ABSTRACT
The manufacturing firm headed first by Thomas Grubb, and later by his son Howard, remained in business for practically a century from 1830. Reformed as Grubb-Parsons in 1925, it continued for another 60 years. The firm was unique in nineteenth-century Ireland as an advanced technological enterprise. It had quite a wide range of activities. For much of his life, the majority of Thomas’s efforts were directed towards, and most of his income was derived from, his appointment as Engineer to the Bank of Ireland; in this capacity his ingenious inventions were responsible for substantial improvements in the engraving, printing and numbering of banknotes. He also patented a design for a cheap camera lens which sold well. From the turn of the century, as nations prepared for war, and submarines were rapidly constructed, much of the effort of the firm went into construction of periscopes and other equipment for the military.
