tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19277355608589808672024-03-13T13:16:22.780-07:00Philip Hamlyn Williams - my history of British ManufacturingBritain shaped the manufacturing world. A bold assertion, but is it true? My book How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World seeks to answer this question. The next question is what happened to British manufacturing? The result of my quest to find answers to that question is in Vehicles to Vaccines published 4 December 2023PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-3636751069592328812024-03-06T01:53:00.000-08:002024-03-06T12:20:40.819-08:00Who else shaped the Manufacturing world?<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I was challenged by the reviewer in the </span><a href="https://phil-writer.com/2023/08/16/a-review-in-the-historian-magazine/">Historian Magazine</a><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"> that </span><span face="Helvetica-Oblique" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-style: italic;">How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"> didn’t say much about other countries. I could counter by saying that my book’s title implied this. However, her point is important and I am undertaking some explorations to discover what was going on elsewhere.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: arial;"></span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My starting point, as with my book, is the <a href="http://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/2023/05/01/the-great-exhibition-of-1851/">Great Exhibition of 1851</a>.</span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">James Ward, the celebrated animal artist, wrote a book on the Great Exhibition entitled <span face="Helvetica-Oblique" style="font-style: italic;">The World and its Workshops</span>. He is viewing the exhibition from the point of view of a British visitor comparing the produce of his home country with that of foreigners. In relation to this he is keen to encourage the development of other nations for they will then become better customers for British goods.</span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He focuses in particular on the position of the ‘artisan’ whom he places alongside the manufacturer and the customer. He picks up concerns expressed by Ruskin that the British artisan working in a factory is ‘only a pair of hands’ waiting in the labour market for the chance of being the lowest bidder for employment, instead of going to the capital market to find the highest budder for his services. Artisans should also be artists contributing to the design of what he makes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Ward makes an interesting comparison with France where there is little child labour. He sees the benefit in this in the better education offered to French children which he suggests equips them with taste where comparing manufactured objects.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He sees the English as supreme in the manufacture of items to meet the ordinary wants and comforts of the world, but lagging behind in beauty of design, artistic conception and skill and in decorative art.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He confesses that his fascination is in machinery. He harks back to his mid-life when machines were seen as the enemy of the artisan, and we can recall the Luddites. Forty years later he sees the machine as the extension of the human being augmenting his manual capacity. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In terms of inventions, he singles out William Lea for his stocking-frame, Hargreaves, and Jacquard who would delight in seeing his invention improved by a Belgian. I return to Jacquard later.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He makes another interesting observation about raw materials, suggesting that the English habit of buying raw materials from countries purchasing English finished goods may put the English at a disadvantage if better raw materials are available elsewhere. He suggests that the exhibition would offer an opportunity for comparison which could influence future purchasing decisions.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He then turns to the categories of exhibits starting with steel and is clear that ‘the art of making steel of the finest quality is almost exclusively confined to this country’. In France and Germany, whilst the theories are well understood, the resulting product is inferior. Sheffield was the home of steel production as was Manchester for cotton and Leeds for wool.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Russian and Swedish raw materials are praised as superior to the British, but even in Sweden the final product doesn’t match its English counterpart. German steel producers, Krupp and Hundsdecker, are mentioned but not praised.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The position of American is important. We are talking of a period ten years before the Civil War when industry was highly fragmented albeit equally energetic. Giants of steel making like Bethlehem Steel would only start as iron founders in 1856, and not take on the name of Bethlehem Steel until 1899. It would of course go on to produce steel for America’s iconic buildings and bridges. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Swords, guns and pistols follow on from steel. ‘If due regard be paid to quality as well as to price, <a href="http://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/manufacturing-places/british-manufacturing-by-region/west-midlands/birmingham-up-to-1851/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Birmingham </a>has no equal on the continent.’ It is worth adding that Ward was impressed by an American product only later to discover that its was derived from an earlier British invention. He was also impressed by Liege in Belgium which he says has become in relation to muskets the Birmingham of the world. He does though suggest that the cost advantage they achieve is the result of using inferior metal in manufacture. He looks in detail at the process of making swords and sees the British as superior in use to both the Damascus and Toledo more decorative blades. In looking at gun making he refers to the Birmingham workshop system suggesting that there is no such thing a single gun maker. He looks at rifles and, once again, sees the superiority of the British.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He then turns his attention to copper, brass and mixed metals for mainly ornamental use. He describes the making of steel pens and then pin-making and wire-drawing and the making of buttons before moving on to electro-plate.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">He includes a chapter on typography, lithography and stereotype. This is of personal interest since only four years earlier my great-great uncle, William Smith Williams, had given a paper <em><a href="https://www.williamsmithwilliams.co.uk/2018/11/the-society-of-arts-22-december-1847.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">On Lithography</a></em> to the Royal Society of Arts. The paper had been prepared in conjunction with Sir Henry Cole who was significant in the creation of the Great Exhibition. Charles Hullmandel, my great-great uncle’s employer, was French and it was from France that lithography came and so perhaps it is not surprising that Ward sees French lithographs as superior. The same is not true of typography where the English have the lead. Stereotype was an English invention and the English were still the masters.</span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><!--wp:paragraph-->
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<!--/wp:paragraph--></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">We then arrive at the core of Ward’s reflections, those on machinery. ‘Upon entering the department of machinery in motion, the casual visitor is in some measure amazed and bewildered by the continued whirring and clatter which surrounds him in every direction.’ The first machine is an old had printing press producing barely a score of copies an hour; there is then ‘Applegarth’s latest improvement’ producing many thousands. From there it is textile machinery, the first producing bobbin-net, the second cotton yarn and silk warps and then Ward’s favourite, the Jacquard machine – ‘a monument of man’s intuitive sagacity’.</span></p><p>S<span style="font-family: arial;">iemens Brothers who manufactured the electric motor for the Brighton railway was emphatically British. William Siemens family was German and the two worked closely as did inventors and manufacturers of many nation</span>s</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgelvMLThrR0LJfo3RbC0HfA9J2yfnuw_ONCL5BW0CdG6FLzmqtAkZFqc6_-B1aMXZYhVXd32x0Xm0eXIzqpKBU0ycM51phOj7PdpROXgMtU3whqfbEW_2QOCCuu8NeGzb3w4meh4-LUF-y9fIX1Md5U6rZHGeWv-r66Swz9T5EMcTEbSkjumkOPfgyCSe_/s4032/6D392EBC-DBF5-46F4-B39C-9CA0EF8E8FB2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgelvMLThrR0LJfo3RbC0HfA9J2yfnuw_ONCL5BW0CdG6FLzmqtAkZFqc6_-B1aMXZYhVXd32x0Xm0eXIzqpKBU0ycM51phOj7PdpROXgMtU3whqfbEW_2QOCCuu8NeGzb3w4meh4-LUF-y9fIX1Md5U6rZHGeWv-r66Swz9T5EMcTEbSkjumkOPfgyCSe_/s320/6D392EBC-DBF5-46F4-B39C-9CA0EF8E8FB2.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-8074108115853853512024-02-09T09:27:00.000-08:002024-03-05T23:00:12.510-08:00Reviews of Vehicles to Vaccines<p><span class="a-size-base review-title-content a-color-base a-text-bold" data-hook="review-title" face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(15, 17, 17); color: #0f1111; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.35;">A fantastic amount of detailed, interesting history - Ian Brentnall on Amazon </span></p><div class="a-row a-spacing-none reviewByLine" data-hook="review-by-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(15, 17, 17); color: #0f1111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 374px;"><span class="a-size-small a-color-tertiary review-date" color="rgb(86, 89, 89) !important" data-hook="review-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.3rem; line-height: 1.4;">Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2024</span></div><p><span class="cr-original-truncatable-content" face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(15, 17, 17); color: #0f1111; font-size: 15px;"></span></p><div class="a-row a-spacing-small cr-full-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; width: 374px;"><span class="review-text-sub-contents" data-hook="review-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;">T<i>here’s a huge amount of detail in this book organised into industrial sectors, making it an interesting lexicon of the ghosts of companies and people of our manufacturing past and where our manufacturing is at present.</i></span></div><p>I had earlier received an affirming comment from Kelvin Bray who was managing director of Ruston Gas Turbines (and its successors) for twenty five years and who provided wonderful material for my chapter on Energy:</p><p><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: -apple-system, HelveticaNeue; font-size: 16px;"><i><span data-originalcomputedfontsize="18.666666" data-originalfontsize="14pt" style="color: #002060; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.166667rem;">You have done a truly outstanding job in condensing a huge amount of data into a very readable, even compelling volume – I was surprised at how much I read on first sight.</span></i></b></p><p><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: -apple-system, HelveticaNeue; font-size: 16px;"><i></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: -apple-system, HelveticaNeue; font-size: 16px;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPf8uz7NboXQN-GqvW6_sl0ZoJuEjOrx-JV5fAeHd8Hz5VYFzPaUrYchlhNu8z4vp5MXSg5FhMLPPOVTZ-EPnZP42S_Jh9KoOFNdt3VbgPKLtev7Y8mt3eeQ5z3Mg4cF9orrgfep16GEF4AywdHy4eMFlaqvQJino7V0d2apqM0HR0nxA9w8Eay5bHWz1e/s2048/2AA1EC66-3556-4D9F-AED5-544D9E08F9A3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPf8uz7NboXQN-GqvW6_sl0ZoJuEjOrx-JV5fAeHd8Hz5VYFzPaUrYchlhNu8z4vp5MXSg5FhMLPPOVTZ-EPnZP42S_Jh9KoOFNdt3VbgPKLtev7Y8mt3eeQ5z3Mg4cF9orrgfep16GEF4AywdHy4eMFlaqvQJino7V0d2apqM0HR0nxA9w8Eay5bHWz1e/s320/2AA1EC66-3556-4D9F-AED5-544D9E08F9A3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></i></b></div><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: -apple-system, HelveticaNeue; font-size: 16px;"><i><br /><span data-originalcomputedfontsize="18.666666" data-originalfontsize="14pt" style="color: #002060; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.166667rem;"><br /></span></i></b><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-82794342950014335562024-02-09T08:36:00.000-08:002024-02-09T08:36:35.169-08:00Manufacturing places - Birmingham. <p> In Vehicles to Vaccines I explored the story of British manufacturing sector by sector. Now I want to cut it in a different way looking at the places where manufacturing took place. I begin with Birmingham and you can read my ideas by following this <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/manufacturing-places/british-manufacturing-by-region/west-midlands/birmingham-up-to-1851/" target="_blank">link</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwiKWbSU0w7HONltfn-4VEwzaorikRpsR8RXkip0F6m7o-U1dP3q0ARA-06uXjo9l4xmZEh7ZF5KmbZVsfZYqKgs6kjDqSnGCeADaqBQ_Yni3-xj6JkhiAOHILTpvXzRweCcZ0UwaV8VSOE27AhpGXJBz8wwUwHDCRvSLWS047ipbNM6XJvU5TUmLfn2O_/s1174/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1174" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwiKWbSU0w7HONltfn-4VEwzaorikRpsR8RXkip0F6m7o-U1dP3q0ARA-06uXjo9l4xmZEh7ZF5KmbZVsfZYqKgs6kjDqSnGCeADaqBQ_Yni3-xj6JkhiAOHILTpvXzRweCcZ0UwaV8VSOE27AhpGXJBz8wwUwHDCRvSLWS047ipbNM6XJvU5TUmLfn2O_/s320/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">With thanks to the British Motor Museum</p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-48800715412825877162024-01-04T01:22:00.000-08:002024-01-04T01:22:26.661-08:00Vehicles to Vaccines chapter by chapter<p> In order to offer a taste of Vehicles to Vaccines, I have offered a brief summary of each chapter accessible by following this <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/vehicles-to-vaccines/" target="_blank">link</a>. </p><p>You can take a look inside the book on Kindle by following this <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0CPG1VB33/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">link</a>. </p><p>I am delighted that the book is generating interest from researchers, one exploring the wartime aluminium industry. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7rNvMqn2RfX1D8dKPj5sjXQUXOmQFBspxQLabWpJBMwm1tY-4_TXbLlkaz5yRa6ds-vH3IG3NEtiK6COqMKQBsteRjhC7i2NTMy6r1-LbbWrHeXChFdwu17LinTLTtvZES2BUUtcH30fpU414G6ueFnZxcv884jGSU3Du0h9ezzuBjK1VBy2r0bf1EHr/s2048/4.Chilwell%20battery%20storage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1510" data-original-width="2048" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY7rNvMqn2RfX1D8dKPj5sjXQUXOmQFBspxQLabWpJBMwm1tY-4_TXbLlkaz5yRa6ds-vH3IG3NEtiK6COqMKQBsteRjhC7i2NTMy6r1-LbbWrHeXChFdwu17LinTLTtvZES2BUUtcH30fpU414G6ueFnZxcv884jGSU3Du0h9ezzuBjK1VBy2r0bf1EHr/s320/4.Chilwell%20battery%20storage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The image though is of a wartime battery farm! </p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-43122722274813948902023-12-18T10:52:00.000-08:002023-12-18T10:53:22.767-08:00My talk to the Leicester Historical Association on How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing world<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I want this evening to talk about my quest to discover How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My quest began in April 2014. I brought down from the loft two big box containing scrapbooks which my mum had compiled of my dad’s war. I had always known that they existed but small boys have little interest in scrap books. This time though I turned the pages and found myself speechless. My dad had headed up supply of army vehicles and weapons in WW2 and my mum had been his PA. The albums told an incredible story – the number of vehicles used by the army grew from 40,000 to 1.5 million. I researched and discovered that just about every British motor company had made not only vehicles but anything from tin hats to ammunition. It was a War on Wheels and that was the name of my first book published in 2016. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This evening, instead of a power point, I thought I would use some of the books I drew on to illustrate the talk. This one is brazen publicity as is the next. I promise not all! After the talk I will post both the text and the bibliography on my blog https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But back to the quest. I had caught the bug: what had happened in the first world war? Just about every British engineering company put its shoulder to the war effort. That book was called Ordnance</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Where had the companies come from and where did they go to?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">To try to answer the first question I worked back and got to 1851 and the Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park. This as I’m sure you know was an adventurous idea by Prince Albert and Sir Henry Cole aided by others. The organising committee included such grandees as William Cubitt the builder, Joseph Paxton who designed the massive crystal palace for the exhibition, Robert Stephenson the railway engineer and Charles Wentworth Dilke – editor of the Times. It was to be a ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. A great people inviting all civilised nations to a festival to bring into comparison the works of human skill.’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There were 100,000 exhibits from 14,000 individuals and companies from the United Kingdom and overseas, with some 60% from the home nations. The Crystal Palace covered some 900,000 square feet and welcomed six million visitors over that summer of 1851.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My great grandfather, Richard Williams, was manager of surgical instrument makers Weiss & Son at 62, The Strand just over the road from where he had been born half a century earlier. Richard had been secretary of the group of instrument makers responsible for their part of the exhibition. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I found a copy of the full exhibition catalogue online and it read like a list of old friends – the names of companies known but some long forgotten. Ransome farm machinery, Gillow furniture, Savory and Moore medicines, Maudsely and Napier engineers, Butterley steel which incidentally had an underground wharf on the Cromford canal. Naysmith of the steam hammer fame. Elliott & Sons instruments. William Hollins who would later produce Viyella and Samuel Courtauld.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I had to find where they had come from and where they went. Some of the names took me back to the start.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate . This was perhaps Britain in the late seventeenth century. Land owners were rich and the rest weren’t. I suggest that this conservative scene may have continued uninterrupted had it not been for the sea. The British couldn’t resist the temptation of taking to boats to see what was beyond the horizon. Having reached land, being British, the instinct then was to trade. It worked wonderfully, the wealthy landowners could use some of their wealth to buy the beautiful things that adventurers brought home. It wasn’t only beautiful things, it was exotic tastes like tea and sugar. It transformed the lives of the wealthy; the adventurers didn’t do too badly either; wealth began to leak into a small but growing part of the population: the merchant class; the nation of shopkeepers so derided by Napoleon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The demand for shipping grew. Some forty years of research have been brought together in Anthony Slaven’s British Shipbuilding 1500-2010; </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Ship building, like wool, is fundamental to our island story. Slaven suggests that, all around our shores, there were many carpenters who turned their hand to the building of small boats. Their use was restricted to coastal waters, and, perhaps, as far as the Low Countries, France and possibly Portugal and the Mediterranean. Trade with the Far East was conducted overland, as evidenced by the Silk Road. The late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw the ‘great voyages of discovery’, and much longer voyages to the spice islands, Africa and China. This is subject explored extensively elsewhere and so I didn’t dwell on it in my book. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">With all this shipbuilding forests were being denuded at an alarming rate. Forests which were also a store of energy for heating and cooking as well as smelting ore to find metal from which all manner of device could be made. If wood or charcoal could no longer be used, what was the alternative.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Those canny Brits living in the north east already knew the answer, for they had been collecting seacoal, as opposed to charcoal, from beaches for centuries. What’s more, they found that if you scraped the surface you could find more seacoal underneath. It was filthy and gave off noxious fumes but it provided heat when heat was needed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">None of this story is strictly linear, but some things did follow as a consequence of others. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Beautiful cloth was imported from India and this made sense because cotton grew there and they had been making it into wonderful garments for centuries. British textile merchants, who had for centuries run their supply chain of wool and flax spinners and weavers, recognised an opportunity. Why not let Lancashire spinners and weavers make the cloth from imported cotton? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It was an opportunity not to be missed until Napoleon came along</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">British merchants had developed a nice little continental market for their cotton cloth. The Napoleonic wars scuppered that and prices collapsed. Somehow costs had to be reduced. There wasn’t enough scope in paying yet less to the weavers and spinners – who were becoming desperate</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Something else was needed: mechanisation. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The British had always been finding better ways of doing things. John Kay with his flying shuttle; James Hargreaves with the spinning jenny, Samuel Crompton’s mule and Richard Arkwrights mechanised factory. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">These machines demanded metal for their construction. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Elsewhere in the forest, as they say, iron masters were finding better ways to produce metal and better metals in the form of brass and steel. All this demanded more coal and more coal demanded deeper mines. Deeper mines brought twin problems of flooding with water and foul air. Metal provided the solution in the hands of men like Newcomen, Blenkinsop and Hackworth, first with the atmospheric engine to pump the water to the surface. Ever ingenious, this water was then used to power waterwheels which, in turn, could power a lift to bring the hard won coal to the surface and onwards to the canal and the final customer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But back to the mill. All this mechanisation in textile manufacture was fine so long as you were near a fast flowing river and could harness its power to drive waterwheels to work machines. What was needed was rotational power that did not need a fast flowing river and this brings us to Birmingham.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is and was a remarkable place. In the seventeenth and eighteen century it was a town of workshops. Accounts from the time tell of innumerable chimneys puffing out smoke as all manner of metal was worked into tools, weapons and toys – those items of delight that so thrilled the monied classes. The very special thing about Birmingham was that each workshop carried out a single process, with the item passed on to the neighbour for the next process and so on. It was classical division of labour, a production line, if you like. The other special thing about Birmingham was a man named Watt in partnership with Boulton. Watt did of course crack the problem of rotational motion powered by steam. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Now there was no stopping this people.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Rotational motion powered by steam worked a dream in cotton mills, and the percentage of cotton clothing worn by the British and Europeans increased dramatically. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It was itself a revolution but one not without its dark side as the cotton was grown by slaves and the working conditions in the mills and mines for men, women and children were appalling. This has been explored extensively elsewhere and although fundamental to the industrial revolution and indeed our history, I won’t talk more about it this evening. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It is interesting to try to identify just what it was that drove the massive increase in cotton consumption. One school of thought puts it down to domestic demand; people wanted clothing they could wash. Or was it the export markets? I suspect a bit of both. But back to steam.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We had the factories, could steam also help the transport problem? Roads were dangerous and often potholed, Canals were great, but slow. In step Trevithic, Stephenson and Isembard Kingdom Brunel and the railways beckoned.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The railway entrepreneurs like Thomas Brassey and George Hudson built a more densely populated rail system than was absolutely essential. Yet investors kept piling and an astonishing infrastructure resulted. Britain not only built railways in Britain but in France and elsewhere. We exported rails to the USA and indeed worldwide</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Trains dramatically reduced travel times, but what if there was a quicker way to send a message?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Scientists on both sides of the Atlantic had long been experimenting with electricity, but in Britain it was Cooke and Wheatstone who demonstrated that a signal could be transmitted along a wire; some suggest before Morse. Soon telegraph wires extended beside railway lines cementing the connected country. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Electrical wires needed insulation which was provided by a rubber type substance from southeast Asia called Gutta Percha, the main producer of which would become BTR, the company that bought Dunlop – that though is jumping ahead.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Britain wasn’t just a country, it was the heart of an empire extending across the globe. British ships sailed and steamed everywhere with iron and steel steadily taking the place of wood for ship construction. The Empire could be drawn ever closer with telegraph and this is where Siemens stepped in. This was the British Siemens led by William, later Sir William, as opposed to the German company bearing the same name, run by his brother. The British Siemens Brothers made cable by the mile at their Woolwich factory, later part of AEI and then GEC. Soon the empire was linked.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Yet, telegraph was to be a splash in the ocean as far as the use of electricity was concerned. We come across a man named Ferranti working in the Siemens laboratory. From there he went on to power generation and, in his early twenties, a phenomenally ambitious scheme to provide electricity for London from a new power station at Deptford.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Telegraph was great if you could run cables, but what about ships? Just think of the commercial advantage if ships could be contacted en-route. Here another man of Italian birth steps in. Marconi created a business enabling ships to communicate with land stations using radio. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Time and again we might admit surprise at the names of those most influential in the story, for many were not ‘British’. The peoples of these islands welcomed and offered opportunity to men, for most were then men, who had been born elsewhere. Perhaps it was our openness to the world more than anything that resulted in our place in the world of manufacturing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The manufacturing ecosystem screamed for yet more power. I turn first to two Britons – James Young who found a flammable liquid seeping out of coal seams down in the mines, and Joseph Ruston top of my list manufacturing heroes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Joseph Ruston was one of the founders of the Lincoln firm, Ruston and Hornsby. He was the complete businessman: innovative, a great salesman and financially astute. There is a delightful book One Hundred Years of Good company which tells the story of Rustons with a little fictional narrative alongside the harder history.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Well , this book tells a story of Ruston travelling to Russia to sell them steam pumps to drain the land ready to plant grain. Being an entrepreneur always with an eye to an opportunity, Ruston heard that a man nearby wanted to pump oil out of the ground and what better than a Rustons pump. That man’s mainstream business was trading in shells – it did of course become the massive Shell Oil Company.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Rustons book suggests that Ruston and Hornsby can lay claim to the first ‘diesel’ engine – indeed before diesel. These spread around the globe frequently for electricity generation as in lighthouses and indeed the statue of liberty.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In any sane world British engineers would have developed the internal combustion engine to add power to carriages. Instead the island was plagued by rich idiots recklessly driving steam powered vehicles on the roads. Government stepped in to limit speeds with the Red Flag. This gave the French and Germans time to take the lead in inventing the motor car. As is often the case the British did rather well following the footsteps of others. Harry Lawson bought the Daimler patents and created the first British motor factory in an old cotton mill in Coventry. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Others quickly followed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The route to the motor car derives quite possibly from the sewing machine. This piece of apparatus evolved over a period with input again on both sides of the Atlantic, eventually taking shape under patents taken out by the America Singer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A word about patents. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the role played by William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I trusted advisor. He masterminded British patent law which provided protection to those who wished to exploit their inventions here. Many chose Britain in preference to their native land for this reason.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Those working with sewing machines used their new found knowledge to branch out into bicycles and here names like Humber, Hillman Singer and Starley emerge. From bicycles came motor bikes and then motor cars.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For the motor car, alongside Lawson and Daimler, I might place Lanchester very much not an entrepreneur and definitely not a business administrator but a brilliant engineer. He built the first vehicle that was not simply a horseless carriage. Harry Ricardo, who himself designed the engine for the tank, said of the Lanchester that he could vouch for their ‘quietness, lack of vibration and smooth ride.’</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The name Harry Lawson brings in those of other entrepreneurs who sailed near to and sometimes over the line. Ernest Terah Hooley was one such described by the Economist as the Napoleon of finance. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Cars needed tyres and in steps John Dunlop with his tyre for bicycles. It wasn’t Dunlop though who drove the business from Ireland onto the world stage and motor cars. It was the du Cros family and Hooley; and much later Eric Geddes. It was Hooley who launched Dunlop as a public company, making millions as a result. He went on to build the Trafford Park industrial estate in Manchester.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Cars also needed lights and other electrical equipment and in steps Joseph Lucas, first with lights for bicycles but then for cars</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But also engineers like Humber and Hillman, designers like Louis Coatalen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There were many others. Morris in Oxford. Austin who started out in Wolseley making sheep shearing equipment. Wolseley later became part of Vickers of which more later. There were also Rolls-Royce and WO Bentley of course. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">If internal combustion engines could be used to power transport on land, why not ships and why not in the air; indeed why not on rail? Once again the British weren’t first but they prospered in the slip stream.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In relation to ships, the invention by Newcastle man CA Parsons of the steam turbine may have delayed the move by British shipbuilders to internal combustion. Steam turbine ships were very good.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Genius with steam also encouraged the British to stay with coal powered railway locomotives – after all with the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, it was a remarkable industry.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Clearly the same wasn’t true of aircraft and in the years before the First World War we began to see those much loved icons: de Havilland, Hadley Page, AV Roe, Sopwith and Hawker.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Tragically and ironically, war played a huge part in the history of British manufacturing. Aside from the loss of young lives, the drain on the exchequer especially after the second world war placed great pressure on the governments that spurred the export drive in its wake. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Looking at war driven technological advances, the Crimean war inspired William Armstrong to invent the rifled barrel for big guns, vastly improving their accuracy, and encouraging advances in metallurgy. Armstrong would join with Whitworth and then Vickers. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Advances in medicine are well known. War also inspired Donkin to develop the tin can for preserving food especially for the Navy. Napoleon could claim the initial credit since he had sponsored a competition to produce a means of storage of meat for his sailors. The competition was won by a glass container; Donkin’s metal one worked rather better in practice.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Boer war developed the use of telegraph transforming the way infantry and cavalry worked together.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The First World War had a massive influence. At the start, the War Office had specified Bosch magnetos for all war office vehicles. In stepped Peter Bennett of Thomson Bennett which were the only UK manufacturer of such parts. Lucas spotted an opportunity and bought the company, massively increasing its production. Almost as important, Bennett would go on to run Lucas in the interwar years with great success. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Inevitably expertise with explosives grew with people like Nobel and Abel. A whole string of munitions factories were created. Heavy engineering flexed its muscles with companies like Vickers, John Brown, Cammell Laird and Beardmore. The young motor industry stepped up with large numbers of lorries, motor bikes and cars. Textile manufacturers churned out tons of uniforms. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Lincoln’s William Tritton invented the tank, made by manufacturers across the land. In truth under the inspiration of Lloyd George the whole national industry went to war. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I spotted a toy tank in a national trust house we visited a couple of years ago. It has a strong message about toys which were barely visible in any quantity before the twentieth century. There may have been a horse tricycle from G&J Lines, but more likely a wooden toy bought from a street trader. After 1900, they may have had a Mechanics Made Easy set and accompanying instruction manual. Frank Hornby, a Liverpool office worker, had been making perforated metal strips for his sons. These could be connected by means of small bolts and nuts to make anything from model trains to bridges and cranes. The adoption of the name Meccano came in 1907. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Harbutt’s Plasticine was first manufactured in 1900. For wealthier families, the main source of toys was Germany with manufacturers such as Steiffe for Teddy Bears and Marklin for tinplate. The British firm Bassett-Lowke designed and supplied clockwork trains, but often had them manufactured in Germany. Between the wars, the absence of German suppliers boosted British toy makers into world leadership</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Telegraph and telephone were used by the country mile but also radio especially for contact between the ground and aircraft overhead. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The interwar years witnessed change on a grand scale.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">At first there was a short post war boom but then old industries suffered as former customer nations found they could make it themselves – so textiles and shipping. Then the massive infrastructure of war production had to be redeployed. Shipyard owners rationed themselves to share out the reduced volume of work. Thousands of skills workers were laid off. The consumption of whisky fell and producers such as the Distillers Company sought new uses for their plant – industrial alcohol made from molasses was one answer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">New industries prospered. The chemicals giant ICI was created in 1926 and would fund research which would, within a decade, lead to the invention of polythene and Perspex, using that industrial alcohol. Courtaulds took a licence for the production of rayon from vegetable material and soon transformed the dress of the British from cotton and wool to rayon – once again historic skills of spinning and weaving came in. The Celanese company of Derby took this further by using chemicals derived from cracking oil. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I don’t know whether magnificent head offices were a hint of something to come.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Elsewhere Lever Brothers were making more than soap, Burroughs Welcome were developing medicines although Glaxo still focused on baby milk – how it would change!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">English Electric and Associated Electrical Industries were both products of the interwar years. It is interesting though that these giant electric companies owe their childhood years to America.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Motor cars went from strength to strength</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Radio thrived, once businesses realised they could make money out of it. The BBC was formed by radio manufacturers in the 1923. To begin with the number of amateur licences far exceeded those who simply wanted to listen. A great many of the early radios were home made, but then we have names like Ekco and Pye. Gramophone recording kept pace with radio but television would follow later. There were British fingers in each of the pies.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the mid-thirties, rearmament saved shipping, but also aircraft. Companies such as Avro, Supermarine, de Havilland, Vickers and Shorts were busy again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There is a case for saying that the Second World War lasted for ten years for British manufacturers. It produced an astonishing set of advances. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Motor manufacturers stepped up to the mark even more, producing everything from tanks, tin hats and ammunition to vehicles of all kinds – they made aircraft in the shadow factories built in the thirties in anticipation of war. Out of aircraft production came the jet, brain child of Frank Whittle which took to the air in the Meteor.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Radio manufacturers produced thousands of sets for all three services; they developed and manufactured radar and many other devices not least the Collosus computer that cracked the enigma code.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The potential of nuclear power was explored by ICI and others. Interestingly Frank Kierton, who went on to run Courtaulds, was part of the ICI team. Nylon, based on chemicals derived from oil was invented. British Nylon Spinners, owned jointly by ICI and Courtaulds, exploited the American invention. Glaxo and Wellcome produced penicillin initially using a natural fermentation. It would not be long before penicillin was joined by pharmaceuticals also derived from oil. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Aluminium, which had been produced in the UK since the late 19th c, had been used by the ton in aircraft manufacture and would go on to be used in London’s tube trains.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Post war, there was no respite. Exports were needed in unimagined quantities to balance the nation’s books. It was tough on an exhausted population for rationing became ever fiercer. For exports, plastics mushroomed as more oil was refined to meet demand. Polythene began to be seen in the home. Giant chemical works appeared. What might be termed the gluttony of hydrocarbons got under way.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The motor industry yet again came into its own. The problem was how to meet the pent up demand. The American market was hungry for Jaguars, Austin Healey and MG and the Sunbeam Talbot. This strong demand laid the foundations of troubles to come as demands for higher wages were accepted just to keep production moving. Coventry was a busy place. Steel works struggled to keep pace. Shipyards were rationing orders to cope with demand. Again storing up problems for the future. The absence of competition meant that technical advance was slow or not existent. Old work practices were re-embraced. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A man named Bamford made his first excavator from a converted tractor. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Vickers Viscount and de Havilland Comet took to the air</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The jet engine powering aircraft also found spectacular use as gas turbines powering the new oil industry. I was privileged to meet Kelvin Bray, managing director of Ruston Gas Turbines for twenty five years and he told me how the team in Lincoln, working under a watchful eye from Frank Whittle, developed the gas turbine with encouragement from Arnold Weinstock of Ruston’s then owner, GEC.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Rustons gas turbines were used by 80% of the world’s oil industry</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The post war era saw Brush at the Falcon Works in Loughborough manufacture generators, transformers and railway locomotives. Brush later became part of Hawker Siddeley.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Rolls-Royce at Derby had powered so many aircraft with the iconic Merlin engine amongst others. Their motor cars transported royalty. The post war era saw wonderful motor cars but also Rolls-Royce jet engines and work on nuclear power for submarines.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This part of my story ends with the Festival of Britain, an occasion of great hope for the future. For my book it forms a bookend to mirror that of the Great Exhibition. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Festival itself was to be unlike the Great Exhibition; in the words of the Festival director:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We were going to tell a story not industry by industry, still less firm by firm, but the consecutive story of the British people in the land they live in. Each type of manufacture and each individual exhibit would occur in the setting appropriate to that part of the story in which it naturally fell e.g. steel knives and sinks in the home part of the story, steel machines in the industry part of the story, steel chassis in transport, and so on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Exhibits were chosen as products of good design, functional efficiency and manufacture. We had moved on to a world of design and people like Robin Day with his iconic plastic chairs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I found surprising the emphasis given to the manufacture of textiles. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, given the importance of textiles to the whole industrialisation process. In 1914 it was said that Britain produced enough cloth to clothe half the world’s population. In 1951, the future of textiles was considered strong – they were to lead the export drive. How things have changed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There was an emphasis on new materials: aluminium, fibreglass and all manner of rubber highlighted by Dunlop. There was a focus on what we now call green energy: nuclear and hydroelectric.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A Design Review was compiled of some 24,000 products chosen for good design, functional efficiency and manufacture. It was to be a showcase for the nation. It also provides the spring board for my current book, Vehicles to Vaccines, which explores what happened next. Contrary to popular opinion it is not all doom and gloom, British manufacturing, although employing many fewer people, may well be approaching another golden era.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYEMijiPEOMqtONuZWLw9TfUdFaqEjilIfXh3CZ49bm1tt6jPH-SoswERQxxOMnIlBSMAO7K6zqX3eThgGjlPZetBFou0DHrN-lPUdm8j7LO4of6sB6XuwVuAamSXm9wBjwulpHAcFj6DYnaXfHXB2V-cAuSrD9Y4f5fj7UC7vT9Hbha97mhFkbCgE-PU/s2048/8A30CB2B-3B2A-4DFB-829C-B2C5E25D4AFB.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1321" data-original-width="2048" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYEMijiPEOMqtONuZWLw9TfUdFaqEjilIfXh3CZ49bm1tt6jPH-SoswERQxxOMnIlBSMAO7K6zqX3eThgGjlPZetBFou0DHrN-lPUdm8j7LO4of6sB6XuwVuAamSXm9wBjwulpHAcFj6DYnaXfHXB2V-cAuSrD9Y4f5fj7UC7vT9Hbha97mhFkbCgE-PU/s320/8A30CB2B-3B2A-4DFB-829C-B2C5E25D4AFB.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><p><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-48893840007769498932023-12-09T10:02:00.000-08:002023-12-17T23:44:57.071-08:00Talk to Leicester branch of the Historical Association <p> Delighted to have been invited to do a virtual talk about How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. </p><p>I have dispensed with PowerPoint and will talk with reference to my secondary sources - the book was written in lockdown, although I did have some earlier research of primary sources. </p><p>I plan to post the text of my talk and a list of the books after the talk </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLwSfCjT83BboZT_EIbl6T5lB-WDhx5WS1PXz1Y7hu83MC-E2DFUyJU8svd4xoAhuND3bN5dTjN5V7XSxn7qgqbZb8_YGlL6yUuL3j9Xv4u4GkEpQavlbAZuZEqT0c_51j58mF9IGi6rnZWSvSWTblHNJ3Dnz4FeUrwB-jyLsTWfh34uahV-NEKohz5Hl/s4032/6B2EFCD4-86AE-42DE-9E4D-C09F94CB251B.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLwSfCjT83BboZT_EIbl6T5lB-WDhx5WS1PXz1Y7hu83MC-E2DFUyJU8svd4xoAhuND3bN5dTjN5V7XSxn7qgqbZb8_YGlL6yUuL3j9Xv4u4GkEpQavlbAZuZEqT0c_51j58mF9IGi6rnZWSvSWTblHNJ3Dnz4FeUrwB-jyLsTWfh34uahV-NEKohz5Hl/s320/6B2EFCD4-86AE-42DE-9E4D-C09F94CB251B.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-43255194937747401032023-12-05T01:31:00.000-08:002023-12-05T01:47:21.365-08:00Vehicles to Vaccines published 4 December 2023<p>I <span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-size: 17px; text-size-adjust: auto;">am delighted to announce that Vehicles to Vaccines has been published by<a href="https://andrewsparke.com/" target="_blank"> APS Books</a>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">British Manufacturing was the envy of the world; it led the way. In time other nations caught up and indeed overtook the British in value of output. In 1951, manufacturing employed one third of the workforce; in the twenty-first century this has fallen to just ten percent. Britain now ranks eighth in the world league table of manufacturing nations. What had happened?</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">I explored the years up to 1951 in my book<a href="https://www.philiphamlynwilliams.co.uk/p/where-you-can-buy-how-britain-shaped.html" target="_blank"> <span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World (</span></a>HBSTMW) which looked at the story of British manufacturing through the prism of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In this volume I seek to explore what happened since.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">The Festival of Britain of 1951 gave a message of hope to a country worn down by war and yet more rationing. The future was to be as bright as the colours of new materials for the promised homes, hospitals and schools. Power was to be nuclear and hydroelectric. The world’s vehicles were British, be they ships, aircraft or wheeled. The world though was also picking itself up from the devastation of war with new factories and shipyards competing in export markets. What might be called the gluttony of hydrocarbons began with massive oil tankers taking to the seas and plastics finding their way into every part of life. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">In this world of change, British manufacturing didn’t stand still. In this book I delve into manufacturing, sector by sector drilling down into some key companies.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">You can buy Vehicles to Vaccines from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPG1VB33" target="_blank">Amazon</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkpCo4gWsayLlb-lK1glkwD-mx3AOQvyDO4Q6ZBPo_PYoCjgsp65W_7dZMPYXepNIvtZtamBNTkYPdMtr771kMHFCmM0J7XfPRLMpKJsNtpLnOcU66uKikGO70Jt0P3jaC-pUUGPBbOpE8AzDXjABjQv145taRoxeGvHbJYNP1yHBlhdKab038Kdh1fB4x/s2700/837EC4B6-3E5A-4E17-90D7-5163AE4B07C6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1753" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkpCo4gWsayLlb-lK1glkwD-mx3AOQvyDO4Q6ZBPo_PYoCjgsp65W_7dZMPYXepNIvtZtamBNTkYPdMtr771kMHFCmM0J7XfPRLMpKJsNtpLnOcU66uKikGO70Jt0P3jaC-pUUGPBbOpE8AzDXjABjQv145taRoxeGvHbJYNP1yHBlhdKab038Kdh1fB4x/s320/837EC4B6-3E5A-4E17-90D7-5163AE4B07C6.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">The cover image was given by <a href="https://www.hone-all.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hone-All Ltd</a> and it is if their Jones & Shipman machine which with upgrades is still in use </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(17, 17, 17); color: #111111; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28.9px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-9654078025531548142023-11-27T23:48:00.000-08:002023-11-27T23:48:27.711-08:00Inward Investment <p> <a href="https://careersatnissan.co.uk/nissan-sunderland-plant-tours/" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Nissan</a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">’s announcement of a £2 billion investment in their Sunderland plant is the latest note of affirmation of the quality of their British workforce and supply chain.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">The image is of a model of one of the early ones, Hoover with their iconic building on London’s Western Avenue. The model is at <a href="https://www.bekonscot.co.uk/">Bekonscot</a>. model village at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">There are a great many other examples including machine tool maker M<a href="https://www.mazakeu.com/">azak </a>EU in Worcester. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">I write much more in my forthcoming book <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/work-in-progress/">Vehicles to Vaccines</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIBV16RXDLrh-iqdAme-JW1Wj37XInD9i3eEOvBlH4t3j8sQ4rGkJH_0vLciJ8KCKBc9Qiro0cMunVzKgT9RAWRa0hKA1mpEw2AGIuGrwxqZpWJ2X5FK60LrYWlFpJz5B4ADFByLPyavZjyhNb0I65bSquBZ65djJ___ayBoz73Q32wIMEsPPgm1774iG/s4032/84869E4A-D5D2-4B46-9200-4B36B78AE0C1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIBV16RXDLrh-iqdAme-JW1Wj37XInD9i3eEOvBlH4t3j8sQ4rGkJH_0vLciJ8KCKBc9Qiro0cMunVzKgT9RAWRa0hKA1mpEw2AGIuGrwxqZpWJ2X5FK60LrYWlFpJz5B4ADFByLPyavZjyhNb0I65bSquBZ65djJ___ayBoz73Q32wIMEsPPgm1774iG/s320/84869E4A-D5D2-4B46-9200-4B36B78AE0C1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-5098799498572017292023-10-10T10:36:00.002-07:002023-12-17T23:45:28.288-08:00Vehicles to Vaccines - a working draft <p> <span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">This week I have been editing the draft of my next book Vehicles to Vaccines exploring the #ukmfg story from 1951. I have also received a draft contract from a publisher. So onward I go!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb0njgPlLzHUQ9pKDu0GkXJ6UKl1nDkHzTGQdwhLrRriKpqGbiS_mSTaYgayDs6GfUtwajmasJn2q8Wr15JacpjjjcIQSKY1gJH5Y8VZ_-8OpbPfaQcChRavp1a44BSSFKQu45_3NcuA8b178WFM6btk5rdr85-RyayS9bnN7gA7GSeDwu7Hna9G9fPvo/s4032/F0516A3C-B722-43BA-9E35-80B71BCCDFF5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb0njgPlLzHUQ9pKDu0GkXJ6UKl1nDkHzTGQdwhLrRriKpqGbiS_mSTaYgayDs6GfUtwajmasJn2q8Wr15JacpjjjcIQSKY1gJH5Y8VZ_-8OpbPfaQcChRavp1a44BSSFKQu45_3NcuA8b178WFM6btk5rdr85-RyayS9bnN7gA7GSeDwu7Hna9G9fPvo/w320-h208/F0516A3C-B722-43BA-9E35-80B71BCCDFF5.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-72432627800533039132023-09-19T06:55:00.002-07:002023-09-19T06:55:33.824-07:0020,000 blog visits<p>Thank you everyone for visiting this blog. </p><p>Coming up will be some more winners and losers since 1951. I also plan to explore the early manufacturing of other nations through the catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gPzLtA0Qw5ZfFvixDeGccw_KFAccQ0gdbl41KR1BQWuaOPlZBh7NXFeHRPPaJ1iHfUa2gpFIHiM3HeqSvmBSews5tG_TPlhcqp0BZpRkp5nvcrTQfTtyLwwSZ7O7u8nLisV4UeF_4Zcg7cdk9PSslAB4Ywl1PwHjuTu0-ZVILD4dEq7-oRhStg-SQS5W/s4032/49F87795-C222-4802-9FAA-37718EA3E4C2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gPzLtA0Qw5ZfFvixDeGccw_KFAccQ0gdbl41KR1BQWuaOPlZBh7NXFeHRPPaJ1iHfUa2gpFIHiM3HeqSvmBSews5tG_TPlhcqp0BZpRkp5nvcrTQfTtyLwwSZ7O7u8nLisV4UeF_4Zcg7cdk9PSslAB4Ywl1PwHjuTu0-ZVILD4dEq7-oRhStg-SQS5W/s320/49F87795-C222-4802-9FAA-37718EA3E4C2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p>It can’t all be work. </p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-14318688696061903582023-09-09T09:56:00.001-07:002023-12-17T23:46:21.244-08:00Jaguar and Land Rover - odd bedfellows?<!--wp:paragraph-->
<p>William Lyons and the Wilks brothers created remarkable companies which made iconic vehicles. Was it just fate that brought the companies together?</p>
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<p>The route to the first ‘marriage’ was circuitous.</p>
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<p>In the fifties, William Lyons and Jaguar were doing well, producing cars much in demand and they had virtually doubled in size by buying Daimler, but also Coventry Climax and Guy Motors. To be honest this was a pretty rich mix. It therefore still strikes me as strange that Lyons would enter into merger discussions with George Harriman at BMC. Yet, we have to remember the times – when BMC’s Mini was the must have vehicle for swinging sixties. BMC also owned MG and Austin-Healey whose sports cars were much in demand. It seems that Lyons saw BMC as having the weight to finance the development of the Jaguar models which he had at least in his mind if not on the drawing board. Jaguar merged with BMC to become British Motor Holdings in 1966.</p>
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<p>The Wilks brothers had retired from Rover in the early sixties and Donald Stokes of Leyland viewed the company as offering a slice of motoring quality to the bus and truck company which he ran. Rover would join Triumph which had become part of Leyland with the Standard-Triumph acquisition in 1960.</p>
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<p>The mid sixties saw BMH running into trouble. The answer in the eyes of the new Labour government was size and this would be provided by the charismatic Donald Stokes and Leyland. The merger took place in 1968.</p>
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<p>The new group had riches beyond price in terms of wonderful motor cars. The Jaguar E-type and XJ6, the Rover P6, the Triumph 2000 not to mention the MGB and Triumph TR5. It also had a vehicle originally made for farmers from aluminium left over from aircraft production – the Land Rover. Rather more ominously it had a large number of old factories, dominant shop stewards and mass market motor cars that the public didn’t really want.</p>
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<p>I explore what became the British Leyland story in my next book, Vehicles to Vaccines.</p>
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<p>For this blog I note just three events that ensured that Jaguar and Land Rover would survive.</p>
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<p>The rationalisation of BL could so easily have led to the loss of the Land Rover; instead the factory at Solihull was made over to 4x4 production. The Range Rover had been introduced at the end of the sixties just as BL was running out of money. The car was perfectly timed and demand soon far exceeded supply.</p>
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<p>A little later, a brilliant manager, Geoffrey Robinson, was appointed Managing Director of Jaguar. He had no intention of the marque losing it kudos and initiated an ambitious plan to bring the company back on track. A lack of money caused this plan to run into the buffers. The appointment of Michael Edwards to lead to the eventual breakup of British Leyland had for Jaguar a streak of brilliance for he appointed John Egan to take up the reins at the then floundering motor company. Egan and his team brought Jaguar back so much so that, following privatisation, Ford paid handsomely for what was to lead their new speciality car group.</p>
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<p>British Leyland became the Rover Group and this was bought by BMW. They in turn sold Land Rover to Ford where it worked closely with Jaguar.</p>
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<p>The rest as they say is history, Jaguar and Land Rover both now prosper as JLR as part of the Tata Group.</p>
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<p>It is ironic that the Wilks family didn’t see the Land Rover as their great success; it was the experimental vehicle powered by a gas turbine – Rover had after all been part of the development of the jet engine. Had this been the case, Jaguar and Rover would have been head to head. Had Land Rover stuck to the utility vehicle so loved by explorers, Ford may well not have looked at them. Yet with the Range Rover successors, Land Rover and Jaguar together look to the luxury car market where they both can prosper.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxYnV-VJPRmRch8pNJ8pqkCWrGu4A0WG_1IMaLhnXCarPeoD63UhjIxwvExXYyX3g2qKkhCQEobNkkatwaVTa65EpJCrfz0_929XQvpBU9LAl1_qbBii4X7ptSGL6IA7hKEamVDGiygEQbuGTsQ1I5v0maJZeg9PshkhSmutPp274r43Qglqj0WSOy-l-/s4032/6A05172B-54E6-4596-99F2-89FCC6EFB3FD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTxYnV-VJPRmRch8pNJ8pqkCWrGu4A0WG_1IMaLhnXCarPeoD63UhjIxwvExXYyX3g2qKkhCQEobNkkatwaVTa65EpJCrfz0_929XQvpBU9LAl1_qbBii4X7ptSGL6IA7hKEamVDGiygEQbuGTsQ1I5v0maJZeg9PshkhSmutPp274r43Qglqj0WSOy-l-/s320/6A05172B-54E6-4596-99F2-89FCC6EFB3FD.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>The ashtray belonged to my Dad who owned one of the first SS cars to carry the name Jaguar </p>
<!--/wp:paragraph--><p> </p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-82690521537211599662023-08-18T23:19:00.002-07:002023-12-17T23:46:59.768-08:00Lucas - King of the Air<!--wp:paragraph-->
<p>Lucas occupied a special place in the aircraft industry supplying electrical systems for aircraft. </p>
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<p>The number of aircraft manufactured in the UK before and during WW2 was enormous and under continuous development, and so Lucas engineers were busy not only manufacturing but researching and designing new products. For example, some 200,000 Rotax magnetos had been supplied for Rolls-Royce Merlins. </p>
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<p>After the war, they designed brand new magnetos for Rolls-Royce Griffins for Avro Shackletons and also for Bristol Hercules 730s. With the coming of the V bombers, Rotax supplied complete electrical systems for the Vickers Valiant. The Vulcan and Victor also had significant input from Rotax. This work flowed into a contract to equip the Rolls-Royce Dart for the Vickers Viscount; they also equipped the Bristol Britannia, de Havilland Comet and Hawker Hunter. </p>
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<p>The increasing complexity of aircraft and the associated demand on the electrical supply partly wrong footed Rotax allowing English Electric, which had taken a license to manufacture Sundstrand constant speed drives for aircraft generators, a foothold in the supply chain.</p>
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<p>As Gas Turbine engines became ever more powerful, the issue of the ignition unit became ever more contentious. This allowed Plessey and BTH another toehold. Lucas was never a company to be beaten for long, and it was Lucas that developed the electronics for the Rolls-Royce Avon.</p>
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<p>Eric Earnshaw had been a driving force at Rotax and had begun a policy of diversification when he saw the market under pressure. One was the solid-rotor alternator developed for aircraft but also employed to advantage in the Chieftain tank. Another was the heat pump – many years before its time. Earnshaw’s focus and energy ensured that Lucas was at the head of the pack with aero-engine technology. </p>
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<p>With the purchase of Bristol Siddeley by Rolls-Royce, he saw the need to combine component suppliers and went about a programme of purchases devoting much money, time and effort to support Rolls-Royce with the development of the RB211. This could so easily have been disastrous when Rolls ran out of money. The Lucas position was saved by the nationalisation of their customer and their work continued. </p>
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<p>The focus of Lucas work in aviation was sharpened further by its renaming as Lucas Aerospace. Lucas Aerospace worked on the re-heat system to provide bursts in increased power for the Phantom. They also developed digital fuel control for jets which by their nature experiences extreme conditions. Little of this work was done in isolation. Lucas worked with Rolls-Royce but also with Bosch and computer manufacturers Marconi-Elliott.</p>
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<p>Image with thanks to the British Motor Archive</p>
<!--/wp:paragraph--><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmUcVzofX-pWCYNdJCLVGtxGivLVWmx9oXFTlb3iwrqsnCcnJj9Nyt9_tPfsAsb9ZR7DQHKxqXpSc0ZlFhTiPNqaAhFCgLSkz1V0Kx1S0w2_U_zDki8CBZeYNpQnx_9YRj7IugfaTs3jclBC3JTEfZqTMzKSIY0XPx_xubfsFJjVPWz6Rwv2mfS5wHzxS/s1174/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1174" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmUcVzofX-pWCYNdJCLVGtxGivLVWmx9oXFTlb3iwrqsnCcnJj9Nyt9_tPfsAsb9ZR7DQHKxqXpSc0ZlFhTiPNqaAhFCgLSkz1V0Kx1S0w2_U_zDki8CBZeYNpQnx_9YRj7IugfaTs3jclBC3JTEfZqTMzKSIY0XPx_xubfsFJjVPWz6Rwv2mfS5wHzxS/s320/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> I write more in my forthcoming book, <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/work-in-progress/" target="_blank">Vehicles to Vaccines.</a><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-90677399471915218992023-08-18T23:12:00.001-07:002023-12-17T23:47:12.915-08:00Lucas - King of the Road<p> Lucas were the backbone of the British motor industry right from the start.</p><!--wp:paragraph-->
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<p>The three generations of the Lucas family strongly supported by non-family chairmen including Peter Bennett and Bernard Scott led the way in technical innovation, manufacturing efficiency and marketing. It was not by accident that they supplied nearly three of the British market and a good proportion of those in countries developing their indigenous motor industry. </p>
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<p>They began with bicycle lamps. Harry, son of Joseph, joined the business with the firm belief that quality was vital, that orders should only be accepted if they could be delivered, and that price mattered. With the coming of motor cars, Harry Lucas was quick to see the opportunities to move into lighting and starting motor cars. </p>
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<p>With the coming of the First World War, Harry Lucas was keen to provide motor companies with what they needed for the war effort. A major problem was that the War Office had specified Bosch Magnetos for their vehicles. The components industry pre-war had been content with this, and the ability of British companies to supply magnetos was strictly limited. One company in particular, Thomson Bennett, rose to the challenged. Harry Lucas pounced when, in 1914, the opportunity arose to purchase it. This was going to prove of massive value to Lucas in the years to come, not least in the person of Peter Bennett. During the war, Lucas grew to some 4,000 employees, 1,200 of whom were making magnetos.</p>
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<p>After the war, Lucas were growing their business in a number of very focused ways. They accepted offers by the smaller component manufacturers to buy their businesses, and then, a little later, agreed to buy their two larger competitors, Rotax and CAV when the latter experienced harsh trading conditions in the mid 1920s. Lucas was able to do this because they had always pursued conservative financial policies, and so were able both to weather storms, but also take advantage of the weakness of others.</p>
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<p>Lucas men volunteered for service in the Second World War to such an extent that men joked of the Lucas Light Infantry, as they also joked about the Rootes Rifles.</p>
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<p>I will write in my next post about Lucas in the air.</p>
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<p>You can read more about my take on the story of UK manufacturing on this blog and my exploration of the supply to the British Army by following this<a href="https://www.philwilliamswriter.co.uk/"> link</a>. </p>
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<p>Image with thanks to the British Motor archive</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmUcVzofX-pWCYNdJCLVGtxGivLVWmx9oXFTlb3iwrqsnCcnJj9Nyt9_tPfsAsb9ZR7DQHKxqXpSc0ZlFhTiPNqaAhFCgLSkz1V0Kx1S0w2_U_zDki8CBZeYNpQnx_9YRj7IugfaTs3jclBC3JTEfZqTMzKSIY0XPx_xubfsFJjVPWz6Rwv2mfS5wHzxS/s1174/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1174" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmUcVzofX-pWCYNdJCLVGtxGivLVWmx9oXFTlb3iwrqsnCcnJj9Nyt9_tPfsAsb9ZR7DQHKxqXpSc0ZlFhTiPNqaAhFCgLSkz1V0Kx1S0w2_U_zDki8CBZeYNpQnx_9YRj7IugfaTs3jclBC3JTEfZqTMzKSIY0XPx_xubfsFJjVPWz6Rwv2mfS5wHzxS/s320/Lucas-ElizabethIICoronation-1953-OnlineSize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> I write more in my forthcoming book, <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/work-in-progress/" target="_blank">Vehicles to Vaccines.</a></p>
<!--/wp:paragraph-->PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-38486521402961873862023-08-18T23:06:00.001-07:002023-12-17T23:48:02.782-08:00Winners and losers since 1951 - Rolls-Royce and Bentley<p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Reviewing the draft of my next book, working title '<a href="http://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/work-in-progress/" target="_blank">Vehicles to Vaccines</a>', some companies jump out as conspicuous success stories, and some less so. Beneath the surface there are many hundreds of smaller British manufacturing concerns which form the backbone of this sector.</span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">In a sequence of forthcoming posts, I plan to tell some of the stories.</p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">Sales of British companies is a recurring theme and there are a number of ways of viewing this. It creates shareholder value. It offers a way for overseas companies to benefit from UK manufacturing expertise. Yet, it saddens me. Am I being too emotional? More seriously, should I be concerned?</p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">In the case of four of our top motor companies, I believe the answer to both is yes. Let's take the example of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. I shall look at Jaguar and Land Rover in a subsequent post.</p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">The story is well known, but can be clouded by the mists of time. Henry Royce was a superbly talented engineer and, following the untimely death of his partner Charles Rolls, formed a team around him to complement his skills by adding imaginative marketing. Claude Johnson and Ernest Hives are names that stand out. Johnson’s view was that the company should build on its reputation of serving the aristocracy whose cars were nearly always driven by chauffeurs. Thus, if a customer wished to test drive a car, he would be driven by a Rolls-Royce chauffeur who had been schooled in the etiquette of service. Royce demanded the highest possible standards in engineering, as Johnson did in customer service.</p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">W.O. Bentley was probably as great an engineer. At the start of the First World War, he worked for engine builder Gwynne who were not convinced by Bentley’s suggestion of aluminium pistons. Humber harboured no such doubts and, with him, built many engines this way. In 1920 W.O, as he was known, formed Bentley Motors. The Autocar magazine reported that he was working on a model ‘intended to appeal to those enthusiastic motorists who desire a car which, practically speaking, was a true racing car with touring accessories’. Only three years later, the car finished fourth in the Le Mans. It was the Wall Street crash that robbed Bentley of his company, and Rolls-Royce pipped at the post Napier & Sons to buy the valuable marque.</p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Rolls-Royce built both cars from their factory at Sinfin Lane in Derby alongside aeroengines.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When I say they built cars, I do mean that they produced the chassis with engine ready for a specialist coach builder to add the coachwork to meet the customers’ requirements.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">During the Second World War, the production of aeroengines was vast and critical to the war effort. Cars were also produced as witnessed by the Rolls-Royce used by Field Marshall Montgomery (in the photograph).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Following the war, Rolls-Royce moved the production of cars to the shadow factory they had managed in Crewe, leaving aeroengines at Derby.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">W.O. found he could no longer work with Rolls-Royce and so joined Lagonda which later teamed up with Aston-Martin under the ownership of David Brown. As I will tell in a later posts, they too enjoyed success at Le Mans.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In the fifties and sixties, Rolls-Royce produced some truly iconic cars, not least the Phantom IV, available only to royalty and heads of state.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Rolls-Royce underwent a dramatic change when the development costs of the RB211 aeroengine ran out of control, leading to the placing of the aeroengine company into public ownership. Rolls-Royce Motors was separately floated in 1973, which coincided with the launch of the Corniche, the fastest Rolls-Royce ever.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Rolls-Royce Motors was bought by Vickers plc in 1980. They had been faced with the capital cost of tooling for new models; Vickers, on the other hand, expected a windfall from the nationalisation of their aircraft and shipbuilding businesses. Vickers worked hard to make the combination work, producing motor cars that the wealthy of the world wanted to buy, under both the Rolls-Royce and Bentley marques. In time, Vickers had to seek partners for Rolls-Royce to develop the next new model. The seeking evolved into a potential sale with BMW as front runners. BMW were already supplying engines for both Rolls-Royce and Bentley models; they also enjoyed success with joint ventures with the aeroengine company, Rolls-Royce plc, which had been privatised in 1987.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In the event, VW outbid BMW. As was widely reported at the time, VW found that they had bought the company without the right to use the brand which still belonged to Rolls-Royce plc. Undaunted, they set about building Bentleys at Crewe. BMW acquired the licence to use the Rolls-Royce brand and set up a new factory on the Goodwood Estate in Sussex. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The net result of all this is a duo of fully financed and commercially supported companies building distinct Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars in England. So, possibly not a cause for sadness. </span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><!--wp:paragraph-->
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<!--/wp:paragraph--></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Is it a cause for concern? Has this been an isolated incident the answer may well be no. As it is, these were just two of a long line of sales which neither the government nor the city did a thing to stop.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE9vXL1qTNo8YcfrCL6OnH2ieyQTEDgd2l0962O9Z2jKS5qA4Xa3T5Vxh4ptOYcyjZawXcucCh2bTNl5I3lqUA-yNOAKrdvvOj3zZ31dmVwU7SFCoaSa6lhAKK-h7TJgnk4XiIK-ED-7ObeOfYCu1XrqJVVICF4siUdJNIyrxcM9GV0tNXhyyHwWVNzp8v/s1600/E75B38B7-CC1F-4180-A1DC-7273DFAA90DA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE9vXL1qTNo8YcfrCL6OnH2ieyQTEDgd2l0962O9Z2jKS5qA4Xa3T5Vxh4ptOYcyjZawXcucCh2bTNl5I3lqUA-yNOAKrdvvOj3zZ31dmVwU7SFCoaSa6lhAKK-h7TJgnk4XiIK-ED-7ObeOfYCu1XrqJVVICF4siUdJNIyrxcM9GV0tNXhyyHwWVNzp8v/s320/E75B38B7-CC1F-4180-A1DC-7273DFAA90DA.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-63669795747802362892023-07-11T06:43:00.001-07:002023-07-11T06:43:59.638-07:00Keys to British manufacturing success<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyy4YUzJuNbUd72EADljN07mYNy-SZCFAvG5sdb9F5m71kSzGFanXKcyrXuxVrlMLN1LcdSLepX07LQEqfONQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>A video of the SPARK event by Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce using extract from my talk as voice-over.<p></p><p>This is what I had to say:</p><p>Had you been among the five million visitors to the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London’s Hyde Park you would have been impressed by the vast glass structure that housed the exhibition. More so, you would have been in little doubt that you belonged to a great manufacturing nation. We had been first off the block in the Industrial Revolution and were still going strong.</p><p>For the last three years, I have been exploring the catalogue of the exhibition, at which my great grandfather exhibited. I have sought to trace the origin and destination of many of the exhibitors many of whose names are still familiar. This drew me in to a far more extensive search to discover the history of British manufacturing. As a result of this process, I wrote a book, How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World which was published last year. I am now working on the sequel, Whatever Happened to British manufacturing. I have also identified some common factors and themes that led to success and failure. This evening I want to focus on the successes to see what they have to teach us moving forward.</p><p>So, to the beginning, we may have been a small island but our ships carried our adventurers around the globe. It was from this spirit of adventure that the stuff which kick started our industrial revolution came: cotton. There is much that was bad about the whole business of cotton, but I will stick with the positive, for it has much to teach us.</p><p>We are great inventors.</p><p>Men and women who spent their days spinning and weaving would dream up better ways of doing what they were doing. It is this dreaming, this process of trial and error that holds so much of the key. Names like Arkwright, Hargreaves and Crompton. Machinery emerged and the mills in which to place it; mills then powered by water.</p><p>What if? What if is another key – what if there was an alternative source of power to that of fast flowing water. </p><p>For centuries the British had been using wood or charcoal as a source of energy, but in the sixteenth century the demand of the navy for wood for ships meant that we had to look elsewhere. That canny lot in the north east already knew the answer: sea coal, as opposed to charcoal. In time, mines were dug to get at yet more coal but something was needed to pump out water and foul air. </p><p>Enter the steam engine, first the atmospheric engine by Newcomen and then the engine capable of rotation by Watt.</p><p>Here we have some more keys. The steam engine found its way in to the fields of Lincolnshire with firms like Clayton & Stuttleworth with threshing machines. Richard Hornsby of Grantham was convinced that the steam engine could do yet more and soon Hornsby became the world’s number one. I guess Joseph Ruston may have disagreed and I will come back to that. </p><p>Chemicals also offer some vital further keys. The bringing together of much of the British chemical industry into ICI in the twenties could have been a disaster. The premise for the mergers was quickly disproved with the export market for fertiliser collapsing in the face of local competition. In spite of this, the board of ICI did two things: they continued a commitment to pure research and engaged in propaganda.</p><p>The later we would know call marketing. The former is instructive. ICI scientists explored ideas and came up with discoveries for which uses had to be found, as indeed they were in the form of polythene and Perspex. There is the lovely story of an ICI director asking one of his chemists what he was going to invent next? Such was the gap between boards of directors and those who do the work. Nevertheless a commitment to pure research is, I’m certain, a key.</p><p>We are great developers.</p><p>Here I come to Joseph Ruston who holds a further vital key. It is all very well inventing, but what about developing and selling? There is a lovely story about Ruston going to Russia to sell pumps to drain the fields ready for planting. Whilst there, he heard that oil had been discovered and needed pumping, so off he went and developed his pumps for oil extraction.</p><p>Ruston was also acutely aware that big construction projects used mass manual labour; surely there was a way to mechanise. He developed it in the form of the steam powered mechanical digger (the steam navvy) and then sold it to the company seeking to dig the Manchester ship canal. This leads to another lovely story. The project was bedevilled by appalling weather and the diggers sunk deep into the mud. Ruston’s men cleaned them up and soon had them all working again. In Lincoln public library there are two books of meetings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers which speak of Lincoln engineers. That of 1885 includes Ruston’s presentation on the steam navvy which was used in the building of the Manchester ship canal.</p><p>Our steam railway locomotives were the best in the world: just think of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard. Was there nothing that steam couldn’t do? Charles Parson’s steam turbine was perhaps the ultimate powering ships and generating electricity.</p><p>We were first with steam but not so with internal combustion, although Richard Hornsby may disagree – the story goes that he was producing Akroyd Stuart diesels with a small d eight or so years before Diesel himself. </p><p>In 1908, Hornsby produced a 70 hp. vehicle that ran on chain tracks, and it was demonstrated at the Royal Review showing how well it could cross soft muddy ground; the Prince of Wales was said to have been impressed. Sadly Lincolnshire farmers were not and Hornsby sold his patent to the Holt Company in the USA. This company later adopted the name Caterpillar. The track technology was of course used by William Tritton and Fosters in the tank.</p><p>But what of the motor car? The French and Germans were first, because of the red flag, but we did well in the slip stream. Lanchester was the first to conceive a car that was not simply a horseless carriage – he saw through convention to arrive at something new.</p><p>The motor car holds other keys to British success. Lucas were forever exploring ways to make the car better. Interestingly they were perfectly happy to take a licence of other people’s inventions and use their skill at manufacturing to make it with greater economy and efficiency. Rolls-Royce were perhaps the perfect combination of engineering excellence and effective marketing. </p><p>Pilkington and Rowntree offer a further key. In the twenties and thirties they looked at their businesses and saw they needed a further skill: that of administration, something to glue the business together. Rowntree, suffering from the success of Cadbury, also embraced both market research and the integration of production and marketing. Interestingly, another food manufacturer, United Biscuits, put their success down to industrial relations or as their biographer put it, human relations.</p><p>Our tool makers offer yet another key. Leicester’s Jones & Shipman saw merit in engaging with their major customers in training. British manufacturing had grown largely without an academic core; men learnt on the job. So, formal training entered the field as did academia. Lucas persuaded the University of Birmingham to accept their money to endow a chair of manufacturing. The academics were horrified but slowly were won round. We can boast with great pride our own university and the UTC and their commitment to engineering and manufacturing. </p><p>Three later Lincoln developments offer further keys to success.</p><p>The gas turbine. I had the privilege to meet Kelvin Bray of Ruston Gas Turbines who began working with Bob Fielden under the watchful eye of Frank Whittle developing the jet engine for industrial uses. The use found was to power the exploration and extraction. Bray believed that success would follow and convinced Arnold Weinstock of GEC to back him. The result was that Ruston turbines were used by 80% of the world wide oil industry. Characteristically Kelvin’s parting words to me were ‘ now we’ll need to find a way of fuelling turbines with hydrogen’. Bray’s keys to success were belief and a commitment to continuous improvement. Turbines were never given numbers to indicate their power, for the power was forever increasing.</p><p>The second is Micrometric. This company which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary carries our high precision cutting and welding for a large range of industrial customers, offering consistent excellent quality. It represents one of many thousand excellent British engineering companies which make up the supply chain and are the very heart of British engineering.</p><p>The third one is semi-conductors where Lincoln through AEI were definitely among the first. Their key to success is their ability to survive through thick and thin based on a commitment to excellence. They are now of course, Dynex. Interestingly a former finance director of the AEI Lincoln operation told me of a business plan submitted to Weinstock for the mass production of semiconductors. This time Weinstock chose not to support. His rival, Plessey, took a different view but without the financial muscle of GEC. </p><p>This draws me into the keys to lack of success. We were not well served by government nor the city of London, both of whom obsessed with the short term. But as I say, that is another story.</p><p>So we are inventors and developers. Of vital importance, we welcomed those from other countries to develop their ideas under our patent laws and with our skilled workforce.</p><p>William Siemens and Henry Bessemer developed processes for making steel. Brunel built some of our finest railways and bridges. </p><p>Italians, Marconi and Ferranti gave birth to our electrical industry. It is surely an irony that the Italian Leonardo which now owns much of our defence electronics industry is at pains to trace their ancestry back to none other than Marconi and Ferranti. Later in the story we owe a debt to two further immigrants Michael Sobel father-in-law of Arnold Weinstock and Jules Thorn. More recently still, iconic brands of Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Jaguar are thriving under German and in the case of Jaguar Indian ownership. It would be churlish not to mention our own Siemens, descended from William Siemens brother, who have invested not only in what was Rustons, but also in Parsons, telecoms, railway train assembly and wind turbines. Siemens Energy are leaders in the path to net zero.</p><p>We have much to be proud of not least here in Lincolnshire. Great inventors, ingenious developers and places keen to offer a welcome to those who wish to do business here. But come on government and city financiers, recognise this incredible talent pool and back it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYjA8lSt835t8OJtEuSEsFXpzdd5BUHfsyQ8MnO4h-0EQmnRlkXp8fwKm0IayXbrRk_Vov2phhNGrfbrA8-vrkecyTPPUsxwhm0FlCnnZWp_FW-s6XKzsrjFFyBOElUdITCnw-Ck94CbfoTTl9cEakLr7C7ZN1KMYA0J2hMpbBlv2uOriOT2xdFgB_qTv/s4032/55AB874C-DDAE-43FC-9D49-33A30C3B5A31.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYjA8lSt835t8OJtEuSEsFXpzdd5BUHfsyQ8MnO4h-0EQmnRlkXp8fwKm0IayXbrRk_Vov2phhNGrfbrA8-vrkecyTPPUsxwhm0FlCnnZWp_FW-s6XKzsrjFFyBOElUdITCnw-Ck94CbfoTTl9cEakLr7C7ZN1KMYA0J2hMpbBlv2uOriOT2xdFgB_qTv/s320/55AB874C-DDAE-43FC-9D49-33A30C3B5A31.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-30680515438302759852023-07-02T00:00:00.002-07:002023-07-02T00:00:46.693-07:00Government intervention for manufacturing<p> There are growing cries from manufacturers for government support. These are not new. Here I try to map out the pattern of support given in the period since WW2 and the impact that it had. </p><p>Following the end of the war, government restricted imports and encouraged all parts of industry in an export drive. This was assisted in 1949 by a much needed reduction in the dollar exchange rate from 4.03 to 2.80.</p><p>In the fifties and early sixties under a Conservative government, the idea of tripartite working between the state, industry and trades unions was being accepted. The Conservatives had come under pressure to modernise industry, given the growing awareness that other countries were doing just that, and with tangible success. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, set up during the Great War, had reported, for example, that machine tools were ‘a key strategic sector for the modernisation and expansion of British industry’. Such exhortations fell on deaf and fiercely independent ears. The main interventions were those to counter restrictive practices in the form of the Restrictive Practices Court and an encouragement of investment in Research and Development.</p><p>The National Economic Development Council was formed in 1962. This followed the policy in the 1950s of encouragement by government to fragmented industries to come together in larger, hopefully more viable units. There was also encouragement for large, successful companies to set up new operations in areas scared by unemployment. Rootes made their Hillman Imp at Linwood outside Glasgow, and Dunlop was urged to keep open their India Tyres plant at Inchinnan despite damaging union militancy. Some of the many shadow factories built for war production were repurposed for peacetime production.</p><p>In the mid-sixties, in spite of the massive push for exports, British manufacturing was seen to be languishing in comparison with that of other countries. It was not doing badly, it was just that they were doing better. It needed encouragement. In 1965 the Queen’s Award for Industry was instituted. Four years later, the MacRobert Trust instituted their Award for Engineering.</p><p>The new Labour government under Harold Wilson had its response ready in the ‘white heat of technology’. It set up the Department for Economic Affairs led by George Brown which authored the National Plan supported by the National Economic Development Office (NEDO) and subsidiary bodies focusing on industries and geographical areas – the Little Neddys. Alongside the DEA, was the new Ministry of Technology and its minister Anthony Wedgewood Benn, soon to be Tony Benn, supporting technical committees including the National Engineering Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory and the National Computer Centre. There was then the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation led by Sir Frank Kearton who came to it from his post at the head of textile giant, Courtaulds; he had previously worked at ICI including in its atomic bomb programme. It was about creating national champions. It supported the creation of ICL as the British answer to IBM and primed the explosive growth of GEC. The expansion of Courtaulds into spinning and weaving by acquisition of a great many independent mills was perhaps not an IRC intervention, but it was closely aligned given Kearton’s involvement in both. The motor industry was in desperate need of rationalisation, although the IRC was perhaps grasping at straws in supporting the creation of British Leyland in 1968 and providing shipbuilding support between 1967 and 1972 (Harland & Wolff, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders and Cammell Laird). The Selective Employment Tax introduced in 1966 sought to discourage certain types of employment, essentially trying to make manufacturing employment more attractive.</p><p>The strains in the overall economy, all really stemming from the emptying of the national coffers to fight two world wars, led to a currency crisis for the new chancellor of the exchequer, Jim Callaghan, and hence to the 1967 devaluation of sterling from 2.80 to 2.40. </p><p>In 1967, fourteen privatised steel producers were brought together to form the nationalised British Steel Corporation under the chairmanship, first of merchant banker, Lord Melchett, grandson of the founder of ICI, and then engineer Monty Finniston who, somewhat later and famously reported on the profession of engineering for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The abrasive American industrialist, Ian MacGregor, took the helm in 1980 before moving to the Coal Board to face the miners’ strike in 1984.</p><p>The 1970s began with the re-election of the Conservatives under Prime Minister Edward Heath determined to roll back the influence of the state in the economy; the market was to rule. Fate had other ideas, for not long after the election that icon of British manufacturing was in trouble with the spiralling cost of the RB211 engine being developed for Lockhead. The approach taken by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, former industrialist John Davies, was to bring it into state ownership saving 80,000 jobs and a vital part of the British defence industry. The experience of the Rolls-Royce rescue led to an acknowledgment that there was a place for government intervention and this found expression in the Industry Act 1972.</p><p>The Heath government saw the culmination of a project very close to Edward Heath’s heart, the joining of the Common Market. He saw that British manufacturing needed a big home market and membership offered just that. It is also opened up the British market to manufacturers from the other member states, something that led to decline of motor industry. The failure to join the Common Market earlier had handed advantage to the German and French motor industries giving them a larger market but also exposing them to the benefits of competition. The timing of Britain’s entry was simply too late for our industry to catch up. We had suffered for too long from the lack of exposure to competition. There were benefits in EEC membership with reduced price of imports and increased market for specialist manufacturing and products. The Labour government, which succeeded Heath, put the question of continuing membership of the EEC to a referendum which saw the electorate voting strongly in favour of remaining. A contemporary CBI survey was overwhelmingly in favour of remaining. </p><p>Harold Wilson’s Chancellor, Dennis Healey, taking over the Treasury from Heath’s Anthony Barber described it as ‘like the Augean stables’. In order to balance the nation’s books, income tax was increased to a maximum of 98%; Marr quotes Healey as blaming the nation’s poor performance on bad management, poor training and low investment. </p><p>The bug-bear of the 1970s was inflation. The Labour government under Wilson and then James Callaghan, once again tried to tackle industrial relations and incomes policy with the Social Contract or Compact. Cash limits were set on public expenditure and attempts were made to contain wage increases to 6%. Industrial unrest spread, union membership increased spreading into the public sector. Observers are critical of James Callaghan for not standing up to union leaders. When eventually he did with an attempt to keep wage increases below 5% he was met by a wave of strikes which became known as the winter of discontent. Key was the claim by 57,000 Ford workers for 30% increase, in the event settled at 17%.. </p><p>Many suggest that a large part of the decline in manufacturing output in the seventies should be placed at the feet of North Sea Oil. Sterling had weakened following the 1973 oil crisis, culminating in the intervention of the IMF in 1976. Then, quite quickly, the currency strengthened as home produced oil cut imports and made the UK look comparatively strong. A strong currency made exports more expensive and imports more attractive. There followed a shift away from manufacturing for export to importing manufactured goods for domestic consumption. Looking at specific examples, the motor industry was undoubtedly one, with British Leyland shrinking with consequent job losses throughout the supply chain. ICI lost 1/3 of its workforce. At GEC the discipline imposed by Arnold Weinstock resulted in many plant closures and job losses. Elsewhere there were job losses in the ship yards and in the aircraft manufacturers.</p><p>From the point of view of labour, the period 1970 to 1979 can be categorised as one of radical growth in membership and strikes for the trades union movement. In terms of membership, this rose to 13 million and covered more than half of those eligible. It strengthened in the public sector and in coal reached 100%. In terms of legislation, the Industrial Relations Act of 1971 was hotly disputed and eventually repealed by the new Labour government in 1974. The issue would not go away and Labour made further attempts between 1974 and 1979, including the creation of ACAS which has survived to this day. Strikes were particularly prevalent in the 1970s as unions struggled to maintain their members’ income in times of roaring inflation. In the winter of discontent in 1979 some 29 million days were lost through strikes, many in manufacturing. </p><p>Government intervention in industry once again came to the fore with the creation of National Enterprise Board (NEB ) 1975, taking on the state holding in Rolls-Royce, British Leyland, Alfred Herbert and Ferranti. British Aerospace was created in 1977 in effect nationalising aircraft production; the nationalisation of shipbuilding followed.</p><p>A 2013 paper produced by two LSE academics, Professor Stephen Broadberry and Dr Tim Leunig, The impact of Government policies on UK manufacturing since 1945 , offers a perspective with both the benefit of hindsight but also a political steer given that it was produced for the Government Office for Science. It suggests that government intervention had very little positive impact. I infer from their paper that the decline in manufacturing was inevitable. Britain had set out its stall after the war as a manufacturing nation, although in the staple industries comparative advantage was being lost to low wage economies. The move was inextricably towards capital intensive industries where the technical content was high, so pharmaceuticals and electronics. These did nothing for unemployment but did add to GDP. One exception to the ineffectiveness of government intervention was perhaps the encouragement of inward investment where the evidence does point to the creation of jobs. In terms of other action, 'Buy British' campaigns were thought ineffective, but government procurement was vital not least to the Defence and Pharmaceutical sectors.</p><p>Mrs Thatcher was elected on 4 May 1979 oddly not with an overt mandate to challenge the power of the unions and to allow market forces relatively free reign. She wanted a return to Victorian values, the economics of the prudent family. In time and with the experience of government she began to see the obstacles to this vision. </p><p>She saw strike action as a key factor in the British decline and she was determined to challenge it. This she did through successive pieces of legislation: seven different Acts between 1980 and 1993. Union membership fell to 7 million in 1995. Inflation was still running high with wage demands to match.</p><p>She saw the need to roll back the role of the state. After a decade of nationalisation and ineffective government intervention, she wanted the market to play a key role: state ownership was consigned to the past. Each of the various privatisations had different implications for manufacturing. For British Leyland, it was really just the end of the line for this, some might say, unlucky company. As with many bonfires there were Phoenix to rise from the ashes. Jaguar and Land Rover both re-discovered themselves, but both eventually fell into foreign ownership. The privatisation of British Shipbuilders 1983 –1986 was another bonfire from which little would rise except in the area of defence. The same was true with aircraft manufacturers, with the notable exceptions of Rolls-Royce whose time had nearly come with the highly successful Trent engine, and British Aerospace and the British part of Airbus.</p><p>The privatisation of electricity generation and distribution robbed the traditional suppliers such as GEC and NEI of their safeguard in the ‘Buy British’ policy. The same went for telecoms. Manufacture was being replaced by imports, continuing but on a much larger scale that which had begun the seventies. The Thatcher government steered away from intervention preferring the market to rule the day. The Westland affair and the efforts of Michael Heseltine to save the British helicopter industry stood out as an exception. Nevertheless, the welcome given to inward investment was evident, for example in the motor industry where Nissan set up in Sunderland, Toyota south of Derby and Honda in Swindon. </p><p>Privatisation continued with the railways. Here work had been done to prepare the manufacturing and repair sides of British Railways, nevertheless the removal of any serious encouragement to Buy British had a major impact. For example, the German Siemens were preferred over the Derby based but Canadian Bombardier, which had bought British Rail Engineering, for new trains for Thameslink and South West Trains. Bombardier was subsequently bought by the largely French Alstom. The third major manufacturer of trains for the British rail companies is Hitachi.</p><p>The tone set by the Thatcher government was continued by her successor, John Major. With minor exceptions this was the case also with the Labour governments under Blair and Brown. For example Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson became involved in attempts to save the former ICI chemical plant at Wilton which later fell into foreign ownership. </p><p>The economy would be fed by the High Street itself fuelled by large increases in personal borrowing. Financial Services would become the powerhouse, with the fruits of its success ‘trickling down’ to benefit everyone. The bursting of the dotcom bubble would see the end of GEC. German and American car companies would buy the jewels in the crown of British motor manufacturing; Jaguar Land Rover later becoming owned by the Indian Tata alongside their chemical and steel interests.</p><p> The first two decades of the twenty first century have witnessed the loss to foreign ownership of key British companies including much of Britain’s building products sector, with only occasional and specific interventions, Sheffield Forgemasters being one and this for national security purposes.</p><p>Recent interventions have been fiscal with Freeports and enhanced capital allowances. There is also some evidence of inducements to foreign companies at least to remain in the UK.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVTiMdBrMcslokwxTXHeRl1Ws-dvMY7y6TZlLrKe9SeRbbdfwpu868CTcQPOcCPCcKAMxvDDoJD_jeqXqIXQvASi47-i1tGF7FEGkWlK7wXcCcD2whG7u9IZSOYXkk-2MhMfpA-tqSm3F-6bqIHVGsOZ_Ap2Xn-carzkDyEng0KA3bLCatnUb1nYlxbXCw/s4032/EBEEBF35-36DB-443C-AEF7-8EA3BCF514B7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVTiMdBrMcslokwxTXHeRl1Ws-dvMY7y6TZlLrKe9SeRbbdfwpu868CTcQPOcCPCcKAMxvDDoJD_jeqXqIXQvASi47-i1tGF7FEGkWlK7wXcCcD2whG7u9IZSOYXkk-2MhMfpA-tqSm3F-6bqIHVGsOZ_Ap2Xn-carzkDyEng0KA3bLCatnUb1nYlxbXCw/s320/EBEEBF35-36DB-443C-AEF7-8EA3BCF514B7.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-19550031988490507632023-06-20T10:14:00.003-07:002023-08-25T05:27:54.859-07:00Speaking at SPARK Lincoln<p> I am thrilled to have been invited to speak on the Keys to Success of British Manufacturing at the preview evening to SPARK 2023. 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<p>As Chief Executive at the Cathedral up to 2014, I was much involved in the first SPARK over ten years ago. It is wonderful that so many school students are visiting on Friday 7 July. It is great credit to the organisers. I am so looking forward to seeing all the exhibits. </p>
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<p>Lincolnshire has played a major role in the history of British manufacturing as I tell in a piece accessed through this <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/2023/06/06/lincolns-part-in-the-story/">LINK</a></p>
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<p>Keys to success. That’s an interesting one. The keys to LACK of success are easier: short-termism on the parts of the city, government and all too many boards of directors. </p>
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<p>There then those keys we try not to talk about and which I refer to as <a href="http://phil-writer.com/2023/05/25/the-elephants-in-the-manufacturing-room/">elephants in the room</a>. But having got these out of the way, there is much to value. </p>
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<p>We are great inventors. Just think of the steam engines and its multitude of applications. </p>
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<p>We can then turn to polythene and Perspex which resulted from ICI’s commitment to pure research. </p>
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<p>We are great adapters. Frank Whittle’s jet engine was genius, but so was its development as the gas turbine by the team at Rustons in Lincoln. </p>
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<p>We are great improvers. Oliver Lucas was only too happy to take licences on others people’s inventions knowing that his company could manufacture them more efficiently. </p>
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<p>Am I allowed to agonise over semi-conductors? Plessey were up there with the leaders. AEI in Lincoln still produce power semi-conductors as Dynex, but they could have embraced mass production had it not been for the caution of the GEC board.</p><p>The Chamber of Commerce made an excellent video of the event </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwu65kyOwSkfL_Mskmdkkcl7PRWAkEM4hXp1FgzEEWvigxHk-belZlKaTq-ubzJfp1WmaQi74rpntgtUnSzFA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ1W4BXNu6C3rqhaRlD8CGneVfUetCvGskP7tLOdMABogvsRI0YmuNkY-enouCoUU2K-IeoDBqhSi4nYwVHE90aMWnNGktkBfjLAv2ASjPnuBCb2ueTa1hJ0_Zrt1h67KqayAgFXI3h8Pr26vQCMghVNfQIL8gh7A0pE1QcSdT8J3d0N__nm7mr2CeBMaU/s750/2D4E5208-214E-4990-A9B2-A80EC335D30E.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="750" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ1W4BXNu6C3rqhaRlD8CGneVfUetCvGskP7tLOdMABogvsRI0YmuNkY-enouCoUU2K-IeoDBqhSi4nYwVHE90aMWnNGktkBfjLAv2ASjPnuBCb2ueTa1hJ0_Zrt1h67KqayAgFXI3h8Pr26vQCMghVNfQIL8gh7A0pE1QcSdT8J3d0N__nm7mr2CeBMaU/s320/2D4E5208-214E-4990-A9B2-A80EC335D30E.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<!--/wp:paragraph-->PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-51110919621056498872023-06-20T10:10:00.003-07:002023-06-20T10:10:51.250-07:00Lincoln's part in the story<p> It all began with agriculture; as the urban areas began to grow, so they needed more food. Equally as rural dwellers moved to take industrial jobs, so farmers needed mechanised help.</p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<p>Lincolnshire’s problem was mud. Put a steam traction engine on a field and it would get stuck under its weight. The ploughing answer was to use a static engine and then with a rope drag the plough across the field.</p>
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<p>The pragmatic engineers of the county stuck with what worked. We can see this in the catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851 where I spotted Clayton and Shuttleworth with 'an improved registered grinding mill for all grain and an improved combined threshing, shaking, riddling and blowing machine’ and Richard Hornsby with his steam engine. Hornsby did not invent the steam engine, that belongs to Newcomen, Blenkinsop, Hackworth and Watt, but he developed it so successfully that, 'for some years, he had a virtual monopoly in its manufacture’.</p>
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<p>Marshalls and Robey both entered the field in the forties with steam engines. Marshalls would go on to manufacture tractors, famously the Field-Marshall. Robey appears at the Glasgow exhibition of 1901 with electricity generation with a horizontal cross-compound engine powering a Mavor & Coulson dynamo producing 350 kw at 550 volts.</p>
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<p>Ruston and Proctor came together after the Exhibition giving Joseph Ruston the vehicle needed for his entrepreneurial flare. There is a book titled <em>One Hundred Years of Good Company</em> which tells the story of Rustons with a little fictional narrative alongside the harder history. The book includes an account of Ruston travelling to Russia to sell them steam pumps to drain the land ready to plant grain. Being an entrepreneur always with an eye to an opportunity, Ruston heard that a man nearby wanted to pump oil out of the ground; what better than a Rustons pump. That man’s mainstream business was trading in Shells – the rest as they say is history.</p>
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<p>Rustons and Hornsby later came together and the Rustons book suggests that Ruston and Hornsby can lay claim to the first ‘diesel’ engine – indeed before diesel. These spread around the globe frequently for electricity generation as in lighthouses.</p>
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<p>But back to mud and Richard Hornsby pre-Ruston. In 1908, Hornsby produced a 70 hp. vehicle that ran on chain tracks, and it was demonstrated at the Royal Review showing how well it could cross soft muddy ground; the Prince of Wales was said to have been impressed. Sadly Lincolnshire farmers were not convinced and Hornsby sold his patent to the Holt Company in the USA. This company later adopted the name Caterpillar. </p>
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<p>The track technology was of course used by William Tritton in the tank. Lincoln. like the rest of the country leant its shoulder to the war effort in two world wars. Sopwith Aviation, of Kingston upon Thames, is perhaps the most iconic of the First World War aircraft makers, and the Sopwith Camel fighter the most successful fighter, with some 5,825 built. Many were subcontracted, with over one thousand being built by Ruston & Proctor in Lincoln, with further examples produced by fellow Lincoln engineering companies, Robey & Co and Clayton & Shuttleworth. Claytons also made the Handley Page O/400. </p>
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<p>The jet-engine-powered aircraft was perhaps the greatest engineering development of WW2. It also found spectacular use as gas turbines powering the then new oil industry. I was privileged to meet the managing director of Ruston Gas Turbines for twenty five years and he told me how the team in Lincoln, working under Bob Feilden with a watchful eye from Frank Whittle, developed the gas turbine with encouragement from Arnold Weinstock of Ruston’s then owner, GEC. Rustons gas turbines were used by 80% of the world’s oil industry.</p>
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<p>In Lincoln, there was also a timber fabrication company whose building was taken over by AEI and then GEC and became home to British semiconductor manufacture. Now, as Dynex, it is a leading manufacturer of complex power semiconductors. A former finance director suggested to me that had Weinstock been braver it could now be a mass producer of semiconductors. Plus ca change.</p>
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<p>The University of Lincoln is now home to one of the newest departments of engineering supported by Siemens, the current owners of the Rustons business.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2Sqkhf9D4yLfwcznGnzZZG4SyP_-Ll7h4cyABS7C9eIuY9fzwtDjlyUB3_4PseZJPbCK-szXsk2-kPSW4aIVJC7gMEEClJCvGmZavitVVy0lQF0Sk3AhmN-GHwBIUEYV60WTcFXGYGGKZWz5TEQFfDDiuQH5SNwGIdvXrkkCQhK3Qnw7kLrEwhJ-6HJ2/s2048/16D43E03-4D4B-4891-9625-C03AB583A3A0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2Sqkhf9D4yLfwcznGnzZZG4SyP_-Ll7h4cyABS7C9eIuY9fzwtDjlyUB3_4PseZJPbCK-szXsk2-kPSW4aIVJC7gMEEClJCvGmZavitVVy0lQF0Sk3AhmN-GHwBIUEYV60WTcFXGYGGKZWz5TEQFfDDiuQH5SNwGIdvXrkkCQhK3Qnw7kLrEwhJ-6HJ2/s320/16D43E03-4D4B-4891-9625-C03AB583A3A0.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-83898604249686380482023-04-01T01:14:00.003-07:002023-04-02T07:51:23.904-07:00A wonderfully affirming review from acclaimed author<p> <span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">A clever idea to bookend the story of British manufacturing between the 1951 Great Exhibition and 1951 Festival of Britain. Based on extensive research and linking a whole plethora of British industries, this makes fascinating connections between the various drivers of the British manufacturing industry in the period.</span></p><p><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Andrew Lownie is a biographer and literary agent and author of the superb Stalin’s Englishman</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVzuDKDapK20RPviOSFM0KQVA4nUiPZR_6WKGwSi56WmBQpnYbVmUMUrAjzuA0iZ1vGQw1vocSbHCVzYtrqJ6gi865lO7jkGXz7iIEjMZyksMtIjKuGVzjG1JUq3peiwTioAiKFpjQVGeqHKfJEGaPwCTDwSrRcpdRJ30LnY_ekR2-AxtfrhhKq4JvQQ/s1792/77CC99A1-EC59-40EF-8354-959CF7F768FE.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1792" data-original-width="828" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVzuDKDapK20RPviOSFM0KQVA4nUiPZR_6WKGwSi56WmBQpnYbVmUMUrAjzuA0iZ1vGQw1vocSbHCVzYtrqJ6gi865lO7jkGXz7iIEjMZyksMtIjKuGVzjG1JUq3peiwTioAiKFpjQVGeqHKfJEGaPwCTDwSrRcpdRJ30LnY_ekR2-AxtfrhhKq4JvQQ/s320/77CC99A1-EC59-40EF-8354-959CF7F768FE.png" width="148" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">You can buy How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World from <a href="https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/How-Britain-Shaped-the-Manufacturing-World-Hardback/p/21375" target="_blank">Pen & Sword Books</a></span><p></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-51981351236809510892023-02-08T08:26:00.003-08:002023-03-22T11:29:21.142-07:00Talk in Lincoln 13 March 2023<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">This talk has now happened and it was very enjoyable with a great audience and interesting questions. The Historical Association recorded the talk and this can be found by following this </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtgbl3-j3bM" style="background-color: white; color: #2271b1; font-family: serif; outline: 0px; transition: none 0s ease 0s; white-space: pre-wrap;">link</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><p>I am really looking forward to talking about How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World to the City of Lincoln branch of the Historical Association. I will be looking in particular at the Lincoln and Lincolnshire connections. Here is the <a href="https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=xEculd4FgkKDr19LRrFijzptme7ksFBNtO5aK5lASCxUQjNETDhSMDVWVDVPREZJWEcyVlRMT1hVWi4u" target="_blank">link</a> for booking your place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yL6LRuyw3uqJRR9WcieLXRZtmOSuI3k2ZjOckzNDj5uiMmr2rjvPpVZQSxPQOE5ihqxQ4JFBuBsCK3sRtq3-vfkkBF0LZ3IuxxtPTpFQo0P385QT5S4DK8t69mTBwwEebXqk2Ik1MrZMqLK1CJqzF6J2ySC8Fs2PWDVY4A3ltQYPDcL1Obz7o0JSNA/s1280/HA%20poster%20-%20%20Philip%20Hamlyn%20Williams%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yL6LRuyw3uqJRR9WcieLXRZtmOSuI3k2ZjOckzNDj5uiMmr2rjvPpVZQSxPQOE5ihqxQ4JFBuBsCK3sRtq3-vfkkBF0LZ3IuxxtPTpFQo0P385QT5S4DK8t69mTBwwEebXqk2Ik1MrZMqLK1CJqzF6J2ySC8Fs2PWDVY4A3ltQYPDcL1Obz7o0JSNA/s320/HA%20poster%20-%20%20Philip%20Hamlyn%20Williams%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>The peoples of the British Isles gave to the world the foundations on which modern manufacturing economies are built. This is quite an assertion, but history shows that, in the late eighteenth century, a remarkable combination of factors and circumstances combined to give birth to Britain as the first manufacturing nation. Further factors allowed it to remain top manufacturing dog well into the twentieth century whilst other countries were busy playing catch- up. Through two world wars and the surrounding years, British manufacturing remained strong, albeit whilst ceding the lead to the United States.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcfkNqdizodJ-PuwhhEzlUbbL3vJ-_nBrzxiggCS88pgoqLUgyz5rVPLqKl5XQC5ibiQTMD7YZ1ZwkAsGLnkMtGgk-pVs35wLTRChu5LtQqjEDCIj2kyDyhMwDddRfkXSww-CAKrMSxG9Hs234X838_YkcCzqms_klvZvAkcbrJfbv-BIf_W2YhHvU9w/s3323/17F3194F-5556-4F0B-BB35-406AA91C5CE2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2530" data-original-width="3323" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcfkNqdizodJ-PuwhhEzlUbbL3vJ-_nBrzxiggCS88pgoqLUgyz5rVPLqKl5XQC5ibiQTMD7YZ1ZwkAsGLnkMtGgk-pVs35wLTRChu5LtQqjEDCIj2kyDyhMwDddRfkXSww-CAKrMSxG9Hs234X838_YkcCzqms_klvZvAkcbrJfbv-BIf_W2YhHvU9w/s320/17F3194F-5556-4F0B-BB35-406AA91C5CE2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>This book seeks to tell the remarkable story of British manufacturing, using the Great Exhibition of 1851 as a prism. Prince Albert and Sir Henry Cole had conceived an idea of bringing together exhibits from manufacturers across the world to show to its many millions of visitors the pre-eminence of the British. 1851 was not the start, but rather a pause for a bask in glory.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhour8aKiBKmNw_mE7YwCBb3wtBbo8aXLgi_UbQ2GrsSgAv9FPjuxkbqCPZ7tG_W0nyr4A0iknfkfJ8Qb91V60x9GcWltis6LOBC1GJblhshIZ8-vwe7aNGocGDzUQDglM4z3Sp-31BpJcqUdSF2W0_fcIw0vvjcMbeKpqou2WSoKAPzWwR7gcCl8Vw/s3477/F133749D-25EC-4BD9-AD69-024FF036653F.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2034" data-original-width="3477" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDhour8aKiBKmNw_mE7YwCBb3wtBbo8aXLgi_UbQ2GrsSgAv9FPjuxkbqCPZ7tG_W0nyr4A0iknfkfJ8Qb91V60x9GcWltis6LOBC1GJblhshIZ8-vwe7aNGocGDzUQDglM4z3Sp-31BpJcqUdSF2W0_fcIw0vvjcMbeKpqou2WSoKAPzWwR7gcCl8Vw/s320/F133749D-25EC-4BD9-AD69-024FF036653F.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The book traces back from the exhibits in Hyde Park’s Crystal Palace to identify the factors that gave rise to this pre-eminence, just as the factory system at Cromford Mill. It then follows developments up until the Festival of Britain exactly one century later. Steam power and communication by electric telegraph, both British inventions, predated the Exhibition. After it came the sewing machine and bicycle, motor car and aeroplane, but also electrical power, radio and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.</div><div><br /></div><div>Phil Hamlyn Williams, who has previously spoken on his books on army supply, will talk about the book with particular reference to Lincolnshire where a good deal of the story took place. </div><p><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-27273680278405853242023-01-27T09:45:00.001-08:002023-01-27T09:45:58.513-08:00The British Motor Industry and SemiconductorsExploring the story of the motor industry since WW2, its forthcoming demise was never far from the conversation. Equally, digging into the history of semiconductor manufacturers, the possibility of the UK not being relatively self sufficient is an ever present agony.<div><br /><div>In the sixties, the Ryder report had this to say: '‘vehicle production is the kind of industry which ought to remain an essential part of the UK's economic base. We believe, therefore, that BL should remain a major vehicle producer, although this means that urgent action must be taken to remedy the weaknesses which at present prevent it from competing effectively in world markets.’ The subsequent story is a catalogue of errors. </div></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the seventies, the British government backed the formation of Inmos to manufacture semiconductors. It had already tried but failed to encourage collaboration amongst British manufacturers. Inmos failed but was bailed out by Thorn EMI which was in effect destroyed by the liabilities which Inmos brought with it. Semiconductors are now everywhere. The image is of sim cards being sold at the refugee camp on Lesvos where we volunteered in early 2016. There is a helpful review of the British semiconductor industry in </span><a href="https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/finance/50-years-of-the-uk-semiconductor-industry-2010-09/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #2271b1; font-family: serif; outline: 0px; transition: none 0s ease 0s; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Electronics Weekly from 2010</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>The British motor industry is currently successful and a major employer. Concerns over semiconductor supply and the absence of a battery manufacturer could spell its end. So, what is the answer?</div><div><br /></div><div>The motor industry is based here but owned elsewhere. Semiconductor manufacture could follow suit. Companies like ARM do the intellectual work that goes inside the chip, but the mechanics of placing that on a chip of silicone is done in Taiwan. This is right viewed as too risky a supply chain. Britain has not the financial resource to go it alone. The USA is politically too risky to be a partner. The answer surely is European collaboration. </div><div><br /></div><div>But have we burnt that boat?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMHieuXXQk8cg_7JlEuOqRD8-3zl1BEizq0mRfKH14lQdcTTIJYe28l9I1AGUqI2dEBqHyh8m8ANW88sOhOkf7txTz6C6HR1Hkzr5DMbjDOI8asfx0HIyTJSnjx8pNHm41tsbTUMS55hz1LQvhl7oRBB8FP451sWJkLiWhc-ZiUkH5UVHBVc_TCT4h5g/s3264/E66662AD-6933-407B-81B6-6AFFF60327C4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMHieuXXQk8cg_7JlEuOqRD8-3zl1BEizq0mRfKH14lQdcTTIJYe28l9I1AGUqI2dEBqHyh8m8ANW88sOhOkf7txTz6C6HR1Hkzr5DMbjDOI8asfx0HIyTJSnjx8pNHm41tsbTUMS55hz1LQvhl7oRBB8FP451sWJkLiWhc-ZiUkH5UVHBVc_TCT4h5g/s320/E66662AD-6933-407B-81B6-6AFFF60327C4.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-21147082158302345092022-12-11T00:36:00.001-08:002022-12-11T00:36:47.211-08:00The joys of research <p> <span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">One of the joys of researching in a conventional library is the unexpected. Today in Leicester University Library I came across A History of North Thames Gas - Mr Therm for those of us of a certain age. The book, and company, go back to its formation in 1810, through the massive switch over from town to natural gas and on until British Gas privatisation.</span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">There is more. The production of town gas from coal is echoed in the story of steel production and organic chemicals, with the capture and use of byproducts. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">Many of us will remember gas showrooms on the High Street with appliances manufactured in North Thames factories. The same was true of gas meters, with millions of pennies collected each week. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">North Thames was also an early user of ICL computers. The book was candid about the inefficiency of billing administration a lack of planning of the computer installation. A telling comment was the switch over to IBM in the late 80s. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHw42g0fsBYX-hjjos4oaiUMcFOGvGG10SZ4Uu_0WVDCQIgM_lVYxQMTeF_m2EKW9nxNwyG7mGAunAu--St3w-i-47w8TWPdC3TO9HJEB4ftZtlvoYmDZ6PssLwv-WcInMp08B4g75WM_v4YDE3PsMT1GFejuMTmtklJfhbDp5x6QiKVqfV_D8zgWkwA/s4032/6B2EFCD4-86AE-42DE-9E4D-C09F94CB251B.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHw42g0fsBYX-hjjos4oaiUMcFOGvGG10SZ4Uu_0WVDCQIgM_lVYxQMTeF_m2EKW9nxNwyG7mGAunAu--St3w-i-47w8TWPdC3TO9HJEB4ftZtlvoYmDZ6PssLwv-WcInMp08B4g75WM_v4YDE3PsMT1GFejuMTmtklJfhbDp5x6QiKVqfV_D8zgWkwA/s320/6B2EFCD4-86AE-42DE-9E4D-C09F94CB251B.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><br /></p>PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-56944160842264816902022-11-13T05:49:00.001-08:002022-11-13T05:49:18.121-08:00A review from a second year degree student<p>This review is by<a href="https://www.coffeeandbooks.co.uk/about-me/"> Coffee and Books</a> and makes everything worthwhile.</p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<p>I wanted to read How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World by Philip Hamlyn Williams because I studied economic history last year and I liked the subject a lot. On top of that the author’s great grandfather exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. That made the book too enticing to miss and I’m glad I didn’t because it’s great.</p>
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<p>The book covers the period from 1850 to 1950, the last chapter being on the Festival of Britain of 1951. It’s a wonderfully circular structure, to start with the Great Exhibition and finish with the Festival of Britain. With wars, including both world wars, and disruption to supply chains, advances in technology, changes in manufacturing, this book had to cover a lot of information and it does it beautifully. It’s easy to read, explained clearly and engaging.</p>
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<p>Many topics are covered, from steam power which was still in its infancy in the 1850s to the Mallard of the 1930s, covered developments in communication, the sewing machine, bicycles, cars and aeroplanes. He covers the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, which were interesting to read about. Germany had a leading role when it came to dyestuff, but the war changed that, of course.</p>
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<p>This is a very good book, one I would recommend to anyone, without any doubt</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMeXdMz6dV4P7qxHRkMNYnhrjBnD_NDCC0iwwjGO7tCXXyz5RyFS9rsEC5fqMCucPIsJawYsV6aEDdxv0CXQr4K0mPzfL7Zakt7qzSixNekIUeZbm0OYvZRjlh_03_8PhANeOEdH94OLLEI3BhKJV6kUBXYb6H5z0BPabq3cC5Y_R57eS0U5ubeUMtw/s3264/Ruston%20&%20Hornsby%20car%20at%20Lincoln%20Cathedral%20celebration%20of%20manufacturing.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizMeXdMz6dV4P7qxHRkMNYnhrjBnD_NDCC0iwwjGO7tCXXyz5RyFS9rsEC5fqMCucPIsJawYsV6aEDdxv0CXQr4K0mPzfL7Zakt7qzSixNekIUeZbm0OYvZRjlh_03_8PhANeOEdH94OLLEI3BhKJV6kUBXYb6H5z0BPabq3cC5Y_R57eS0U5ubeUMtw/s320/Ruston%20&%20Hornsby%20car%20at%20Lincoln%20Cathedral%20celebration%20of%20manufacturing.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-78891074808204339562022-11-09T09:00:00.001-08:002022-11-09T09:00:44.621-08:00A review from Lincoln, the city where so much manufacturing happened<p> ‘Philip’s painstaking research leads to a fascinating read’</p><!--wp:paragraph-->
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<p>Thank you Rob White in the Lincoln Independent for a wonderfully affirming review of How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World.</p>
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<p>I am really pleased you found the book an easy read, notwithstanding the extensive research. Pleased, too, you liked the quotes I used for each chapter.</p>
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<p>How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World is on sale at Lindum Books in Bailgate, and from the publishers Pen & Sword.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3TvU1AhGqPzBaeT7hAnQRf-FTSmhwUot3tOP9dEoIjcGRQgiwAoQ5qx6GciOHQYm6K7YIbvrKimYZNyt3eHLq2UlamOZm-3cUgslyrCES6Sve_3iLVRCbJLyHcGGQkjaoVvCkOBdYIiZI5--yK4enKgjIZ41Ve-lF9QsRE-jOrPPqQelRU-GRuEq0iQ/s4032/565733DB-A130-45BF-862D-CC814133CBD6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3TvU1AhGqPzBaeT7hAnQRf-FTSmhwUot3tOP9dEoIjcGRQgiwAoQ5qx6GciOHQYm6K7YIbvrKimYZNyt3eHLq2UlamOZm-3cUgslyrCES6Sve_3iLVRCbJLyHcGGQkjaoVvCkOBdYIiZI5--yK4enKgjIZ41Ve-lF9QsRE-jOrPPqQelRU-GRuEq0iQ/s320/565733DB-A130-45BF-862D-CC814133CBD6.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<!--/wp:paragraph-->PhilWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299134545473860221noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1927735560858980867.post-67991868688268940962022-11-09T08:52:00.001-08:002022-11-09T08:52:10.041-08:00Fossil fuels powered the industrial revolution, but that is not the whole story.<p> <span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">At the start, power came from water, wood and charcoal and animals. Early experiments with coal were not entirely successful. Impurities made it unsuitable for smelting, it was also polluting such that the burning of coal was banned in the city of London.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">Yet coal was freely available, often on the surface by the coast of north east England - hence its full name sea-coal as opposed to char-coal. It was the demand for wood for the making of ships that forced a second look at coal. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">Impurities were addressed by burning them off into the atmosphere; later they were captured and uses found for early plastics for example. Coal now drove the smelting of iron. An early use for coal was in the coal mines, to power steam engines to extract water and drive ventilation as well as powering engines to bring coal to the surface and onward to the user. </p><p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">The railways provided the perfect use for coal as new lines connected the country. Coal powered ships connecting the world. </p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">Oil was first discovered in Britain in coal seams and used for lighting and lubrication. The big oil finds were in the USA and Russia. It was only later that the Middle East took it place in energy supply. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;">In looki<span style="font-family: arial;">ng at British manufacturing, coal remained king much longer than elsewhere. British shipbuilders and railway locomotive manufacturers stayed with coal probably far too long. The famous red flag which slowed the British car industry was initially to protect people from coal powered steam vehicles.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8px 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> It is interesting that one of Britain’s greatest engineers, William Armstrong, was wedded to the power of water. Water also powered the aluminium industry with the early hydroelectric schemes.</span></p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Hydrocarbons are part and parcel. In Britain the first plastics were made from chemicals derived not from coal as in Germany or oil as in the USA, but from molasses, the byproduct of sugar beet. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Britain built the world’s first nuclear power station at Calder Hall. Plans were in place for many more before North Sea gas made electricity from gas turbines much cheaper. France, on the other hand, built some sixty giving it a lead in nuclear power technology. Britain stuck with massive power stations powered by pulverised coal producing steam in cathedral like boilers. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Britain’s energy plant manufacturers are now mainly owned by Siemens and it is they who are rolling out renewables. Rolls-Royce, which once owned boiler maker Northern Engineering Industries, is focusing on smaller local nuclear plants. Alternative sources of energy are very much the focus of much of British industry. Companies like Scottish and Southern are promoting renewables projects but often turning to non UK suppliers. Companies like ITM Energy are exploring hydrogen. There is much going on.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I write more on this in <a href="https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/How-Britain-Shaped-the-Manufacturing-World-Hardback/p/21375" target="_blank">How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World</a> and in the sequel in progress <a href="https://britishmanufacturinghistory.uk/work-in-progress/" target="_blank">Whatever Happened to British Manufacturing</a>.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3aR0a4zMehrUH6TRTDMpJS4x-tbZ-osOouJ0FL1WqiMzu-65NqM3JHQ8aOWziUC_MCQumBxWfswnXJpqO5OjL_J_S83Dir3j_z_ZkVT-AGM7Sekc-1ManVo-Rq7Ztsz6-eFDVSCKhwHf9eJAiwRPLNP6lJcuGYbPTlBeONgder5Pj4aCr0vkp9ufuQ/s2437/4472%20Flying%20Scotsman%20Great%20Central%20special%20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1693" data-original-width="2437" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3aR0a4zMehrUH6TRTDMpJS4x-tbZ-osOouJ0FL1WqiMzu-65NqM3JHQ8aOWziUC_MCQumBxWfswnXJpqO5OjL_J_S83Dir3j_z_ZkVT-AGM7Sekc-1ManVo-Rq7Ztsz6-eFDVSCKhwHf9eJAiwRPLNP6lJcuGYbPTlBeONgder5Pj4aCr0vkp9ufuQ/s320/4472%20Flying%20Scotsman%20Great%20Central%20special%20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p>
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