Hayward Bros. & Eckstein

Hayward Brothers & Eckstein were a London company making patent pavement lights for basements under urban streets. They published a bicentenary company history in 1953. 1

In 1848, glaziers William and Edward Hayward joined with an ironmonger specialising in coal-hole lids, thus uniting the two components of their future iron-framed cellar windows (they also inherited a shop-sign of a dog licking out an iron pot, which became their trademark). 2 Their major coup was to invent and patent in 1871 a type of horizontal window, glazed with an obliquely-cut lens or prism, which bent incoming light through 90 degrees. Set into a pavement, this could be used to provide daylight in cellars, increasing the useable space in a building. 3

About 1891, William McLean, a wholesale glass merchant in St Vincent Street, Glasgow, became the Scottish agent for Hayward Brothers & Eckstein. A couple of years later, this role passed to James McLean, probably William's son. 4 In the 1890s, the London company were also selling 'Luxfer prism window plates ... ventilators, iron staircases and stable fittings', as well as their own invention, the 'Jhilmil' steel lathe (the name was from a Hindi word said to mean 'sparkling light on waves'). 5

Montrose-born D. W. McInnes, the London manager of the Carron Iron Company, joined Haywards in 1896, thus strengthening their Scottish links. 6 In 1899, they supplied the floor lights for the Port Dundas Electric Power Station for Glasgow Corporation Tramways. 7 The firm extended their London works in 1905–6, shortly before the managing director, McInnes, died. 8 Several architects joined the staff after 1910, enabling them to extend their expertise into roof-lights and other architectural components. 9 Anti-German sentiment during the First World War caused English-born William Eckstein to change his name to Extone, and change the company style to Haywards Ltd. Extone, the last of the original managers, died in 1924. 10