Wolseley Motors: Difference between revisions

| name = Wolseley Motors Limited

| location = [[Birmingham]], England, UK

'''Wolseley Motors Limited''' was a British [[motor vehicle]] manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the [[Vickers]] armaments combineArmaments in conjunction with [[Herbert Austin]]. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the [[Edwardian era]]. The Vickers brothers died<ref group=note>in 1914 and 1919 respectively</ref> and, without their guidance, Wolseley expanded rapidly after the war, manufacturing 12,000 cars in 1921, and remained the biggest motor manufacturer in Britain.

Over-expansion led to [[receivership]] in 1927 when it was bought from Vickers Limited by [[William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield|William Morris]] as a personal investment. He moved it into his [[Morris Motors]] empire just before the [[World War II|Second World War]]. After that, Wolseley products were "badge-engineered" Morris cars. Wolseley went with its sister businesses into BMC, BMH and British Leyland, where its name lapsed in 1975.

|name = Wolseley Marquemarque

|discontinued = 19871975

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File:TrinityHouse1652013T143345 Albert Vickers.jpg|[[{{Interlanguage link|Albert Vickers]]|la|Albertus Vickers}} (1838–1919)

File:1–3 Arlington Street and 157–160 Piccadilly.jpg|Piccadilly regional offices, completed 1921<p>[[hubris]]

[[Hiram Maxim]], inventor of the machine gun that bears his name, and by then a member of the combine Vickers Sons & Maxim,<ref>Vickers Sons And Maxim Limited. ''The Times'', Wednesday, 17 November 1897; pg. 4; Issue 35363</ref> had consulted Herbert Austin at [[The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company|The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited]] in the late 1890s a number of times in relation to the design of [[Hiram Maxim#Flying machines|flying machines]], which heMaxim was developing and constructing. Maxim made use of a number of suggestions made by Austin in Maxim's activities at his works in [[Crayford]], [[Kent]]. Once the sheep- shearing company had decided they would not pursue their automobile interest, an approach was made and agreement quickly reached.<ref name=SJCN>St John C Nixon. ''Wolseley, a saga of the Motor Industry'', G T Foulis & Co, London, 1949</ref>

The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company of [[Adderley Park]] [[Birmingham]] was incorporated in March 1901 with a capital of £40,000 by Vickers, Sons and Maxim to manufacture motor cars and machine tools. The managing director was [[Herbert Austin]]. The cars and the Wolseley name came from Austin's exploratory venture for [[The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company|The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited]], run since the early 1890s by the now 33-year-old Austin. Wolseley's board had decided not to enter the business and Maxim and the Vickers brothers picked it up. After his five-year contract with The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company ended Austin founded [[Austin Motor Company|The Austin Motor Company Limited]].

Austin had been searching for other products for WSSMC because sale of sheep-shearing machinery was a highly seasonal trade. About 1895–96 he became interested in engines and automobiles. During the winter of 1895–96, working in his own time at nights and weekends, he made his own version of a design by [[Léon Bollée Automobiles|Léon Bollée]] that he had seen in Paris.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Baker |first1=John |title=Herbert Austin |url=http://www.austinmemories.com/page25/files/page25_2.jpg |accessdateaccess-date=20 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916014759/http://www.austinmemories.com/page25/files/page25_2.jpg |archivedatearchive-date=16 September 2014 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Later he found that another British group had bought the rights and he had to come up with a design of his own, having persuaded the directors of WSSMC to invest in the necessary machinery.

In 1897 Austin's second Wolseley car, the ''Wolseley Autocar No. 1'' was revealed. It was a three-wheeled design (one front, two rear) featuring independent rear suspension, mid-engine and back to back seating for two adults. It was not successful and although advertised for sale, none were sold. The third Wolseley car, the four-wheeled Wolseley "Voiturette" followed in 1899. A further four-wheeled car was made in 1900. The 1901 Wolseley Gasoline Carriage featured a [[steering wheel]] instead of a tiller.<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTwAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA563&dqq=Wolseley+Gasoline+carriage+steering+wheel+1901&pg=PA563 |journal=The Horseless Age |title=The Wolseley Gasoline Carriage |page=562 |volume=8 |issue=27 |date=2 October 1901 |accessdateaccess-date=16 July 2011}}</ref> The first Wolseley cars sold to the public were based on the "Voiturette", but production did not get underway until 1901, by which time the board of WSSMC had lost interest in the nascent motor industry.

[[Thomas Vickers|Thomas]] and Albert Vickers, directors of [[Vickers|Vickers and Maxim]], Britain's largest armaments manufacturer, had much earlier decided to enter the industry at the right moment and, impressed by Austin's achievements at WSSMC, they took on his enterprise. When Austin's five-year contract officially ended in 1906 they had made more than 1,500 cars,. Wolseley was the largest British motor manufacturer and Austin's reputation was made.

The company had been formed in March 1901. By 1 May 1901 Austin had issued his first catalogue. There were to be two models, 5&nbsp;hp and 10&nbsp;hp. They were both available with either a ''Tonneau'' or a ''Phaeton'' body with either pneumatic or solid tyres. For an additional outlay of thirty shillings (£1.50) the 10&nbsp;hp model would be fitted with a sprag to prevent it running backwards. "We recommend pneumatic tyres for all cars required to run over twenty miles an hour." Austin then provided a paragraph as to why his horizontal engines were better lubricated (than vertical engines) and that 750 rpm, the speed of his Wolseley engines, avoided the short life of competing engines that ran between 1,000 and 2,000 rpm."<ref name=SJCN/>

* 5&nbsp;hp,<ref name=RACHP>[[Tax horsepower#Britain|RAC Ratinghp]]</ref>, 6&nbsp;{{Hover title|hp<ref|RAC tax name=RACHP/>rating}} from 1904

====John Siddeley====

However a tendency then arose for journalists to follow the company's full-page display advertising and drop the first word in Wolseley Siddeley — "''Siddeley Autocars'' made by (in smaller typeface) the Wolseley Tool . . ."<ref>{{cite news | title=Siddeley Autocar | newspaper=The Times | date=16 November 1908 | page=4 | issue=38805}}</ref> Certainly it was true the new engines were named Siddeley engines. Meanwhile, under Siddeley Wolseley maintained the sales lead left to him by Austin but, now run from London, not (Austin's base) Birmingham, the whole business failed to cover overheads. A board member, Walter Chetwynd, was set to find a solution. It was decided the business operated from too many different locations. First the board closed the Crayford Kent works, moving the whole operation back to Birmingham and dropping production of commercial vehicles and taxicabs&nbsp;– a large number of which, 500+, were made during Siddeley's time including an early 10&nbsp;hp taxicab made in 1908 sold to a [[William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield|Mr W R Morris]] of Holywell St. Oxford who ran a garage there and hire car business there, as well as making bicycles. Then the London head office followed. After some heated discussions Siddeley resigned in the spring of 1909 and Rothschild went, too.<ref name=SJCN/> Ernest Hopwood was appointed managing director in August 1909.<ref name=NBTW/> Siddeley was to go on to manage the [[Deasy Motor Company]] and a notable commercial career.<ref name=BS/>

[[Wolseley Italiana|Wolsit Officine Legnanesi Autmobili]] was incorporated in 1907 by Macchi Brothers and the Bank of Legnano to build Wolseley cars under licence in [[Legnano]], about 18 kilometres north-west of central Milan. A similar enterprise, [[Fial]], had started there a year earlier but failed in 1908. Wolsit automobile production ended in 1909, the business continued but made luxury bicycles. [[Emilio Bozzi]] made the ''Ciclomotore Wolsit'' from 1910 to 1914. A team of Wolsit cars competed in motoring events in 1907.<ref>Paolo Ferrari (ed.), ''L'aeronautica italiana: una storia del Novecento'', FrancoAngeli Storia, Milan, 2004</ref>

* 12/16&nbsp;hp<ref[[Tax name=RACHP/>horsepower#Britain|hp]]

Chetwynd's recommendations soon leadled to a revival in profits and a rapid expansion of Wolseley's business. The Adderley Park factory was greatly extended in 1912. These extensions were opened in 1914 but there was not sufficient space for the new Stellite model which was instead produced and marketed by another Vickers subsidiary, Electric and Ordnance Accessories Company Limited.<ref name=SJCN/>

Wolseley was not then as specialised in its operations as members of the motor industry were to become. For other members of the Vickers group they were general engineers and they also handled engineering enquiries directed on to them by other group members. Wolseley built double-decker buses for the Birmingham Corporation. They also built many specials such as electric lighting sets and motor boat engines&nbsp;– catalogued sizes were from 12&nbsp;hp to 250&nbsp;hp with up to twelve cylinders and complete with gearboxes. Fire engines too and special [[War Office]] vehicles being a subsidiary of a major armaments firm. As befits a company with tool in its name they built machine tools including turret lathes and horizontal borers though chiefly for their own use or for group members. Very largeLarge engines were made to power petrol-electric railcars, such as those used by the North-Eastern Railway Company in 1904,<ref>Motor Coaches for Railways, The Automotor Journal, 23 Jan 1904, p87</ref><ref>Petrol Railway Coaches, The Automotor Journal, 29 Apr 1905, pp538-539</ref> and still larger engines were made for the [[Delaware and Hudson Railway|Delaware and Hudson]] railroad.<ref poweredname=SJCN/> aIn 1905 they also offered petrol narrow-electricgauge railway systemlocomotives.<ref>Light name=SJCNPetrol Locomotive, The Automotor Journal, 29 Apr 1905, p539</ref>

The amazing [[Gyro monorail|Brennan mono-rail]] truck which gave rides at the [[Japan–British Exhibition]] at [[Shepherd's Bush]] in 1910, used a 20HP engine manufactured by the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car company to power the gyroscopic stabilisation and an 80HP WoleselyWolseley engine for the petrol-electric propulsion of the 22 ton vehicle.<ref>The Sketch, 5 October 1910, p30</ref>

A Ferdinand de Baeder (1865–1944), Belgian holder of Aviator's certificate No. 107, won Prix des Pilots, Prix des Arts et Metiers, Coupe Archdeacon, Prix Capitaine Berger at [[Châlons-en-Champagne]] in his Wolseley-engined [[Voisin (aircraft)|Voisin]] biplane on 30 December 1909.<ref>''Flight'' magazine 8 January 1910</ref> By the summer of 1910 Wolseley were able to supply the following specially designed water-cooled aero-engines:

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By Roy A. Church, Economic History Society, 1994</ref> The company was renamed Wolseley Motors Limited in 1914. <br>It also began operations in Montreal and Toronto as Wolseley Motors Limited. This became British and American Motors after the First World War. In January 1914 the chairman, [[Vincent Caillard (financier)|Sir Vincent Caillard]], told shareholders they owned probably the largest motor-car producing company in the country and that its factory floor space now exceeded 17 acres.<ref name=SJCN/>

When Wolseley was auctioned by the receivers in February 1927 it was purchased by [[William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield|William Morris, later Viscount Nuffield]] for £730,000 using his own money. Possibly Morris acted to stop General Motors who subsequently bought Vauxhall.<ref name=Beaulieu>{{cite book |last=Georgano |first=N. |authorlinkauthor-link=G.N. Georgano |title=Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile |year=2000 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |isbn=1-57958-293-1}}</ref>

Wolseley joined Morris, MG and later [[Riley (automobile)|Riley/Autovia]] in the Morris Organisation later promoted as the [[Nuffield OrganisationOrganization]]

*[[Wolseley 1908 30 hp]] 4-cyl.]] - 1908

*[[Wolseley 1909 50 hp]] V-8 air-cooled]] - 1909

*[[Wolseley 1909 54 hp]] V-8 water-cooled]] 3.74" x 5.00", 1909

*[[Wolseley 191160 Type Bhp|Wolseley 80 hp V-8Type B]]

*[[Wolseley 191160 Type Chp|Wolseley 60 hp Type C]] V-8]]

*[[Wolseley Aquarius]] also known as A.R.7 Aquarius I]]

*[[Wolseley Aries]], also known as A.R.9 Aries III]]

**[[Wolseley W.4A PythonScorpio]] - 250 hp version of AR9

**[[Wolseley W.4A ViperLeo]] - 280 hp version of AR9, not flown

**[[Wolseley W.4B AdderLibra]] - 390 hp version of AR9, not flown

*[[Wolseley LeoPython]]

*[[Wolseley LibraViper]]

*[[Wolseley ScorpioAdder]]

Wolseley Aero Engines Ltd. was a subsidiary formed around 1931{{citation needed|date=April 2012}} to design aero engines. When Wolseley Motors Limited was transferred to Morris Motors Limited on 1 July 1935 this part of its business was set aside by W.[[William R.Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield|William Morris, (Lord Nuffield)]] and put in the ownership of a newly incorporated company, Wolseley Aero Engines Ltd, and remained his personal property. By 1942 the name of that company had become [[Nuffield Mechanisation and Aero|Nuffield Mechanizations Limited]].

They were developing an advanced Wolseley radial aero engine of about 250 horsepower, but the project was abandoned in September 1936 when [[Lord Nuffield|W. R. Morris]] got the fixed price I.T.P. (Intention to Proceed) contract papers (which would have required an army of [[chartered accountant]]s) and decided to deal only with the War Office and Admiralty, not the Air Ministry{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} (see [[Airspeed Ltd#Wolseley engine|Airspeed]]).

[[nlCategory:WolseleyCar brands]]