Daimler Motor Syndicate
Incorporated on the 26th May 1893 by Frederick Simms to take over his Daimler interests from his consulting company Simms and Co. The capital of the company was £6,000 and its premises were a rented arch at Arch No 71, Putney Bridge Railway Station. Simms was the MD with Robert Gray, a vintner and Simms' cousin, and Theo Vasmer as the other directors. The objective was to fit Daimler engines in to boats. The first staff were:
- Johann van Toll, Chief Engineer;
- Ebenezer W. Tonkin who later became the Secretary of the company,
- J. T. Pearse an assistant engineer,
- Edward Canning Glass a former merchant and now secretary of the company
On 20th December 1894 Simms resigned as Managing Director when he returned to Hamburg and was replaced for a few months by Thomas Instone and they appointed Edward Atkinson as General Manager but he only lasted a few months.
On 9th April 1895 Simms returned as Managing Director.
1895 November. The business was sold to the British Motor Syndicate
1895 December 18th. Exhibit an automobile. 'The Daimler Motor Carriage Syndicate, of 95, Billiter-buildings, Leadenhall-street, whose vehicles gained the principal prizes in the motor carriage race from Paris to Bordeaux and back in June last, privately exhibited yesterday in the grounds of the Crystal Palace the newest type of their self-propelling carriages. In the present state of the law such vehicles cannot be used on English roads except under such stringent conditions as no driver would care to submit to. In France this is not the case, and a considerable number of motor carriages are already in use there. It is understood that an endeavour is to be made in the coming Session of Parliament to obtain a reasonable modification of the English law. Should the attempt prove successful there is little doubt that the new method of locomotion has a great future before it. The carriage shown yesterday was a small phaeton intended to accommodate three persons. In appearance it is a great improvement upon some of the motor carriages of earlier design, being indeed not much unlike an ordinary horse phaeton. An endeavour has been made, with almost complete success, to put an end to the vibration which is so unpleasant a feature of some of the older motor carriages. The motor is suspended on springs under the back seat, with the result that when the vehicle is in motion its occupants are conscious of no more vibration than is usually experienced in a well-built carriage passing along a good road. Another advantage attaching to the new vehicle is that no odour is produced by the motor. The vehicle has a horse-power of 3.5, and carries sufficient fuel, in the form of rectified petroleum, to convey the driver and two other persons a distance of 200 miles. The fuel consumed costs about a halfpenny per mile, and it is possible to attain a speed of 25 miles an hour, although, of course, such a rate of progression would never be sanctioned upon a public road. Two brakes are provided, one acting upon the fly-wheel of the motor, and the other on one of the wheels of the carriage. These brakes were yesterday shown to be powerful enough to stop the carnage within a few yards when going at a good rate of speed down a steep gradient The exhibition took place in a hilly part of the Palace grounds, and the carriage passed through a severe test to the satisfaction of a number of visitors. A public demonstration of its capabilities will take place at the Crystal Palace on Saturday next »t two o'clock.'[1]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Morning Post - Thursday 19 December 1895
- Daimler 1896-1946 by St. John C. Nixon. Published by G. T. Foulis in 1946
- Daimler Century by Lord Montagu and David Burgess-Wise. Published 1995. ISBN 1-85260-494-8