Hans Renold

Renold was born in Aarau, Switzerland, into a burgher family of that town. He attended the polytechnic school in Zurich, then worked in a drawing office in Saint-Denis, France.

Renold came to London and soon after to Manchester, Lancashire, in 1873 at the age of 21 and found work with a firm of machinery exporters.

In 1879, with £300 borrowed from his prospective father-in-law, Renold purchased a small textile-chain making business in Salford, Lancashire, from James Slater and started the Hans Renold business.

Hans Renold and his first wife Mary Susan Herford (1855-1919), were married in 1880, and had six children: Mary Katharine Renold, Charles Garonne Renold, Amy Madeleine Renold, Mary Robberds Renold (died young), Hans Herford Renold (died young) and Austen Hugh Renold. He married Rowena Hague Pigott (1874-1962) in 1923.

• Naturalised British subject 1881
• Elected M.I.Mech. E. 1902
• J.P. for City of Manchester 1917
• Honorary D.Sc. from the Victoria University of Manchester 1940

Soon after starting the business in 1879, in 1880 Hans Renold invented the bush roller chain. This represented a great advance on the common pin-and-link chains of the day and laid the design foundation upon which all modern precision roller chains are based. The firm immediately extended its business from textile chains into cycle chains for the new safety bicycle invented by J. K. Starley.

Renold was not only a brilliant engineer and a model employer who built around him a very skilled labour force, but was also a very astute businessman. His business prospered and he steadily ploughed back his growing profits into premises and plant. He moved the business to Brook Street, Manchester, in 1881. In 1889 a rapid expansion of the business took place and a new factory, Progress Works, was built in Brook Street. In 1906, Hans Renold planned and started construction of Renold Works on open land at Burnage, five miles to the south of Manchester.

Renold had long been devoted to the ideal of establishing a firm sense of community among his employees and their families and in 1909 gave his active support to the establishment of the Hans Renold Social Union for the encouragement of a wide range of leisure activities.

After his death in 1943, Priestnall Hey, his former home in Heaton Mersey adjacent to Renold Works at Burnage, was presented by his son for the use of the Hans Renold Social Union.

Hans Renold Limited was formed as a private limited company in 1903. It merged with The Coventry Chain Company Limited and was registered as a public limited company named Renold and Coventry Chain Company Limited in 1930. It was renamed Renold Ltd. in 1967, and later became Renold PLC. The company still bears his name.

• Renold, Hans. "[https://patents.google.com/patent/US690317 Driving-chain]." U.S. Patent No. 690,317. 31 Dec. 1901.
• Renold, Hans. "[https://patents.google.com/patent/US690318 A Corpora]." U.S. Patent No. 690,318. 31 Dec. 1901.
• Renold, Hans. "[http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1134010.pdf Driving-chain]" HANS RENOLD." U.S. Patent No. 1,134,010. 30 Mar. 1915.
• Renold, Hans. "[https://patents.google.com/patent/US1180539 Driving-chain of the silent type]." U.S. Patent No. 1180539. April 25, 1916.

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite journal|last=Boyns|first=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Boyns|title=In memoriam: Alexander Hamilton Church's system of 'scientific machine rates' at Hans Renold Ltd., c.1901 - c.1920|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/05957200e475049d9a089466737b9f66/1?pq-origsite=gscholar|journal=The Accounting Historians Journal|volume=30|issue=1|date=June 2003|pages=3–44|issn=0148-4184|doi=10.2308/0148-4184.30.1.3}}

{{cite journal|last1=Boyns|first1=Trevor|author-link=Trevor Boyns|title=Hans and Charles Renold: entrepreneurs in the introduction of scientific management techniques in Britain|journal=Management Decision |volume=39 |issue=9 |year=2001 |pages=719–728 |issn=0025-1747 |doi=10.1108/00251740110408737}}

Richard Vangermeersch (1996) "[http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/u?/aah,210 Church, Alexander Hamilton (1866-1936]{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}." In History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia, edited by Michael Chatfield and Richard Vangermeersch. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996. p. 124.

[http://www.renold.com/Company/CompanyInformation/History.asp History of Renolds] at renold.com. Accessed 11.2014.

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• {{cite book|last1=Urwick|first1=Lyndall Fownes |authorlink1=Lyndall Urwick|last2=Brech|first2=Edward Franz Leopold |authorlink2=Edward Francis Leopold Brech|title=The Making of Scientific Management|url=https://archive.org/stream/makingofscientif029853mbp#page/n175/mode/2up/search/hans+renold|year=1990|publisher= Management Publications Press}}

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• {{cite book|last=Tripp|first=Basil |title=Renold Chains: A History of the Company and the Rise of the Precision Chain Industry 1879-1955|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Wn_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-60603-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Renold|first=Sir Charles Garonne |title=Budgetary Control in the Organization of Hans Renold Limited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a06YswEACAAJ|year=1929}}
• {{cite book|last=Clayton|first=Nick |title=The Birth of the Bicycle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VeuDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|date=15 July 2016|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-4883-5}}

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• [http://www.renold.com Renold plc]
• [http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Hans_Renold_Ltd Hans Renold Ltd]

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Category:1852 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:19th-century British businesspeople

Category:People from Aarau

Category:19th-century Swiss engineers

Category:Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:19th-century Swiss inventors

Category:People from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport