Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 2004.
Contents |
History
Early history
Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Please refer to the overview article Vickers for other companies known by this name Vickers Limited was a famous British engineering conglomerate that Sheffield ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 A foundry is a Factory which produces Metal Castings from either Ferrous or non-ferrous alloys For other uses see Miller (disambiguation A miller usually refers to a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a Cereal Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson and Vickers' brother William owned a steel rolling operation. Edward's investments in the railway industry allowed him to gain control of the company, based at Millsands and known as Naylor Vickers and Company. It began life making steel castings and quickly became famous for casting church bells. A church bell is a bell which is rung in a (especially Christian) church either to signify the Hour or the time for worshippers to go to In 1854 Vickers' sons Thomas and Albert joined the business. In 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside. This article is about the river in South Yorkshire England For other rivers with the same name see Don River (disambiguation. Shiregreen and Brightside ward &mdashwhich includes the districts of Brightside, Shiregreen, and Wincobank &mdashis one of the 28 electoral wards The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses, branching out into various sectors. In 1868 Vickers began to manufacture marine shafts, in 1872 they began casting marine propellers and in 1882 they set up a forging press. A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting Rotational motion into Thrust for propulsion of a vehicle such as an Forging is the term for shaping metal by using localized compressive forces Vickers produced their first armour plate in 1888 and their first artillery piece in 1890. For body armour see Armour, for armoured forces see Armoured warfare, for other uses see Armour (disambiguation.
Vickers bought out the Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, acquiring its subsidiary the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns And Ammunitions Company [1] at the same time, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim. Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and Seaport in Cumbria, England. Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim ( February 5, 1840 &ndash November 24, 1916) was an American born Inventor who emigrated to The yard at Barrow became the "Naval Construction Yard". With these acquisitions, Vickers could now produce a complete selection of products, from ships and marine fittings to armour plate and a whole suite of ordnance. In 1901 the Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at the Naval Construction Yard. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) History In 1901 she was commissioned from John Philip Holland and built at Barrow-in-Furness. In 1902 Vickers took a half share in the famous Clyde shipyard John Brown and Company. The River Clyde ( Gaelic: Abhainn Chluaidh, avɪɲˈxɫ̪uəj is a major River in Scotland. John Brown and Company of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, was a pre-eminent Shipbuilder, responsible for building many notable
Further diversification occurred with the purchase of the car building activities of the Wolseley Sheep-Shearing Machine Company in 1905, which was set up as the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company. In 1911 a controlling interest was acquired in Whitehead and Company, the torpedo manufacturers. Robert Whitehead ( 3 January 1823 &ndash 14 November 1905) was an English engineer The modern torpedo (historically called an automotive automobile locomotive or fish torpedo is a self-propelled explosive Projectile weapon launched above or below In 1911, the company name was changed to Vickers Ltd and expanded its operations into aircraft manufacture by the formation of Vickers Ltd (Aviation Department). An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing building testing selling and maintaining Aircraft, Aircraft parts In 1919, the British Westinghouse electrical company was taken over as the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company; Metrovick. British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company was a subsidiary of the American Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as At the same time they came into Metropolitan's railway interests.
Merger with Armstrong Whitworth
In 1927, Vickers merged with the Tyneside based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in Tyneside is a Conurbation in northern England, which is home to over 80% of the Metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century Sir William George Armstrong 1st Baron Armstrong ( November 26 1810 &ndash December 27 1900) was a Tyneside industrialist who Armstrong Whitworth had developed along similar lines to Vickers, expanding into various military sectors and was notable for their artillery manufacture at Elswick and shipbuilding at a yard at High Walker on the River Tyne. Walker is a residential suburb and electoral ward just east of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The River Tyne is a River in England. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers the North Tyne and the South Tyne. Armstrongs shipbuilding interests became the "Naval Yard", those of Vickers on the west coast the "Naval Construction Yard". Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was not absorbed by the new company. Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer.
In 1928 the Aviation Department became Vickers (Aviation) Ltd and soon after acquired Supermarine, which became the "Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd". Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that become famous for producing a range of sea planes and the legendary Supermarine Spitfire fighter In 1938, both companies were re-organised as Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, although the former Supermarine and Vickers works continued to brand their products under their former names. 1929 saw the merger of the acquired railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW); Metro Cammell. Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British Shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries came about following the merger of Laird The Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW was a Birmingham, England based manufacturer of Railway carriages and Wagons based in
Nationalisation
In 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of the Bristol, English Electric Company and Hunting Aircraft to form the de facto nationalised British Aircraft Corporation. The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally British and Colonial Aeroplane Company was a major British aviation company English Electric (EE was a British industrial manufacturer Founded in 1918 it initially specialised in industrial Electric motors and Transformers Its Hunting Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer primarily producing light training aircraft The British Aircraft Corporation ( BAC) was a British Aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol (holding 40%, 40% and 20% respectively). BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers name for aircraft was dropped in 1965. Under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act BAC was officially nationalised in 1977 to become part of the British Aerospace group, which exists today in the guise of BAE Systems. The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that nationalised large parts of the UK Aerospace British Aerospace (BAe was a UK aircraft and defence-systems manufacturer that is now part of BAE Systems. BAE Systems plc (BAE is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered in Farnborough, England, that has global interests particularly
The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers' shipbuilding division as part of British Shipbuilders. British Shipbuilders Corporation was a Public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 and through the 1980s These had been renamed Vickers Armstrong Shipbuilders in 1955, changing again to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1968. This division was privatised as Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL) in 1986, later part of GEC's Marconi Marine. Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built It remains in operation to this day as BAE Systems Submarines. BAE Systems Submarine Solutions, until 2003 a unit within BAE Systems Marine, is responsible for the development and production of the Astute class submarine.
Vickers plc
With their steelworking operations also nationalised into British Steel the remnants of Vickers became Vickers plc. Please refer to the overview article Vickers for other companies known by this name Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers Armstrong Limited British Steel was a major British Steel producer It originated as a nationalised industry the British Steel Corporation (BSC formed in 1967 Please refer to the overview article Vickers for other companies known by this name Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers Armstrong Limited In 1986, Vickers acquired the armaments manufacturer Royal Ordnance Factory, Leeds, which became Vickers Defence Systems. Leeds ( is located on the River Aire in West Yorkshire, England Other acquisitions included automotive engineers Cosworth in 1990, waterjet manufacturer Kamewa in 1996 and Norwegian marine propulsion and engineering company Ulstein in 1998. Cosworth is an Automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958 specialising in engines for automobile racing (motorsport Kamewa was a Swedish company which was acquired by the British Vickers group in 1986. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional Ulstein is a municipality in the county of Møre og Romsdal, Norway. 1998 also saw the sale of Rolls-Royce Motors and Cosworth to Volkswagen.
Current Status of Vickers
Vickers remained independent until 1999 when the then Vickers plc was acquired by Rolls-Royce plc who sold the defence arm to Alvis plc, which became Alvis Vickers. Rolls-Royce plc ( is a British Aircraft engine maker and the second-largest in the world behind GE Aviation. Alvis Ltd was created when United Scientific Holdings plc acquired the Alvis division of the nationalised vehicle manufacturer BL plc in 1981 Alvis Ltd was created when United Scientific Holdings plc acquired the Alvis division of the nationalised vehicle manufacturer BL plc in 1981 Vickers plc and the subsidiaries retained by Rolls-Royce were renamed Vinters in March 2003 [1]. This Vickers name lived on in Alvis Vickers, until the latter was acquired by BAE Systems in 2004 to form BAE Systems Land Systems. BAE Systems Land Systems is a division of BAE Systems and part of the BAE Systems Land and Armaments operating group
Currently, Eaton Hydraulic's Vickers business[2] provides power and motion control components including vane pumps, piston pumps, valves, cylinders, and filtration products to the industrial, aerospace, marine, and defense industries.
See also
Bibliography
- Vickers: Against the Odds 1956-1977 by Harold Evans. The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled. Supermarine was a British aircraft manufacturer that become famous for producing a range of sea planes and the legendary Supermarine Spitfire fighter [2]
- Anon (1898), Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures, "Engineering", London
- Scott, J. D. (1962), Vickers: A History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London
External links
- Companies House accessed 22 June 2006
- Vickers Air-raid Shelter
- Vickers Photographic Archive
- Biography of Thomas and Albert Vickers
Footnotes
- ^ Rolls-Royce plc. Rolls-Royce plc ( is a British Aircraft engine maker and the second-largest in the world behind GE Aviation. The "Principal subsidiary undertakings" Retrieved 12 June, 2006
- ^ Detail taken from a copy of Vickers: Against the Odds 1956-1977 published by Hodder and Stoughton London in 1978
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