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Stuart Turner Ltd is a British engineering company, based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, founded by engineer Sidney Marmaduke Stuart Turner in 1906. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2018) |
Stuart Turner Ltd is a British engineering company, based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, founded by engineer Sidney Marmaduke Stuart Turner in 1906. [1]
Stuart Turner Ltd was incorporated in 1906 [2] and started to produce model steam engines, gas engines for domestic electricity, lathes, etc. Stuart Turner went on to produce further model steam designs, and in 1906 there were nine models in the range. By 1907 more space was needed so premises were rented at Market Place in the centre of Henley-On-Thames, where the company remained for many years.
The 2-stroke engine with crankcase compression had been invented by Joseph Day in the mid-1890s. This made possible lightweight engines and new applications. Stuart Turner was exploring making small 2-strokes for motorcycles and generators. In 1911, Stuart Turner developed a complete motorcycle using a Chater-Lea frame and Druid forks. The key part manufactured by Stuart was the 2-port single cylinder 2-stroke engine rated at 2 1/2 HP (71 x 75.5mm bore and stroke giving 299cc). [3] They exhibited it at the 1911 Olympia show (on the stand of R.G. Nye and Co of London). [4]
In 1912 and 1913 they marketed the Stuart Stellar (some early references use 'Stella') motorcycle, [5] this used an in-line two-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke engine complete with shaft drive. Engine capacity is variously quoted as 743 cc and 786 cc. This would be comparable with the Scott motorcycle of the time which had a transverse water cooled two-stroke twin-cylinder engine of 532 cc. However, in-spite of the innovative design, the Stellar was not a success and only 26 examples were built.
The firm secured the contract to make engines for the Dayton motorised bicycle made by Charles Day Manufacturing Co in Shoreditch, London, which was until then purely a bicycle manufacturer. [6] This went on sale in late 1913. The engine has a one-piece cylinder and head with a rear-facing spark plug, and was of 162 cc, rated at 1.5 HP. The bore was 57 mm and the stroke 63.5 mm, and it had a U.H. magneto and Amac (NB not Amal which is a different company) carburettor. Both single-speed and two-speed versions were available, and prices in July 1914 were 20 to 28 guineas according to specification.
Two employees, Alec Plint and W.G. Ayling, rode the Dayton bikes in motorcycle endurance events run by the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU), such as the six days trial. Weighing only 148 lb, these were usually the smallest motorcycles competing. These events included riding between and taking part in various tests, such as hill starts, acceleration and braking, cold starts, and climbing steep rough hills. Total distance for the 1914 event was 674 miles. [7] The Daytons did well given that they were considered rather lacking in power as revealed by this excerpt from the Motor Cycle magazine of July 1914 – 'Ayling (Dayton) footed vigorously, but got his lilliputian engine to the top'. [8] Production of engines for the Dayton was 20 engines per week, but production of the Dayton motorcycle ceased in 1915 due to the first World War. [9]
Many of the technical developments during this period appear to be down to Alec Plint, who is named as applicant on five Stuart Turner patents which include sealing crankcases, [10] padding crankcases to improve compression, [11] variable speed gears, [12] [13] and decompression devices. [14] The 1911 patent diagrams show the current 2-stroke to be '2-port', i.e. with the inlet being by non-return valve into the transfer port, with ball races for the main bearings and deflector type piston. The inlet non-return valve is the subject of another Stuart Turner patent in 1911, naming Ernest Masters as co-applicant. [15]
In 1914, the company manufactured a generating plant for the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance. [6] It was used in the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
During World War I (1914–18), the company produced nuts and bolts, gas valves and a klaxon horn for gas attack warnings. The workforce expanded to over 300 men and 100 women. In 1917, Stuart Turner acquired Broadgates Inn in Market Place, Henley-on-Thames, and has used this as a base ever since. [16]
Shortly after the war, Stuart Turner introduced the P3 single-cylinder 2-stroke engine, designed by Alec Plint to drive lighting and pumping plants. This engine was to form the basis of a range of engines used for small power applications, particularly as marine engines and to drive generators, though also to drive equipment and pumps. Castings were produced in Stuart Turner's own foundry. The P4 superseded the P3 in 1928, and in 1930 the marine variant was introduced, and was sold in considerable number for fitment in small yachts and other pleasure boats. In around 1935/1936 the P4 was joined by the larger-bore P5 (268 cc) and twin-cylinder P55 (535 cc). While the P4 was made until the war, the P5 and P55 continued in production for over 30 years. For the marine engines, Stuart Turner produced a reversing gearbox and optional final drive reduction gear; everything else, up to and including the screw propeller, was also available. The many variations of the engines (marine and otherwise) were indicated by suffixes to the engine number; so, for example, a P55ME would be a marine P55 with electric start (Lucas Dynamotor, Siba Dynastart, or separate dynamo and starter).[ citation needed ]
Between 1932 and 1935, Stuart Turner produced the small (1/2 HP) type N engine, which had an overhung crank. This model seems to have been superseded by the type R 2-stroke engine, which was introduced in 1934 with a full width crank. The R2 being 84 cc, and the R3 having a larger bore size and hence 123 cc. These small engines were used for general utility, but also the R3M for pleasure boats, hire boats. The R3 was to continue in production until 1977.[ citation needed ]
The model engineering range was extensive throughout the inter-war years, with much production sold as kits of castings, though some complete engines were also sold. Most of the models were designed to be representative of a class of engine, mainly steam driven, rather than an accurate scale recreation of a specific engine. Internal combustion engines were also available as kits, including the 'lightweight' 2-stroke petrol engine. From 1935, Stuart Turner was also the United Kingdom agent for the American 'Brown Junior' 10 cc engine [17] for which they developed an aluminium (elektron) airscrew. Some of the engines were intended to do a job of work rather than for the entertainment of a model engineer, for example, the 1935 Sandhurst horizontal 2/3 bhp engine, which was described thus: [18] 'This engine will run on gas or petrol and is designed for continuous work such as dynamo, workshop or pump driving. It is supplied only as castings for the amateur to machine up.'. The larger steam engines, for example, the model 6A, are capable of 4 bhp and powering steam launches, thereby blurring the distinction between whether they were model engines, or designed to do a job of work, or both.
Many ancillaries were sold to illustrate the power from the model engines, such as the Avery Multipolar dynamo. In the 1906 catalogue, this dynamo (output of 20 volts, 4 amps at 1200 rpm) was said to have been "designed for use with a Stuart No2 engine".[ citation needed ] A variety of dynamos were sold over the years allowing them to be matched to the power of the model engine.
Stuart Turner also produced a wide range of boilers to power their steam engines, and sold matched boiler and steam engine as complete 'steam plants'. The most common boilers are the small 501 and 504 copper horizontal types used to drive the model steam engines, but they also produced a range of riveted steel vertical boilers up to 20 inches diameter, and 36 inches high, either with a central flue or with multiple tubes. They also offered brazing services for customers' boilers.[ citation needed ]
They also produced two complete model steamboats. The 24-inch Henley was produced from 1925, and had a single-cylinder S.T. oscillating steam engine, and the 39-inch Isis was launched the next year with a model 495 boiler and the twin-cylinder Star steam engine. [19] These boats were produced until at least 1936, probably until the war disrupted matters. There was a version of the Henley steamboat powered by a Stuart Turner electric motor; this boat was sold as the 'Magician'. The 4-volt electric motor was also sold separately. [18]
In 1923 the War Office invited Stuart Turner (and other firms) to design a very light air-cooled engine and generator for wireless. It was to be carried on a pack mule. The whole plant must not weigh more than 84 lb, it had to run in any temperature from freezing to 60 °C; it must not be affected by being carried upside down or in any position; it must govern within 5% and there were various other conditions. The result was that five firms produced engines but the Stuart Turner engine was the only one which fulfilled the requirements and passed the tests. This was the W.D. engine, which was a 4-stroke side-valve flat twin, and continued in production for 20 years. [6] Two of these engines were taken on the 1933 Everest expedition to power the wireless sets.
From 1928 until the war, the company issued nine patents (again naming Alec Plint) for milking machines and developed a diaphragm pulsatory milking machine which was marketed by Gascoine of Reading, who later took over the rights. They also developed pumps, and in the 1933 Bond's catalogue [20] a complete Stuart Turner electric motor and centrifugal pump on a baseplate with 180, 800, or 1120 gallons per hour was advertised. This evolved into the current product line of centrifugal pumps.
In 1932, Stuart Turner produced the model K 4-stroke engine, which was a single-cylinder overhead-valve engine designed to power refrigeration units. Only 64 were made, the last in 1938.[ citation needed ]
In 1934, Stuart Turner introduced the S type steam engine. This was not a model but a fully enclosed single-cylinder commercial power unit of 1 to 1.5 HP designed to drive generators or fans or pumps. It stood 22 inches tall with a 10-inch flywheel and weighed about 120 lb. Preston Services [21] have stated that there were both slide valve and piston valve versions, only 247 were made between 1934 and 1962. [22]
In 1938, Stuart Turner developed a single-cylinder 2-stroke diesel with crankcase compression, the model H. At the time this was the smallest commercial diesel engine in the world. [23] These engines were sold mainly to the RNLI for charging batteries. [24]
The company produced a number of products for the military during World War II (1939–45), including combined boiler, steam engine and generator plants, designed to be used by resistance fighters or troops operating covertly behind enemy lines to power radio transmitters. The first of these modest-sized steam generator plants was called the Firefly, and was based around the Stuart Sirius engine, [25] in 1956 a later one named Mk814 had a bespoke single-cylinder piston valve engine. [26] [27]
Stuart Turner also produced many internal combustion generators with uses such as charging aircraft batteries and providing dummy runway lights on fake airfields. Stuart Turner engines were built into the back of AEC[ clarification needed ] fuel bowser trucks to drive a Zwicky Ltd pump to transfer fuel to aircraft. [6] These P5XC engines were referred to in-house as the Zwicky engines.
Stuart Turner continued to make engines (especially marine engines), pumps, generators, and model kits throughout the post-war years, though several of the pre-war model internal combustion engines did not reappear.
The pre-war single-cylinder diesel engine was joined by a new twin-cylinder 2-stroke diesel in 1953, [28] the H2/H2M/H2MR. Whereas the single had used crankcase compression to scavenge the cylinder, the twin-cylinder had two air pumps. Rated at 9 HP, the capacity was 780 cc, and weight 240 kg. The Single Cylinder Model H was updated to the H1, and many of its detail design features were changed, and ultimately it looked very much like a H2 minus a cylinder. Only 15 H1's were made. The single-cylinder diesel was phased out in 1960 and the twin in 1968, with only about 400 of each model produced.
A four-stroke twin-cylinder petrol engine (the 12HP ST4/ST4M/ST4MR/ST4RE) was introduced in May 1968. Rated at 12 HP, it was the most powerful engine in the range. This side-valve engine was 955 cc capacity and weighed 155 kg. [24] Both hand-start and electric-start versions were produced, but production was only about 150 engines, and it was phased out in 1975.
In 1969, the P5 and the P55 twin were replaced by the more powerful 5 HP P6 and 10 HP P66 (both at the higher speed of 1650 rpm). There were a number of detailed differences, including a change to the ignition system, but the bore and stroke remained the same.[ citation needed ]
Stuart Turner marketed some small marine diesels from the Spanish marine engine company Solé Diesel as the Stuart Solé. Solé converts engines from a wide variety of manufacturers for marine use. From a 1977 Stuart Solé operators manual, it is known that Stuart Solé engines were available in 6 hp and 9 hp variants, which seem identical in appearance to the Solé Mini-1 and Mini-2 engines, based on Lombardini engines and made by Solé Diesel between 1974 and 1986. [29] These were a common fitment in vessels made by the Cornish Crabbers boat-building company in the late 1970s and probably into the early 1980s, one 1981 example being listed for sale with an 11 hp Stuart Solé engine.
Stuart Turner ceased their marine engine production in 1978, and the spares and support were transferred to another company. In 1987, Stuart Turner Ltd acquired Morewood Model Engineers and the Stuart Model range moved to Cheddar in Somerset. Still branded as Stuart Models, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Stuart Turner Ltd. Cheddar Models Ltd was formed as an offshoot from Stuart Models in the late 1980s. In 1991, the brand and range were sold to David Jones of Jones and Bradburn and it moved to Guernsey. When Cheddar Models went bankrupt in 2005 models and plans were absorbed back into the Stuart Model range. At some point, possibly as part of this reorganisation, Stuart Models had acquired the rights to the Plastow Traction Engine model range, which they sold in October 2006 to Bridport foundry of Dorset, who had been responsible for the castings. In July 2012 Stuart Models was bought by Bridport Foundry.
Stuart Turner Ltd continued making domestic water pumps staying at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England.
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types. The main types are: the internal combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the Stirling engine for niche applications. Internal combustion engines are further classified in two ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.
The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creating a partial vacuum which allowed the atmospheric pressure to push the piston into the cylinder. It was historically significant as the first practical device to harness steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines. Hundreds were constructed throughout the 18th century.
The Watt steam engine design was an invention of James Watt that became synonymous with steam engines during the Industrial Revolution, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design.
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The Ford CVH engine is a straight-four automobile engine produced by the Ford Motor Company. The engine's name is an acronym for either Compound Valve-angle Hemispherical or Canted Valve Hemispherical, where "Hemispherical" describes the shape of the combustion chamber. The CVH was introduced in 1980 in the third generation European Escort and in 1981 in the first generation North American Escort.
Coventry Climax was a British manufacturer of forklift trucks, fire pumps, racing engines, and other speciality engines.
The GM Ecotec engine, also known by its codename L850, is a family of all-aluminium inline-four engines, displacing between 1.2 and 2.5 litres. Confusingly, the Ecotec name was also applied to both the Buick V6 Engine when used in Holden Vehicles, as well as the final DOHC derivatives of the previous GM Family II engine; the architecture was substantially re-engineered for this new Ecotec application produced since 2000. This engine family replaced the GM Family II engine, the GM 122 engine, the Saab H engine, and the Quad 4 engine. It is manufactured in multiple locations, to include Spring Hill Manufacturing, in Spring Hill, Tennessee, with engine blocks and cylinder heads cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations in Saginaw, Michigan.
The RB engine is an oversquare 2.0–3.0 L straight-6 four-stroke gasoline engine from Nissan, originally produced from 1985 to 2004. The RB followed the 1983 VG-series V6 engines to offer a full, modern range in both straight or V layouts. It was part of a new engine family name PLASMA.
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The Austin Motor Company A-series is a British small straight-4 automobile engine. Launched in 1951 with the Austin A30, production lasted until 2000 in the Mini. It used a cast-iron block and cylinder head, and a steel crankshaft with three main bearings. The camshaft ran in the cylinder block, driven by a single-row chain for most applications, and with tappets sliding in the block, accessible through pressed steel side covers for most applications, and with overhead valves operated through rockers. The cylinder blocks are not interchangeable between versions intended for conventional end-on mounted gearboxes and the 'in-sump' transaxle used on British Motor Corporation/British Leyland front wheel drive models such as the Mini. The cylinder head for the overhead-valve version of the A-series engine was designed by Harry Weslake – a cylinder head specialist famed for his involvement in SS (Jaguar) engines and several Formula One-title winning engines. Although a "clean sheet" design, the A-series owed much to established Austin engine design practise, resembling in general design and overall appearance a scaled-down version of the 1200cc overhead-valve engine first seen in the Austin A40 Devon which would form the basis of the later B-series engine.
The Volvo B21 is a slanted straight-four engine first used in the Volvo 200 series, meant to replace the B20. The B21 and all derived engines are often referred to as red block engines for the red paint applied to the block. The primary differences when compared to the B20 was the switch to a SOHC in place of the older pushrod configuration, and an aluminum crossflow cylinder head versus the iron head of the B20.
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall. The efficiency of the engines was improved by engineers including James Watt, who added a separate condenser; Jonathan Hornblower and Arthur Woolf, who compounded the cylinders; and William McNaught, who devised a method of compounding an existing engine. Beam engines were first used to pump water out of mines or into canals but could be used to pump water to supplement the flow for a waterwheel powering a mill.
The Subaru EJ engine is a series of four-stroke automotive engines manufactured by Subaru. They were introduced in 1989, intended to succeed the previous Subaru EA engine. The EJ series was the mainstay of Subaru's engine line, with all engines of this series being 16-valve horizontal flat-fours, with configurations available for single, or double-overhead camshaft arrangements. Naturally aspirated and turbocharged versions are available, ranging from 96 to 310 hp. These engines are commonly used in light aircraft, kit cars and engine swaps into air-cooled Volkswagens, and are also popular as a swap into Volkswagen T3/Vanagons powered by the Volkswagen Wasserboxer engine. Primary engineering on the EJ series was done by Masayuki Kodama, Takemasa Yamada and Shuji Sawafuji of Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru's parent company.
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The Lotus-Ford Twin Cam is an inline-four petrol engine developed by Lotus for the 1962 Lotus Elan. A few early examples displaced 1.5 litres, but the majority were 1.55-litre (1557cc) engines. It used a Ford 116E iron cylinder block and a new aluminium cylinder head with dual overhead camshafts. The Twin Cam was used in a variety of vehicles until Lotus stopped production in 1973. It was succeeded by the Lotus 907 engine.
The Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine (1894) is a historic steam engine located in the former Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station, in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been declared a historic mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The pumping station was decommissioned in the 1970s, and turned into the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in 2011.
The cylinder is the power-producing element of the steam engine powering a steam locomotive. The cylinder is made pressure-tight with end covers and a piston; a valve distributes the steam to the ends of the cylinder. Cylinders were initially cast iron, but later made of steel. The cylinder casting includes other features such as valve ports and mounting feet. The last big American locomotives incorporated the cylinders as part of huge one-piece steel castings that were the main frame of the locomotive. Renewable wearing surfaces were needed inside the cylinders and provided by cast-iron bushings.
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Whitney was initially a shop established in 1875 in City Road, London, for the buying and selling of scientific apparatus, also using the name The Scientific Exchange. It later developed to include the sale of small engineering items including model steam engines, boilers, gas engines, steam pumps, electrically driven water fountain pumps, and water powered turbines, most of which were marked Whitney, City Road, London. The electrical side of the business was considerable and included installing telephone systems and electric lighting, as well as selling generators and batteries.
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