David Brown and Sons
David Brown and Sons of Swan Lane, Lockwood, Huddersfield, an engineering company, principally engaged in the manufacture of gears and gearboxes. Maker of Valveless car, tractors and late sports cars.
General
Founded in 1860 as a general manufacturing company.
By 1873 David Brown had focused on gear systems.
1901 David Brown, Patternmaker and gear cutter, passes away in his 59th year.[1]
1905 Detailed and illustrated description of their works at Huddersfiled in The Engineer 1905/07/07
1911 Maker of machine tools like bevel-gear generators. (David Brown and Sons)
1913 April. Advert for Worm Gear. Listed as David Brown and Sons.
1913-1917 For a list of the models and prices of cars see the 1917 Red Book. Produced the Valveless car.
1917 Advert for Double Helical Gears and Carburiser. (David Brown and Sons of Park Works, Lockwood, Huddersfield)
1919 Advert for Double Helical Gears and Carburiser. (David Brown and Sons of Park Works, Lockwood, Huddersfield)
1920 September. Exhibited at the Machine Tool and Engineering Exhibition at Olympia with a worm miller, worm grinder and a worm wheel generator. (David Brown and Sons)
David Brown and Sons acquired Keighley Gear Co
1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history
1932 David Brown became managing director, following the death of his uncle; his father was chairman of the company.
1934 Bought site at Penistone for a new foundry - David Brown Foundries began making high grade steel, and steel castings, the following year.
1935 David Brown Tractors was formed, initially in partnership with Harry Ferguson.
1937 Gear manufacturers, steel, iron and bronze founders. "Roloid" Pumps. "Taurus" Bronze Castings.
1939 First tractor launched at the Royal Agricultural Show; production began at a new factory in a disused mill at Meltham.
1939 See Aircraft Industry Suppliers
WWII Park works made gears for all types of machines and vehicles, including for the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The aero-gear division moved to Meltham in 1940, supplying gears for the Hercules engines of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and for Spitfires. Browns established a tank gearbox division at Meltham and at Penistone produced armour plating for Churchill and Cromwell tanks, and steel casing for blockbuster bombs. An aircraft foundry was built at Penistone to make castings for aero-engines, and made cables for the oil pipeline system for the Normandy landings.
1944 Acquired Muir Machine Tool Co of Manchester and moved the machine tool division there.
1945 Advert for precision spur and helical gear hobs. (David Brown and Son)
1947, the company acquired Aston Martin and, in 1948, Lagonda. The David Brown investment led to the DB series of Aston Martins.
Early 1950s, formed David Brown Construction Equipment Ltd.
1951 David Brown Corporation formed as parent for all the companies.
1951 Advert. Gears. (David Brown and Sons)
1955 Bought Tickford, builders of car bodies, and moved the car companies to their site.
1958 concentrated on a single range of high-performance sports cars, the Aston Martin DB series; production of Lagondas ceased.
1959 The Aston Martin team, led by Stirling Moss, won at Le Mans.
1960 Advert. Gearing.
1960 Ownership of the gear, foundry, and tool divisions was transferred to a new company, David Brown and Sons (Huddersfield) Ltd.
1960 Withdrew from sports car racing and grand prix racing, to concentrate on production cars for sale.
1961 Listed as David Brown Industries with 7,000 employees. Works at Huddersfield, London, Coventry, Manchester and Salford. Engineers and metal founders, manufacturers and dealers in gears, agricultural machines and implements, tractors and motor cars.
1964 David Brown acquired controlling interest in Vosper Ltd from Minerals Separation[2].
1968 Largest gear hobbing machine by David Brown Gear Industries.
Early 1970s the David Brown Corporation was in financial difficulties.
1971 David Brown was removed from executive control
1972 sold David Brown Tractors to Tenneco Inc[3]
1972 Both car companies were sold in 1972 to Company Developments Limited - Aston Martin then in financial trouble was sold for a nominal £100.
1978 After Vosper Thornycroft was nationalized, Sir David Brown resigned from the chairmanship.
1990 the family disposed of its stake to the management
1993 Flotation of the group as a public company.
1993 David Brown Group purchased Hamworthy Hydraulics and Hamworthy Transmissions from Hamworthy Engineering Co; the production facility of the Transmissions part of the business was moved to the main David Brown facility in Huddersfield.
1995 Hamworthy Hydraulics was renamed David Brown Hydraulics
1996 Purchased IFP, a manufacturer of valves and pumps, of Chicago, USA (the IFP pumps were originally manufactured by Hydreco and licensed to Hamworthy).
1998 David Brown was acquired by Textron Inc. in October.
2008 Clyde Blowers acquired Textron Fluid and Power Inc, including David Brown Hydraulics
The company, trading as David Brown Engineering Ltd, headquartered in Huddersfield, is now a leading supplier of heavy transmission systems for industrial, defence and marine applications.
Cars
Tractors
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1901/07/12, p041.
- ↑ The Times, 22 May 1964
- ↑ The Times, 18 April 1973
- [1] Wikipedia
- Machine Tools by James Weir French in 2 vols. Published 1911 by Gresham
- The Engineer of 3rd September 1920 p233
- The Autocar of 5th April 1913 p
- Mechanical World Year Book 1917. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p230-1
- Mechanical World Year Book 1919. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p262-3
- Mechanical World Year Book 1945. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p18
- Mechanical World Year Book 1951. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p18
- Mechanical World Year Book 1960. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert on rear outside cover
- The Engineer of 5th January 1968 p10
- The Engineer of 26th April 1968 p650
- 1961 Guide to Key British Enterprises: Motor, Motor-Cycle and Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers
- 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- AA. [2] Image courtesy of Aviation Ancestry
- Biography of Sir David Brown [3]
- David Brown Hydraulics [4]