Percy Martin (1871-1958) was an American-born British engineer and automobile manufacturer. Born in Columbus, Ohio 19 June 1871 he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in electrical engineering, from Ohio State University in 1892. [1]
He worked for General Electric in Milan and Berlin then in 1901 on holiday in England and through a chance meeting he was asked to take up the works manager's position at the Daimler Company in Coventry which he did in October 1901.
The following July he married Alice Helen Heublein from Hartford, Connecticut, they had a son and a daughter. [1]
Soon rationalising Daimler's range of 10 different models he promptly designed then completed the entry into production of two new cars, Daimler's 22 hp and 12 hp. He established improved incentive payments and improved the management of Daimler's design, operations and materials. [1]
On the merging of the businesses of Daimler and arms and munitions manufacturer Birmingham Small Arms Company in October 1910 Percy Martin took up the position of managing director of the combined enterprise. [2] He was to serve more than twenty years in that post. [3]
In December 1916 he was appointed Controller of Internal Combustion Engines by the Ministry of Munitions and to The Air Board where he represented the Ministry of Munitions. [4]
In January 1920 B.S.A., on Martin's say so, bought from George Holt Thomas his aircraft business, Airco. In wartime Airco had been producing new aircraft at the rate of one every 45 minutes. The B.S.A. board made the purchase presuming Martin had carried out a due diligence investigation which he hadn't. The Airco companies were on the brink of financial collapse. Though they were closed immediately the losses were so grievous that B.S.A., one of the nation's major industrial combines, was obliged to miss paying a dividend for four years. [5]
At the beginning of the 1930s there were boardroom disagreements, a new chairman and, only technically subject to his direction, new executives covering much of his area of responsibility. [5] Martin remained with B.S.A. and its subsidiary Daimler until his retirement from day to day responsibilities in April 1934 at a time when in spite of the Great Depression B.S.A. still directly employed more than 11,000 people. [6] He was appointed chairman of Daimler. [7] He gave up his seat on the B.S.A. board after one more year. [8]
Percy Martin was particularly involved in two successful technical developments, the development and introduction in 1908 of sleeve valves for Daimler's engines and, in 1930, their fluid flywheel fitted to all their vehicles in conjunction with Wilsons epicyclic gearboxes and a forerunner of automatic transmissions. [1]
After retirement Martin remained in England living at Kenilworth near Coventry where he died in November 1958 a few months after his wife. [1]
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918.
The Daimler Company Limited, before 1910 known as the Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. After early financial difficulty and a reorganisation of the company in 1904, the Daimler Motor Company was purchased by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910, which also made cars under its own name before the Second World War. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of the Daimler Company.
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Frederick William Lanchester LLD, Hon FRAeS, FRS, was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering and to aerodynamics, and co-invented the topic of operations research.
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company in Coventry from 1919 to 1967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles.
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Carbodies was a taxi design and manufacturing company based in Coventry, England. In its latter years it also traded as London Taxis International and The London Taxi Company.
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The Daimler Conquest is an automobile which was produced by The Daimler Company Limited in the United Kingdom from 1953 to 1958. Based on the Lanchester Fourteen, the Conquest replaced the Daimler Consort. Sales were affected by increasing prices and by the fuel shortage caused by the Suez Crisis, and production ended by January 1958, before a replacement model was in production.
The Airco DH.10 Amiens was a twin-engined heavy bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airco. It performed the first nighttime air mail service in the world on 14-15 May 1919.
Daimler Airway was an airline subsidiary of the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA)'s Daimler Company. It was created to use some of the assets of the failed ventures Airco and its subsidiary, Aircraft Transport and Travel, which was acquired by BSA in February 1920.
Laurence Henry Pomeroy (1883–1941) was an English automotive engineer trained as a locomotive engineer and particularly interested in the introduction of light alloys into automotive applications.
Frank Searle CBE, DSO, MIME was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines.
George Holt Thomas was an aviation industry pioneer and newspaper proprietor. In 1911, Holt Thomas founded the business which became Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited or Airco.
Sir Edward Manville M.Inst.E.E., was a British consulting electrical engineer, industrialist and politician.
BSA cars were manufactured between 1907 and 1912 in Birmingham then until 1939 in Coventry as well as Birmingham, England. BSA had established a motor-car department in an unsuccessful effort to make use of the Sparkbrook Birmingham factory. An independent part of the same site was occupied by The Lanchester Motor Company Limited. Sales were handled by BSA Cycles Limited. After 1912, manufacture was carried out by group subsidiary Daimler in Coventry or BSA Cycles in Birmingham.
The Lanchester Ten and Lanchester Eleven were sold by The Lanchester Motor Company Limited from the Ten's announcement in September 1932 until 1951. Quite different from previous Lanchesters, the Ten was the second of Lanchester's new owner's new Daimler-linked Lanchester range. The names Ten and Eleven referred to the engine's rating for the annual tax and did not relate to the engine's power output.
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