Simms Manufacturing

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The Simms Manufacturing Company was a British engine , vehicle components, automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer . The vehicles were offered under the names Simms or Simms-Welbeck . There were passenger cars with two- , four-, and six-cylinder engines ; The commercial vehicles were mainly three-wheel delivery vans with one or two-cylinder engines and payloads between 300 and 900 kg. Trucks with four-cylinder engines and 1800 resp. 4500 kg payload.

prehistory

Simms two-seater (1898)

The company was founded in 1900 by the engineer and businessman Frederick Richard Simms (1863–1944) with headquarters in Willesden near London . Simms was one of the earliest proponents of the automobile in Great Britain. In 1890 he set up a technical consultancy firm called Simms and Company, consulting engineers , whose patents were later transferred to Simms Manufacturing . He co-founded the Motor-Car-Club (which organized the first Emancipation Run in 1896 ), the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) and in 1903 the organizer of the automobile show at Crystal Palace , from which the British International Motor Show emerged. He was friends with Gottlieb Daimler , sat on the board of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) - and Daimler on the board of Simms Manufacturing - and from 1891 imported DMG engines for Great Britain and the colonies. As early as 1893 he owned Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd. founded what is considered to be the beginning of the British automotive industry and was at times an early financier of Robert Bosch . From 1899 onwards, he sold its magneto ignition in the first Bosch foreign agencies he set up in London and Paris. From 1898 to 1900 he also ran the Motor Carriage Supply Company at Donington House, Norfolk Street , Strand , London, where Daimler vehicles were sold and his Simms Patent Motor Wheel was manufactured. This was a gasoline tricycle for two. The driver sat on a saddle, the passenger behind in a chair attached to the rear axle.

Simms Manufacturing

Simms-Welbeck 20/25 hp Landaulet (1907)

It was obvious that Simms Manufacturing would be the first to produce electrical equipment and motors. Motorcycle engines were available as air-cooled single cylinders with 2¾ and 3 hp; a more powerful version with water cooling developed 6 to 7 hp. There were versions of all of them for horizontal and vertical installation in the frame. As a service, the conversion of Daimler and was De Dion-Bouton - single-cylinder engines to the reliable Bosch magneto ignition offered. The latter were very common in Great Britain as "high-speed" engines, for example in tricycles or the vis-à-vis .

The company, managed by Simms and supervised as chief engineer, developed successfully and soon had other facilities in addition to the headquarters at 55a Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey , which were known as Welbeck Works on Kimberley Road and Willesden Lane in Kilburn . Combustion engines were quickly added and from 1903 at the latest, chassis were also offered under the Welbeck brand name . These could be ordered in various designs and levels of completion and with or without a motor. Buyers were motor vehicle manufacturers who assembled their vehicles from prefabricated components, i.e. offered assembled vehicles .

Before separating from Bosch, Simms was also the managing director and chief engineer of the major Bosch branches in London and Paris.

Passenger cars

Simms Welbeck Tourer with Simms Safety Buffers . Detail from a photo of Samuel Cody's vehicle (1906)

From the beginning, however, complete vehicles were also delivered individually. Mass production of passenger cars, however, only began in 1903 or 1904; the latter date can also be interpreted as the start of commercial vehicle production. At least the Simms-Welbeck automobiles had cardan drives; this is rather unlikely for the one- and two-cylinder models. The Simms Safety Buffers introduced in 1905 were an innovative accessory product . They consisted of a padded and curved round bar attached to the front end of the chassis longitudinal member and can, with some justification, be regarded as the first automobile bumpers .

Simms' customers included the officer, showman and aviation pioneer Samuel Franklin Cody (1867–1913), who in 1906 bought a Simms-Welbeck tourer with this device.

Car models

brand model Construction period cylinder Displacement wheelbase
Simms-Welbeck 12/15 hp 1903-1904 4 row 1901 cm³ 2794 mm
Simms-Welbeck 20/24 hp 1903-1906 4 row 3119 cc 2794-3099 mm
Simms-Welbeck 26/30 hp 1903-1906 4 row 4181 cc 2794-3099 mm
Simms 10 hp 1904 2 row 1559 cc
Simms 12 hp 1904 2 row 1901 cm³
Simms 12 hp 1905 4 row 1709 cc 2794 mm
Simms-Welbeck 20/25 hp 1907 4 row 4330 cc 2972 mm
Simms-Welbeck 30/35 hp 1907 6 row 6495 cc 3277 mm

Few vehicles were made. One source also names a 30/40 hp ; but that should also mean the six-cylinder.

commercial vehicles

In the commercial vehicle sector, until 1906, only three-wheeled, light delivery vans were offered, which were equipped with an 8 hp single-cylinder and 10 or 12 hp two-cylinder engines. The payload was depending on the embodiment 8-20 Cwt.sh (about 360-910 kg). The two-cylinder engines are likely to have corresponded to those in the passenger car. In 1905 a 20/25 hp truck with 2 tons appeared. sh. (1814 kg) payload and a 28/35 hp with a payload of 5 tn. sh. (4536 kg). Both had three-speed transmission and chain drive . In the same year the Coulthard-Simms was 4 tn. sh. (3628 kg) of the first truck with a gasoline engine the steam -Nutzfahrzeugherstellers T. Coulthart & Company in Preston ( Lancashire ) presented; this manufacturer existed since 1897 and was part of a merger in 1907 that led to the establishment of Leyland Motors . In 1906 the Durham and District Motor Omnibus Company ordered an omnibus. That this vehicle was delivered on its own and covered the 270 miles (435 km) in two days was not a matter of course.

After motor vehicle construction

The company was not successful with its own vehicles. The cars were considered reliable, but could only survive on the market until 1907. The manufacture of engines for road vehicles probably ended with vehicle production. But Simms produced engines for stationary applications and a large four-cylinder engine with individually cast cylinders, a square ratio of bore and stroke (each 6½ inches = 152.4 mm) and an output of up to 100 hp at around 800 rpm from a displacement of over 14 liters . It could run on petrol or kerosene and was suitable for use in boats, railcars , buses or as a power generator ; in 1908 such an engine replaced the steam engine of a large private yacht . After there had been tension between Frederick Simms and Bosch, Simms no longer received Bosch magneto ignition systems from 1906 at the latest. Instead, high-voltage ignition systems of his own design were used, which were manufactured in his Simms Magneto Company until 1913.

Simms Manufacturing also expanded into the aviation sector, for example with its own aircraft engines and in 1909 the acquisition of the exclusive rights for Great Britain to the Voisin Standard motorized aircraft , a double-decker with a pusher propeller that was also used by the military.

In 1920 the Welbeck Works in Kilburn fell victim to a fire. This and the poor order situation in the first few years after the First World War led to production being interrupted until 1926. The company seems to have been active after that; but no sources are available for this. Frederick Simms still had an office as a consulting engineer in 1937. He died in 1944.

literature

Web links

Commons : Simms / Simms-Welbeck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Grace's Guide: Frederick Simms
  2. ^ Grace's Guide: Motor Carriage Supply Co
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Grace's Guide: Simms Manufacturing Co
  4. ↑ a b Grace's Guide: Simms Motors (advertisement, 1901)
  5. ↑ Grace's Guide: Welbeck frame (advertisement, 1903)
  6. ^ Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Georgiano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles (1979), p. 573 (Simms)
  8. ↑ Grace's Guide: Colonel Cody in his Simms-Welbeck motor car (1906)
  9. ↑ Georgiano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles (1979) 157 (Coulthard)
  10. ↑ Grace's Guide: Simms 100 hp four-cylinder (1905)
  11. ↑ Grace's Guide: Simms V6 Airplane Engine (1909)