Chapter 8

EXPANSION INTO OTHER SPHERES

In the preceding chapters we have seen how two engineering businesses, the one devoted to mechanical sheep-shearing appliances, and the other to the manufacture of motor-cars, developed in such strange circumstances from a common effort to cater for the wants of the remote Squatter in the Australian Bush during the " seventies " of last century. The many obstacles which had to be surmounted have been recorded, and the various phases through which the Wolseley Company passed in its early life, dealt with in some detail.

Early in the existence of the Wolseley Tool & Motor Car Co., it became apparent to the Executive that the manufacture of motorcars of private type, although of great importance and in possession of possibilities which could not, at that time, be wholly foreseen, should not be allowed to usurp the entire efforts of the Company. Even though the motor-car should remain the main trunk, there were many branches which could not fail to be highly fruit-bearing if handled in the proper manner. On the one hand, the increasing success and prosperity of the Wolseley car, brought many enquiries for the manufacture of " specials," and on the other, the fact that the Company was a branch of the great Vickers combine, automatically canalized in their direction a whole variety of enquiries for the manufacture of engineering products which the facilities of the Wolseley Company could best undertake.

The results of some of these enquiries are strikingly illustrated by an examination of some of the early photograph albums which happily still form a valuable part of the Company's early records. Turning over these pages, gives one, in fact, an extraordinary insight into the versatility of the Wolseley products, and is a forceful reminder that in those days the production of motor-cars was carried out along the lines of general engineering and had not yet reached the realms of the highly specialized branch of the engineering industry that it is to-day.

One of the first surprises, until one remembers the name of the Company at that time, are the various photographs of Wolseley machine tools. Turret lathes and more ambitious machines such as horizontal borers are shown-such machines being manufactured chiefly for use in the Company's own workshops, or those of other branches of the Vickers organization.

Again, as one would imagine from the Company's association with an armament firm, special War Office vehicles are illustrated. One of these lorries appears at first sight to be closely akin to a steam engine, since it sports a large " funnel " and steamroller type rear wheels. In actual fact the funnel was the exhaust pipe, and the engine was a horizontal four-cylinder type of 4 ½-in. bore and 5-in. stroke. Some of the tests this vehicle underwent appear to have produced unhappy results, according to the photograph.

The advantages of the new form of transport which the motorcar had made possible were soon appreciated by the civil authorities, and so we see photographs of Wolseley fire engines, complete with their crews of heavily moustached firemen. Photographs of railway vans, of motor buses with the G.W.R. initials show the early appreciation of the railway companies to the usefulness of the motor as an auxiliary to their own transport services as yet there was no suggestion that one day these two might become serious competitors. One of the photographs of the G.W.R. bus, taken at Lichfield, is of particular interest as its passengers include many of the leading personnel of the Wolseley Company at that time.

This vehicle consisted of a two-ton chassis, 10-ft. 6-in. wheelbase with a 20-h.p. horizontal engine placed under the driver's seat with the radiator at each side of the vehicle.

In the following year, 1906, the Company produced the first double-deck buses for the Birmingham Corporation, which ran on the Harborne route, thus inaugurating a new phase in the transport system of the city.

Amongst the many strange vehicles covered by the photographs in the 1904-05 album is one which will probably prove something in the nature of a puzzle to many of the younger generation.

A considerable number of these vehicles were supplied to the British Vacuum Cleaner Company Ltd., and will call to older readers the recollection of them standing outside houses, with their long flexible pipes passing up through the windows, engaged in the annual spring cleaning.

As one would anticipate, the majority of the " specials " illustrated are wheeled vehicles of some kind or another, and so are closely allied to the production of motor-cars, but there are others which do not come into this category.

In those days, as now, the manufacturer of a successful motorcar engine is often asked to accept orders for either standard or special engines for use other than iii vehicles, and so we find illustrations of electric-lighting sets and early motor-boat engines; the manufacture of the latter eventually became a special feature of Wolseley productions, and will be described later.

Some of the engines which were produced, far exceeded the limits of anything even remotely connected with motor-cars, such as the engines fitted in rail coaches for the L.N.E. Railway in this country, and for the Delaware and Hudson Company in America. Owing to the difficulty in starting an engine of this, size, they were fitted with a special device incorporating a cordite cartridge for this purpose. An engine of the same bore and stroke but with sixteen cylinders was designed and constructed in 1906 to the order of the British Government.

It is not generally known that a large number of Wolseley Taxi-cabs were manufactured during the Siddeley regime. It will be recalled that a concern called the London Motor Cab Co. was formed during the early part of the century to place on the London streets a large fleet of twin-cylinder "Renault" cabs, and as the Wolseley Company began to manufacture these public service vehicles about 1906, it is probable that it was a challenge to foreign competition. These cabs were used extensively by the London and Provincial Cab Company in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and in other large cities. They had twin-cylinder engines of 10-h.p. with a bore and stroke of 4-in. by 4-in.

The majority of these cabs were built at the Crayford Works, and it is an interesting fact, which seems to have been the proverbial shadow coming events cast before them, that one of the early Wolseley Taxi-cabs was sold to " Mr. W. R. Morris, of Oxford," now Viscount Nuffield, the Chairman of the Nuffield Organization. Who would have predicted that eighteen years later, he would have become the owner of the Wolseley Company!

Records differ as to the precise number of Wolseley Taxi-cabs sold between 1907 and 1909, but it is safe to state that the figure was approximately 500. A certain number of larger cabs were turned out; these, had engines of some 18-h.p. but they were found to be unnecessarily powerful and too fast for the work they had to perform.

In those days, forced lubrication for the engine was largely confined to expensive cars of the luxury type, and for all ordinary vehicles, splash lubrication was used; in these cabs, the connecting. rods were fitted with dippers which collected the oil from troughs in the crankcase and splashed oil on to the bottom of the cylinder, etc. When these Wolseley Taxi-cabs were first introduced, some little trouble was experienced with the Police Authorities because the engines emitted too much smoke, owing to these dippers. A staff of Mechanics was sent down to attend to matters, and the trouble swiftly disappeared. All the Wolseley Taxi-cabs gave many years of good service, and they proved very popular with Taxi-drivers.

Few people realize that the motor-boat is actually an older machine than the motor-car. A small boat powered by a Daimler engine, with tube ignition, was being used on the Neckar before Gottlieb Daimler designed and used his first car in 1886. An amusing incident is recorded in connection therewith.

Daimler was unable to induce people to take a trip in his boat, or at least, only the brave ones would venture, because the popular opinion was that before long the engine would explode and blow the occupants sky-high. To overcome this difficulty, the wily Daimler attached a number of porcelain knobs round the top of the boat, and to these he fixed lengths of insulated wire; then he encouraged the report that the boat was electrically driven, which everybody believed. From then onwards, no more trouble was experienced in finding passengers.

Motor-boating and motor-boat racing started in this country at an early period. One of the first meetings of any importance took place during 1903 in Ireland at the time of the Gordon-Bennett Race, when a week of motor racing of all kinds was organized.

As soon as the motor-boat became known in England, and it was clear that here was another use for which the internal combustion engine could be employed, the Wolseley Company took up the design and manufacture of marine engines. A number of other firms was attracted by the possibilities which the motorboat seemed to open up, but many of them failed to appreciate that although an engine suitable for marine work would necessarily have to be a blood relation of the ordinary engine used for road propulsion, the two would have to be different in many important respects. This mistake, due probably to inexperience and the desire to be early in the new field, resulted in many engines being installed in motor-boats which were unsuitable for the work they had to perform. Road and marine conditions differed entirely; in the case of marine engines the designer was faced with problems which were unknown with motor-cars, and so several engines were marketed which might have been suitable for road work but which were quite unsuitable for launches and the like.

At the outset, the Wolseley Company appreciated this important point, and well-organized plans were laid accordingly.

In 1904, a 60-h.p. Wolseley engine was made for a launch which the Duke of Westminster acquired for cruising purposes. This launch was in almost constant use for some years, and so satisfactory was its engine that when His Grace, decided to enter the racing sphere, and a boat was designed for this special purpose, he specified that Wolseley engines should be fitted. The name of this launch was " Ursula " and it was powered by two Wolseley engines, each having twelve cylinders with a bore and stroke of 7 ¼ -in. by 7 ½ -in. respectively. The Duke's choice proved well justified. During the first year, it held the distance record for speed, namely, 34.8 knots, besides winning the Prix de Monte Carlo, the International Cup at Monaco, the Kaiser's Cup and the Kaiserlicher Prize at Kiel, to say nothing of less important events.

A comprehensive policy was adopted by the Company for all types of watercraft. The smallest engine made was a twin-cylinder 12-h.p. designed for a small boat, normally used for sailing but fitted with an engine of simple construction which could be readily understood and handled single-handed. In still water, it provided a speed of some 81.m.p.h.

The large engines varied from 28- to 70-h.p., although special engines could be supplied up to 250-h.p. The smaller-sized engines had a reversing gear self-contained with the engine, while the larger models had a separate gearbox.

The demand for these Wolseley marine power-units increased as marine motoring increased, owing chiefly to their reliability, low initial cost and low cost of running. At first arrangements were made with the well-known manufacturers of motor-launches, the Teddington Launch Works, to supply the launches, and for the Wolseley Company to fit the engines, etc. The majority of orders received were, at first, for comparatively small river craft or light coasting boats, but the demand for larger vessels for sea-going, etc., developed. This necessitated other arrangements being employed, and it was not uncommon for orders to be booked for 70-ft. cruising yachts, racing launches and ferry boats capable of carrying fifty or more passengers. These were manufactured by S. E. Saunders Ltd., at Cowes, Isle-of-Wight, where all the boats so ordered were handed over to their purchasers after the usual tests.

Numbers of Wolseley marine engines were also manufactured for life-boat purposes, and two of 50-h.p. were supplied for use at Seaham and St. Abbs. High efficiency eight-cylinder Vee-type engines for hydroplanes were made, as well as "straight-eight" motors for sea-going launches, in short, every type of power-unit designed to run either on petrol or paraffin was constructed.

As the demand for marine engines developed, the relationship between the marine and the car engine became more and more remote. The 120-h.p. Vee-type eight-cylinder units for hydroplanes were of very advanced design; weight was of considerable importance, and it was this factor which was carefully studied.

In recalling the activities of the Wolseley Company from the time it became an established branch of the Vickers Organization, to the outbreak of the first European war, a number of interesting features become apparent which are confirmed by an examination of the early catalogues and other literature which have been preserved so carefully by the Company.

Although there was never any lack of initiative and enterprise, no attempt was ever made by the Company to acquire notoriety or propaganda by the common process of sensationalism. Throughout its long career, the Company has been content to allow the quality of its products to speak for itself; showmanship in the form of achieving the almost impossible, whether it be in the form of prodigious speed attempts calculated to attract a maximum degree of public limelight, or otherwise, was left to those manufacturers who favoured such methods of salesmanship; from the outset, the name of Wolseley has been allowed to remain its own best selling medium.

No stone was ever permitted to remain unturned if some improvement or additional refinement were at stake; no financial consideration was allowed to interfere with progress or to cramp expansion in any direction which appeared to possess possibilities. The coming of the aeroplane is a case in point.

The English Channel was first crossed by what was then known as a " heavier-than-air " machine during the summer of 1909. To all possessing any imagination, this historic fact signalled the beginning of a new era in transport.' England ceased to be an island, and a link was forged which gave intercourse between continents an entirely new meaning.

The country had hardly recovered from its astonishment when the Wolseley Company began the manufacture of petrol engines suitable for aeroplane work, to designs which they had already developed. Just as the Company realized so early with motor-boat engines that they would have to be of a different design from engines suitable for road work, so too was it appreciated that neither a motor-car nor a marine engine would ever be suitable for propelling an aeroplane. Evenness of torque and high-power-to-weight ratio would necessarily be of prime consideration; all existing notions about cooling, as they applied to motor-cars, would have to be quite different, to say nothing of carburetion at high altitudes, and other problems which soon came to light when experience bad been gained.

The degree to which the Wolseley Company had visualized the future of the aeroplane can be gathered from the fact that on December 30th, 1909, a Voisin biplane, fitted with a Wolseley engine, was successfully flown by M. de Baeder at Chalons, and the following is an extract from Flight dated January 8th, 1910: -

On the 30th December, 1909, M. de Baeder, on his Wolseley-engined Voisin biplane, at Chalons, was successful in winning four prizes. These were the Prix des Pilots, the Prix des Arts et Metiers, the Coupe Archdeacon and the Prix Capitaine Berger. The first two were won by a flight of 3 kiloms, while the Archdeacon Cup was secured with a trip of 8.2 kiloms, beating the old record of 6.5 kiloms. The last prize was won by rising to a height of more than 100 metres, the actual altitude being 107 metres.

Within a year of Bleriot performing his historic feat, the Wolseley Company was in a position to deliver specially designed water-cooled aeroplane engines of 30-h.p. having four cylinders with a bore and stroke of 3 ¾ -in. by 5 ½ -in. respectively, as well as 60-h.p. eight-cylinder engines of the Vee-type design having like bore and stroke. This was soon followed by others including a still larger one of 120-h.p. with eight cylinders.

In 1910-11 the Wolseley Company was approached by the Italian Government to design and construct the engine, including the driving air-screw and other machinery for an airship then under construction., this followed on an order from the British Government for similar machinery for a naval airship then being built. The ill-fated airship Mayfly which broke its back shortly after leaving its shed in Barrow for its flight test, was powered by a Wolseley engine.

The experience gained in engine design for aero work was of inestimable service to the Wolseley Company during the 1914-18 war. The work performed during the first world conflict will be dealt with in the next chapter, for design developed at lightning speed and the foundations laid and the lessons learnt from 1910 onwards were all turned to the utmost account when the first attempt at world-domination was made.

Some years prior to the aeroplane becoming an accomplished fact, the Wolseley Company had carried out a good deal of important work for the British Government in other directions. In 1906, for example, some horizontal engines of sixteen cylinders were designed and constructed for submarines. These were, of course, entirely different from anything previously made by the Wolseley Company. In proportion to their size, they were necessarily far less powerful because they were designed to run at a slow speed. Two different types were constructed, one with a bore and stroke of 8 ½ -in. by 10-in, and a larger unit having a bore and stroke of 12-in. by 12-in.

Then when the famous Captain Scott was preparing for his great Antarctic Expedition in 1910, some tractors were designed for him by the Wolseley Company. They were of the caterpillar type and were fitted with four-cylinder air-cooled Wolseley engines of 12-h.p. with special means for beating the carburettors. There were many novel features about these machines. The treads had spikes with which to grip the ice, but there was no steering gear, brakes or reverse. Two forward gears were provided, giving a speed of 2 and 3 ½ , m.p.h. respectively. Experiments and trials were carried out in Norway, as the result of which certain modifications were made. Orders for three similar motor sledges were also received for use by the Deutsche Antarktische Expedition.

It was, however, in 1912 that one of the most extraordinary motor vehicles ever designed in this country took concrete form in the Adderley Park Works. The second European war demanded many strange types of self-propelled vehicles, but for revolutionary ideas, this production remains to this day in a class by itself.

During the year in question, the Company was approached by a Russian Lawyer, His Excellency Count Peter Schilowsky, to build a machine of his own design. The idea was that highway conditions in war time would render transport for the usual type of vehicle with four wheels and two tracks difficult, and in many circumstances impossible., so, impressed by the smallness of space a single-track machine occupied, Count Schilowsky designed a two-wheeled car on the gyroscope principle in order to ensure equilibrium. The illustration will largely explain the general layout of the machine. The two wheels were placed in line as in an ordinary bicycle, and the machine was kept upright by means of a gyroscopic device controlled by two pendulums which, when the vehicle leaned to one side or the other from the perpendicular, brought the gyroscope into action to oppose the tendency to overturn. The weight of the gyroscope was from one-tenth to one twenty-fifth of the total weight of the machine when fully loaded, and it was designed to rotate at some 1,500 r.p.m. the maximum energy absorbed being in the neighbourhood of 1.25-h.p.

The Inventor claimed that such a mono-track vehicle, running under gyroscope control, could attain a given speed with a less powerful engine, and with a lighter frame and body than would be needed for a four-wheeler of the same rating.

Very small sprag wheels were fitted on either side which only came into operation when the engine was stopped, and they were lowered automatically as the car and engine came to rest.

Such were the conclusions come to by the optimistic Inventor.. in view of the wholly unorthodox nature of the machine, it is of interest to quote the test report of the Wolseley Experimental Department which gives an indication of the difficulties of the problems they had to surmount:-

"On November 27th, 1913," reported the Test Engineer, "I made an effort to move the car, which was successful, no derangement of the governing gear taking place. We drove the car backwards and forwards for a distance of about 6 feet many times. During these tests, it was noticeable that one could stand on the side of the car and step into the body without any disturbance of balance. We then moved the car partially round a radius to the left, backwards and forwards. Eventually we drove the car the whole length of the Arden Works, backwards and forwards, with four passengers. Then His Excellency decided to take the machine over on to the track, impressing on me that we must go very gently. We drove into the Arden Road, making two stops on the curve, and we had to reverse so that we should not use the full lock. I then drove the car steadily up the Arden Road, going as slowly as possible and slipping the clutch on first gear all the time. We took a wide sweep into Bordesley Green Road, and suddenly, when opposite the Directors' Mess Room, the vehicle heeled to the near side and dropped on its sprag. It was lifted by eight men, the engine was re-started, and the car driven back to the Experimental Department, but it was supported by outside assistance as His Excellency did not attempt to balance the car in the street."

In April, 1914, this remarkable machine was brought to London, and on the 28th of that month, the long-awaited public trial was carried out in Regent's Park. It would be idle to speculate on the number of times camera shutters opened and closed, and the amount of cinema film that was expended during this short trip. The vehicle was stopped and restarted many times, and finally it was taken for a slightly longer trial in the Park. The runs were made at slow speed to demonstrate that the gyroscope kept it in complete control as far as equilibrium was concerned.

Whether or not the vehicle would ever have emerged from the early experimental stage into actual production will never be known, for the 1914-18 war was its quietus; the Inventor disappeared suddenly.

The " Gyrocar " stood in a corner of the Wolseley Works for a long time untouched, and as it was too big for the scrap heap and not worth dismantling for scrap metal, and was occupying,, valuable space, it was decided to dig a hole and bury it, sans all preliminary obsequies. This was done, and in its grave it remained for some five years until it was rediscovered. Since then, it has occupied a place in the private Museum of the Wolseley Company. It is a striking example of misapplied talent on the part of the Inventor, and ingenuity on the part of the Wolseley Company in turning out something, the like of which the world had not seen previously, and as far as can be foreseen, never will again.

Let us now consider the Wolseley Company's activities in the commercial vehicle sphere.

When this type of motor vehicle made its early appearance, it was not uncommon to find that some of them at least were little else than private cars adapted to carry goods, etc. This proved thoroughly unsatisfactory; the different circumstances in which the private type of car and the delivery van would be used was not appreciated by many manufacturers; while they n-marketed what was somewhat optimistically termed a commercial vehicle, careful examination disclosed that it was a very near relation of the touring car. The chassis was longer, the springs were perhaps made stronger to cope with the additional weight and the gearbox had different ratios, but it bore little resemblance to what a modern Designer of the genuine article would term a vehicle suitable for what the term implies.

This fault was clear to the Wolseley Company, and so when it was decided to embark on the manufacture of commercial vehicles, no attempt was made to adhere to private-car practice. It was realized that a different technique was demanded.

In studying the general design of the early commercial vehicles made by the Wolseley Company, it is necessary to bear in mind that they were the product of motor engineering as it existed in the early days of the present century, when experience was somewhat limited, and when Designers had still to learn the many lessons w which the 1914-18 war brought to light. Pneumatic tyres, for instance, on all the lightest types of delivery vans, were not used, and gear ratios limited the speed of such vehicles to but a fraction ,of what they are commonly to-day. It is, however, interesting to know that some of the first lorries produced by the Wolseley Company are still in service to-day, at least four of which are used by the Company regularly. One of these, built in 1912, remains in continual use in the Company's factory. Records of the total distance covered have long since ceased to exist, but it is estimated that the total mileage that this vehicle has covered cannot be less than 500,000.

During the period from 1912 to the commencement of the 1914 war, the Company offered six types of commercial vehicles, ranging from a 12-cwt. delivery van, to what was then regarded as a monster 5-tonner, propelled by a 40-h.p. engine. In January, 1914, one of the earliest light vans to be fitted with pneumatic tyres was turned out by the Company. Few people could have then foreseen that before many years had passed the whole of the Adderley Park Works would be given over to commercial vehicles. Yet in 1927, after Lord Nuffield had acquired the Wolseley Company, he established the production of the famous Morris Commercial range of vehicles at Adderley Park, where they are made to this day.

When the 1914-18 war broke out, experience that the Wolseley Company had gained in the field of commercial vehicle production was of great value. One of the chassis was particularly adaptable for ambulance work, and another chassis was acceptable under the War Office subsidy scheme, and was suitable for both haulage and passenger carrying purposes.

And so we arrive at a period in the Wolseley history when private enterprise had to be cut short to defend this country against a conspiracy to enslave the world, and to undo the toil of a great many years. The role the Company played in that great drama will be recorded in the next chapter.