79-3.
9. Lyttelton Railway Tunnel
10. Sinclair Knight Merz Archived 2006-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

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