Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons Ltd is a former British mechanical engineering company, founded in Lincolnshire in 1828 and best known as a manufacturer of engines and agricultural machinery . In 1918 it merged with Ruston, Proctor and Company to form Ruston & Hornsby , which also built automobiles until the Great Depression in 1929.
history
In 1828, resulting from an agricultural machinery forged in Grantham , Lincolnshire Hornsby initially built mainly agricultural machinery and steam tractors ( traction engine ).
Pioneer of hot-head motors (from 1891)
From 1891 Richard Hornsby & Sons in Grantham manufactured the Hornsby-Akroyd engine, the first glow-head engines based on the patent of Herbert Akroyd Stuart , which, as simple but robust forerunners of the diesel engine that was only ready for the market from around 1900 , could be operated with cheap heavy oil and should remain very successful for many decades to come.
Especially for small power generators and drives in industry and agriculture, they offered a cost-effective alternative to the steam engines that were still widespread in this segment at that time and were thus able to open up many new fields of application for which steam engines were far too large, complex and expensive. So built Hornsby from 1896, the first agricultural tractors and light railway - locomotives with its 20 hp Hornsby Aykroyd engine .
Tracked vehicle pioneer (from 1904)
In 1904, Hornsby received a patent for a first form of the track ( track with stiffened limbs) and introduced in 1905 the first caterpillar tractor with hot bulb engine before by the proven with wheels with chain drives was equipped.
First Hornsby caterpillar tractor (1905)
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Hornsby caterpillar tractor (subsequent version 1907)
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After Hornsby itself had little success with the marketing and at that time the importance of this invention was not yet fully understood, the patent was sold in 1911 for a modest £ 4,000 to the US company Holt Manufacturing Company , which later became the very successful Caterpillar Tractor Company emerged.
literature
- Hornsby Builders Catalog, Lincoln 1958.
- One Hundred Years of Good Company (history of R & H), by Bernard Newman , 1957, Northumberland Press.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Robinson "Lincoln's Excavators - The Ruston years 1875-1930," Published by Roundoak, ISBN 1-871565-42-1