From Laborer to Millionaire.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7365, 12 November 1898, Page 4

From Laborer to Millionaire.

To those who imagine that riches are no longer to be obtained without capital and influence, the career of Sir Richard Tangye, of the great Birmingham firm or Tangye Brothers, will come aa a revelation. From a representative of Chums we have an interesting account of his rise, step by step, from a poor struggling worker in the fields to the chief proprietor of one- of the largest engineering establishments in the world. " You are aware that I commenced life as a field laborer," remarked Sir- Richard, opening the conversation, " so, as there is not much to be said on that subject, we will leave it alone. I made my first real start when I was 14 years of age as a pupil teacher, and a melancholy teacher I was, too. I never thought that I should get on as a teacher. So I replied to an advertisement for a clerk in some iron works in the Midlands, and to my surprise —for I could point to no experience—l got the situation. I had not been in the place long—it is necessary to tell you this part of the story, because my firm consists of four brothers —when my employer, knowing that I had a young brother in Cornwall, told me to bring him up, saying that he would pay him fifty pounds a year also. Well, we gave satisfaction, and before long my two other brothers, who were mechanical engineers, found employment in the same firm, so you see from very early years we have been together. After a few months the demon of discontent entered me, and I made up my mind to leave. I said to my brothers : ' Look here, you fellows, I'm going to go differently. I'm off; you can do what you like.' And I went. Being an ambitious youth, I decided to start at once as a merchant—this was when. I was 23 — and I persuaded a local bookseller, a Quaker like myself, to lend me the use of a desk on his counter (I couldn't afford to buy one) for me to do my writing on. In a very short time my bookseller friend said to me : ' Richard, thy letters are getting more than ours. It is time for one of us to move.' I did not think it reasonable for the bookseller to move, so I moved myself, and took a portion of a packing room belonging to a small manufacturer. I paid 4s a week rent, and it was in this little shed that the firm of Tangye Bros, was founded. We had a fearful struggle, but we were also hoping that something big would turn up, and at last it did. One day, during the Russian war, a gentleman came and asked us if we could turn out a machine for producing lint for the wounded. We accepted the order, and, wonderful to relate, executed it to his satisfaction. From this point we steadily progressed, though not without anxiety. In the course of time, after having removed to new premises, the rent of which was 10s a week, my three other brothers joined me, and the four of us slaved away for dear life. For months the word " insolvency " was six feet large in front of my eyes wherever I went nighb or day, and I was the only one who knew it. The strain was awful, for I dared not tell my brothers for fear they might lose heart. You see, we had had no experience of the world, and we thought it a sin to borrow. The only sum we ever borrowed was L2OO from the Bank, and when this was exhausted and we timidly asked for more we were refused, I am amazed that we did not collapse altogether. However, we didn't; we held on like dying men clothing at straws, and at last a bright day arrived. We perfected Weston's chain pulley block, and this taking the market at once, lifted us out of all our troubles, and from that time forward we never looked back. We had to defend this patent against an infringer, but we won the day. Our defence cost us LIO,OOO, but the proceedings did me more good than anything else ever did in my life." This, then, is the remarkable life-story of Richard Tangye, whose place of business, once a ramshackle shed, now covers twenty-five acres of ground. Sir Richard, by the way, attributes most of his success to his attention to small details and his extreme frugality.