This site is a 4-storey building with basement, designed by T.R. Smith and built in 1873. The building houses the testing machine designed by David Kirkaldy (1820-1897) who was born in Mayfield, just outside Dundee. The testing machine was first installed nearby, in The Grove, and opened on January 1st 1866. The Southwark St. building opened on 1st January 1874.

The testing machine was built during 1864/65 by Greenwood & Batley of Leeds. It is 47 ft 6 inches long, 4 ft 3.5 inches wide and weighs almost 116 tons. It was designed "for the purpose of testing all kinds of constructive materials" by putting these materials "under various stresses, namely, Pulling, Thrusting, Bending, Twisting, Shearing, Punching and Bulging."

Kirkaldy's works soon attained a world-wide reputation for excellence and integrity in independent materials testing. Among its many achievements, the machine performed tests for Blackfriars road bridge (opened 1869), the St. Louis Bridge over the Mississippi (built 1867-74), the Hammersmith Suspension Bridge (opened 1887), the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the cables used to suspend 'The Skylon' at the 1951 Festival of Britain. The machine was also used in accident investigations, such as the 1879 Tay Bridge disaster and the crash of Britain's Comet airliner in the 1950s.

The machine has a hydraulic ram (with a stroke of 3 ft) for putting materials under stress. Initially, a steam powered pump provided the high pressure water, but from 1905 it was supplied by the London Hydraulic Power Company. Samples to be tested are placed in the machine, which has a maximum pull of 1 million lbs.

In order to measure the load applied to the test sample a steelyard is used. A steelyard is a lever balance with a weight (known as a counterpoise) suspended from it. The counterpoise is moved along the steelyard until it balances. There is a scale along the steelyard, so you can tell from the position of the counterpoise what load is being applied.

As the ram moves it causes the steelyard to tilt. The counterpoise is then moved to level the steelyard. A precise measurement of the loading is then read off the steelyard.

The Kirkaldy Testing & Experimenting Works was run by three generations of the Kirkaldy family. The works was sold in 1965 when David Kirkaldy's grandson (also named David Kirkaldy) retired. It was purchased by Treharne & Davis Ltd, who continued testing materials until 1974 when the works closed.

Since 1984 the upper floors of the building have been reused as offices. The machine remains, now restored to working order, and the ground floor and basement form the Kirkaldy Testing Museum.

Sources of information :

Standing the Test of Time, published by the Kirkaldy Testing Museum.