IES and IMarEST - Thermotank, Fairfield and Sir Iain Maxwell Stewart

Air conditioning was invented in 1898 by Alexander Stewart at J&G Thomson’s shipyard (later John Brown & Co ltd) at Clydebank. So successful was this invention that Stewart with his two brothers established the Thermotank Ventilation Co in the early 1900s later simply known as Thermotank with offices and works at Helen Street in Govan.

Ian Maxwell Stewart, a former president of the IES, was Alexander’s nephew who became Chairman of Thermotank in the 1950s and of Hall Thermotank following merger with J E Hall in 1959. In October 1965, the Fairfield shipyard became insolvent despite a full order book. I M Stewart’s intervention to save the yard paved the way for what became known as the Fairfield Experiment, a short lived attempt to change the nature of the ailing shipbuilding industry on the Clyde.

Ian Johnston has written a number of books concerned with the industries of Clydeside including the history of William Beardmore’s Dalmuir shipyard, John Brown & Co Ltd Clydebank and, most recently, the histories of BAE Systems Govan yard (Fairfields) and Thermotank Ltd, inventors of air conditioning.

Ian Johnston was a member of the academic staff at Glasgow School of Art.

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