Doug Michael pictured at home in East Kilbride with a 1/4 scale model of a Weir direct acting steam pump that he made. Doug is an engineer who used to work at Weirs is writing a book about Glasgow’s famous Weirs of Cathcart... Photograph by Colin IT was the small, local engineering company that became a global enterprise – a proper Scottish success story. In 1871, brothers George and James Weir founded G & J Weir amidst the booming industrial scene in the west of Scotland. The men - descendants of Robert Burns - produced their own ground-breaking inventions in pumping equipment – primarily for the world famous Clyde shipyards and the steam ships being built there.