Crossley Brothers
Crossley of Manchester was a pioneer in the manufacture of internal combustion engines . The company has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering Group since 1988 . In total, the company manufactured more than 100,000 oil and gas engines.
Company history
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Crossley Brothers was founded in 1867 by the brothers Francis (1839–97) and William J. Crossley (1844–1911). Francis acquired with the assistance of his uncle, the gas engine business from John M. Dunlop in Great Marlborough Street in Manchester. In addition to gas engines, the company also manufactured pumps, presses and small steam engines. William joined his brother's company a short time later. Initially, the company operated under the name Crossley Brothers and Dunlop . Both brothers had received technical training, Frank at Robert Stephenson and Company , William at WG Armstrong . While William focused on the business, Frank brought the technical expertise to the company. Both brothers had a strictly Christian upbringing and, for moral reasons, refused, among other things, to sell their products to breweries. The Coptic cross was taken over into the company symbol as a symbol of their religious attitude.
In 1869 the brothers took over the worldwide patents (except Germany) for the atmospheric gas engines from Nikolaus August Otto and Eugen Langen's company in Cologne. In 1876 the patents for the four-stroke engine developed by Otto were taken over. The transition to the four-stroke engine was completed quickly; the last atmospheric gas engines were produced in 1877. The business grew rapidly and in 1881 the company was converted into a limited liability company (Crossley Brothers Ltd.). In 1882 the company moved to a larger production facility in Pottery Lane in Openshaw in east Manchester. Further improvements to the engines, such as improved valve control, a new type of ignition with glow plug and the carburetor, were quickly introduced. This enabled volatile liquid fuels to be used.
With the introduction of the so-called oil motor, which was first presented in 1891, the future of the company was initially secured. Together with centrifugal pumps, these motors were used for irrigation systems. The first diesel engine was developed by the company in 1898. At the turn of the century, the production of gasoline engines began, which quickly found use in motor vehicles such as the Leyland buses from 1905. An assembly line was introduced to increase production, which also influenced the developments of Henry Ford , who visited the company at the turn of the century.
Crossley Motors
In 1904 the production of motor vehicles started. On April 11, 1906, Crossley Motors was first registered as an independent company. After re-registration in 1910, vehicle production was outsourced to the new company from 1911. In 1948 Crossley Motors was sold to the Associated Equipment Company , and vehicle production ended ten years later in 1958.
Crossley Premier
In 1919 Premier Gas Engines was acquired from Sandiacre , Nottingham . The company produced large engines. From 1935 the company traded as Crossley Premier Engines Ltd. The production facilities in Nottingham have been expanded. Production in Nottingham ended in 1966 after sales fell in the 1960s and the company was just uneconomical. The engine design was over 40 years old at that time. Therefore, the production of constructions by the French company Pielstick was to start from 1962. The engines were to be used in ships, diesel locomotives and power generation systems. Production began, but before the new engines could establish themselves in the market, funds ran out and the company had to be liquidated. With Bellis and Morcom Ltd a buyer could be won, but the name Crossley Premier was retained.
In the 1960s, the market share in engine sales shrank. The new company was merged with the Amalgamated Power Engineering (APE) group and traded as APE-Crossley Ltd. The Coptic cross was initially used as the company's logo. However, the rights to use this symbol were owned by Crossley Motors and had to be purchased from British Leyland . APE eventually became part of Northern Engineering Industries and was renamed NEI-Allen Limited - Crossley Engines .
Rolls-Royce Power Engineering
NEI was taken over by the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering Group in 1988 ; the long-established company became part of the Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group as Allen Power Engineering - Crossley Engines division . The engines based on the Pielstick design were manufactured until 1995. The Pottery Lane manufacturing facility closed on February 27, 2009 and production relocated to the Rolls-Royce plant in Dunfermline . The demolition of the factories began in December 2009.
Engines
Crossley Brothers built engines for rail and sea vehicles. The engines had a good reputation for durability and reliability. However, the company's attempt to secure shares in the rapidly growing rolling stock market contributed to the company's decline. Crossley adapted the ship engines built during the Second World War for use in locomotives:
- HSTVee-8 , British Rail Class 28 , CIE 001 Class and Western Australian Government Railways X class
- ESTVee-8 , CIE 201 Class
- ESNT6 , British Rail Class D3 / 3
These are supercharged two-stroke diesel engines. In the turbocharging system used by Crossley , unburned air was blown from the exhaust manifold into the intake tract of the adjacent cylinder. The motors, especially the HSTVee-8 , had a very short service life in practice. The engines failed just a few months after the vehicles were put into service, which led to numerous changes to the design. The HSTVee-8 of the WAGR X class had to be changed more than 600 times. After the CIE 201 Class had been parked for several years, it only came back into service with new EMD motors.
Individual evidence
- ^ WSJ Sellick: Uitenhage, past and present: souvenir of the Centenary, 1804-1904 , p. Xli (accessed November 22, 2009).
literature
- Michael Eyre, Chris Heaps, Alan Townsin: Crossley , OPC / Ian Allan, Hersham (2002), ISBN 0-86093-574-4 (English)
