Raleigh Cycle Co: 1934 Review
Note: This is a sub-section of the Raleigh Cycle Co
Note: This is an abridged version of a chapter in British Commerce and Industry 1934
IN the history of the Raleigh Company, which may be set forth very briefly, two facts are worthy of particular note. One is that the founder had no previous connection with any section of the British engineering industries; and the other, that he elected to establish his business in Nottingham, rather than in the main engineering centres of Birmingham, Coventry or Wolverhampton.
Frank Bowden hailed from Bristol; he took an appointment in a lawyer's office in London, and was selected from five hundred applicants for a post in Hong-Kong.
Here he was extremely successful, and was able to retire at an early age. Settling in San Francisco, he married and began to read for the Bar, but his health was broken. Returning to England to recuperate, cycling as a form of exercise was recommended to him, and as a widely-travelled, well-informed and shrewd observer of the world, he realized that here was the nucleus of an entirely new career, a decision resulting in the launching of the Raleigh Company from a small cycle assembly shed in Nottingham.
Sufficient evidence of the wisdom of this undertaking is provided in the extent of its works to-day, its magnificent headquarters in Nottingham, with a wage list in its works, in normal times, of nearly 4,000 employees, and its vast distributing outlet, in which some 4,500 Raleigh dealers in Great Britain and Ireland alone take part, in addition to representation in all the overseas markets.
In recognition of public services to his country during the war, Sir Frank Bowden was created a Baronet. On his death in 1921, at the age of seventy-three, he was succeeded by his son, the present head of the organization, Sir Harold Bowden, Bart., G.B.E.
England is the unchallenged pioneer in the creation and foundation of the vast cycle industry that has since been adopted by the leading industrial nations of the world.
In the late 'eighties all the general features of a modern bicycle had been evolved. It then became evident that the bone-shaker of the 'sixties with its wooden frame and iron rims, and the penny-farthing of the 'seventies and early 'eighties with its suspension wheels, wire spokes and solid tyres, were definitely to be superseded. And so the process of evolution, slow but sure, proceeded. Adjustable ball-bearings were patented as early as 1873, and the tangent wheel almost at the same time. Steel tubing for frames, chain drive and the differential gear were first invented in the middle 'seventies, and a few examples of the rear chain-driven safety appeared in the late 'seventies. But it was the incorporation of all these with the pneumatic tyre that firm basis in the country, and it was at this juncture (in the late 'eighties) that the founder of the Raleigh Company stepped into the industry.
This was the crucial moment for the development and revolutionizing of the engineering industry, as it was then known. On the one side the time was ripe for the practical application of British inventiveness to new forms of engineering based on the discovery of new alloys, combining lightness and toughness, to the requirements of new means of transport. On the other, the Dunlop and Clincher patents for the adaptation of pneumatic tyres to road vehicles awaited exploitation. In addition, the numerous miscellaneous industries of the Midlands, embracing iron foundries and works for pressed steel, tubes, springs, and all the other fitments and accessories of bicycle manufacture, provided an opportunity for a master mind to centralize and standardize as many of these as were necessary to establish a definitely separate cycle manufacturing industry. Out of this welter of small local industries, then, was evolved the cycle (and in later years, the motor) manufacturing trade, as we now know it.
A special feature of the Raleigh bicycle is the fitment of the Sturmey-Archer two- and three-speed gears, and hubs with internal expanding brakes. This mechanism adds to the pleasure of the machine, eliminates fatigue and destroys the bogey of hill- climbing. In addition to the single-speed hub with internal expanding brake, the two- and three-speed gears are also available with this brake, giving a complete range of hubs both with and without the internal expanding brake. These brakes are extremely efficient in action and avoid disfigurement of the wheel rim which is inevitable with an ordinary rim brake.
With the Raleigh experience in the production of cycles, the manufacture of three-wheeled vehicles, fitted with an internal combustion engine for light transport work, for business, or for pleasure cruising in a sports type motor body, was of more than passing interest. And although this departure is recent, it has already assured to the company that large intermediate market between the cyclist and motor-cyclist on the one hand, and the light-car owner on the other. In addition, it has successfully engaged the interest of the tradesman who can save considerable costs in the use of a handy light runabout for delivering his wares.
To the pleasure motorist the Raleigh Sports Tourer is more than a new light car. Its special engine and chassis designs represent the latest and best in mechanical principles, and the car possesses road-holding and steering qualities which set a new standard of safety. Full car type springing and bodywork are fitted, with their attendant comforts, and an equipment and finish which are of the very first quality throughout.
The inverted, partly built machines move slowly along the assembly rail and different components are fitted by each operator. Every man is detailed to deal with one particular component only, and in this way becomes highly skilled at his job.
Economy of operation has been studied, for the car is intended to bring the joys of motoring primarily to those with light purses.
More than two years of continuous experiments were conducted at Lenton before the final models were decided upon. Their instantaneous success when introduced to the public has proved once again that the technical experience of the company was in a position to gauge and to satisfy a new need from a public that is, in England, extremely exacting.
The internal organization of the Raleigh Company provides for a works welfare department, under which medical treatment and canteen facilities are available to all its employees. A benevolent fund was established in 1926, to which the workers and the firm contribute jointly, and which is administered by a representative committee.
A pensions scheme has also been put into operation, participation in which is entirely voluntary to the workers. The Raleigh Athletic Club takes up the welfare spirit by its various activities in cricket, football, swimming, fishing, and various indoor social functions, thus fostering that healthy esprit de corps which is such an essential feature of modern business life.
The rebuilding of the headquarters of the company was undertaken at a time when British industry was depressed, and the Government and Local Authorities sought to alleviate the distress of unemployment by schemes of capital construction. The Directors of the Raleigh Company, having every confidence in the future of their products, selected this dark moment for the erection of the magnificent new buildings at Lenton on the outskirts of Nottingham, and their confidence in this direction has been fully justified.
Immense stocks of machines are carried in order that quick delivery can be made of any catalogued model. This particular building alone accommodates 18,000 complete bicycles! A special reference system of numbers and tallies enables a definite check to be kept on the length of time a machine remains in stock, and no purchaser need have any doubts concerning deterioration due to storage. The Raleigh "time method" makes this impossible.
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