The early history of Thermopower Furnaces can be traced back to the once renowned Shelley China in England. Before immigrating to South Africa, Thermopower Furnaces founder William Cochrane co-developed the electrically fired Top Hat Kiln with Donald Shelley in response to the clean air act passed in the UK in 1956. With an emerging ceramics industry in South Africa and one of the world’s cheapest electricity suppliers at the time, Cochrane saw the opportunity to set up his own furnace manufacturing company in the heartland of South African ceramics, Clayville, which he did in 1968.

For 19 years Thermopower Furnaces supplied top hat furnaces into the ceramics and steel industries across Southern Africa, earning itself an outstanding reputation for highly efficient and durable furnaces.