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5 Pounds Sterling 2015, Kingdom of Great Britain

no number in katalog -
Years of issue: 13.02.2015
Edition: 2 000 000
Signatures: Chief Executive: Mr. David Thorburn
Serie: Scotland
Specimen of: 2015
Material: Polymer
Size (mm): 125 x 65
Printer: De la Rue currency,Gateshead

* All pictures marked magnify are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.

** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

5 Pounds Sterling 2015

Description

Watermark:

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankA transparent window on a banknote - shows span railway bridge over the Firth of Forth. Also, green metallic paint, applied to the image (circuit) of Scotland, which changes color when the banknote is rotated.

Avers:

5 Pounds Sterling 2015

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankThe engraving on banknote is made after this photo of Sir William Arrol.

Sir William Arrol (13 February 1839 – 20 February 1913) was a Scottish civil engineer, bridge builder, and Liberal Unionist Party politician.

The son of a spinner, he was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, and started work in a cotton mill at only 9 years of age. He started training as a blacksmith by age 13, and went on to learn mechanics and hydraulics at night school. In 1863 he joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow, but by 1872 he had established his own business, the "Dalmarnock Iron Works", in the east end of the city. In the late 1870s he went on to found "Sir William Arrol & Co.", a leading international civil engineering business.

Arrol was knighted in 1890, and elected as the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ayrshire at the 1895 general election, serving the constituency until 1906. He served as President of The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland from 1895–1897. He spent the latter years of his life on his estate at Seafield, near Ayr, where he died on 20 February 1913. He is buried in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley, on the north side of the main-east west path on the crest of the hill.

His company, "Sir William Arrol & Co.", continued in business after his death until 1969 when it was acquired by Clarke Chapman.

In 2013 he was one of four inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.

In the background surface of the skin of the railway bridge across the Firth of Forth, which was built by his company.

In lower right corner is the Titan Clydebank crane.

Titan Clydebank is a 150-foot-high (46 m.) cantilever crane at Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was designed to be used in the lifting of heavy equipment, such as engines and boilers, during the fitting-out of battleships and ocean liners at the John Brown & Company shipyard. It was also the world's first electrically powered cantilever crane, and the largest crane of its type at the time of its completion.

Situated at the end of a U-shaped fitting out basin, the crane was used to construct some of the largest ships of the 20th century, including the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2. The Category A Listed historical structure was refurbished in 2007 as a tourist attraction and shipbuilding museum.

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankThe shipyard at Clydebank was created in 1871 after the company "James & George Thomson" moved from the Graving Docks in Govan. "John Brown & Company" purchased the yard in 1899, and in 1905, a £24,600 order for the crane was placed with Dalmarnock based engineering company "Sir William Arrol & Co." Titan was completed two years later in 1907. It was constructed by the Scottish engineer Adam Hunter (1869-1933), who was working as Chief Engineer for "Arrol & Co.", having served his apprenticeship on the construction of the Forth Bridge. "Stothert & Pitt of Bath", England, fabricated and installed most of the machinery for the Titan, including electric motors built by "Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Co."

The dock was used for fitting out vessels, and the crane would lift engines and boilers into ships. The lifting capacity of the Titan, and the location of the yard at the confluence of the River Clyde and River Cart, contributed to the success of the yard as it could build extremely large ships.

When tested on 24 April 1907, Titan was the largest cantilever crane ever built with a capacity of 160 tonnes (160 long tons; 180 short tons) at a radius of 85 feet (26 m.). The original lift capacity was uprated to 203 long tons (206 t.) in 1938, when it became apparent that the original specification would be insufficient to install the new long range gun's turrets into ships such as the "Duke of York".

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankOn the nights of the 13 and 14 of March 1941, the Clydebank Blitz virtually destroyed the town. 528 civilians were killed, over 617 people were seriously injured, and 48,000 civilians lost their homes. Only seven properties in Clydebank were undamaged, in one of the worst bombing raids in Britain. The raids, involving 260 Luftwaffe bombers on the first night and 200 on the second, targeted the industry of Clydeside, but the Titan crane was undamaged.

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankIn 1968, the yard was amalgamated into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders along with four others, in an attempt to increase competitiveness. The general elections in 1970 saw a change of government, and funding for the yard was withheld, resulting in the closure of John Brown's. It was bought from the receivers by the Houston, Texas-based Marathon Manufacturing Company for oil rig construction. In 1980 Marathon sold the yard to the French company Union "Industrielle et d’Entreprise" (UiE). UIE's owners, "Bouygues Offshore" closed the yard in 2001 and the site was earmarked for redevelopment.

Ships constructed by the crane include: "HMS Hood", "The Queen Mary", "Queen Elizabeth", "Queen Elizabeth 2", и "The Royal Yacht Britannia".

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankThe crane fell into disuse in 1980s, and in the intervening period of neglect, the crane suffered vandalism to the wheelhouse and corrosion to the structure. In 1988 the crane was recognized as a Category A Listed historical structure.

The urban regeneration company "Clydebank Re-Built" started a £3.75 m. restoration project in 2005, and the crane opened to the public in August 2007. The structure was shot-blasted to remove old paint and rust, allowing repairs to be undertaken before repainting. A lift for visitors to ascend to the jib and an emergency evacuation stair were installed, along with a wire mesh around the viewing area and floodlights to illuminate the crane at night.

Design:

The Titan used a fixed counterweight and electrically operated hoists all mounted on a rotated beam, making it faster and more responsive than its steam powered predecessors.[18] For lifting smaller assemblies that did not require the full lifting capacity of 150 tonnes (150 long tons; 170 short tons), a 30 tonnes (30 long tons; 33 short tons) auxiliary hoist was used, as large loads were comparatively rare.

Titan is 49 meters (161 ft.) high, weighs about 800 tonnes (790 long tons; 880 short tons) and sits on four concrete piles sunk to a depth of 23 meters (75 ft.) deep. The arms of the cantilever are 45.7 meters (150 ft.) and 27.4 meters (90 ft) long. The tower is 12 meters (39 ft.) square, and its center sits just 10.7 meters (35 ft.) from the edge of the quay.

Following the removal of the Beardmore Crane in the 1970s and the Fairfield Titan in 2007, there are now four giant cantilever cranes on the River Clyde. The others are at Stobcross (Finnieston Crane), Scotstoun (Barclay Curle Crane) and Greenock (James Watt Dock Crane). Fewer than sixty giant cantilever cranes were built worldwide, six of them on the Clyde, and as of May 2011, it is believed only eleven remained, four of those on the Clyde.

The crane was awarded the 2012 Engineering Heritage Award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and described as "a magnificent example of mechanical engineering, which forms an integral part of the local landscape". Titan was designated as an International Historic Civil and Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2013, the fifth such award given to a Scottish structure.

For the restoration of the structure, recognition was accorded by "Chicago Athenaeum Award" for Architecture in 2008 and by the Civic Trust in 2009.

Denominations in words are at top, in numerals in three corners. In top left croner is an abbreviation "CB" - Clydesdale Bank.

Revers:

5 Pounds Sterling 2015

On banknote depicted The Forth Bridge, from different angles, which were built by the company of Sir William Arrol. Above shows the map of Scotland, with wrought-point bridge position on it.

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank 5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale BankThe Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometers) west of Edinburgh City Center. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker.

Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a total length of 8,094 feet (2,467 m.). It was the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world until 1917 when the Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span.

The bridge and its associated railway infrastructure are owned by "Network Rail Infrastructure Limited".

It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, though this has never been its official name.

5 Pounds 2015 Clydesdale Bank

Denominations in numeral are in lower left and top right corners.

Comments:

The first polymer banknote of United Kingdom!