Of course Vickers Armstrong played a big part in the North East motor industry. From 1902 to 1904 they produced Roots and Venables heavy-oil cars and vans - many of the latter used by the London GPO. From 1904 to 1906 they built Wilson Pilcher cars (Major Wilson, their designer, was the gearbox genius of the century inventing both the synchromesh and epicyclic versions. From 1902 to 1914 they also manufactured the Armstrong-Whitworth which was in the same class as the Rolls Royce in those days (the picture is of the one in the Discovery centre in Newcastle). The engines were made of battleship gunmetal and ran with legendary lack of wear or trouble. Mr Fred Turvey (whose father ran the first North garage in 1890) remembers them as "strong, sturdy and reliable". His father formed a consortium with J. Newton of Manchester and George Cox of Southsea to produce Lanchester cars which (surprisingly) were built in Paris. The Great War put an end to civilian manufacturing by Armstrongs, the name being transferred to Siddeley's of Coventry in 1918.
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Tyneside cars: Armstrong-Whitworth
Of course Vickers Armstrong played a big part in the North East motor industry. From 1902 to 1904 they produced Roots and Venables heavy-oil cars and vans - many of the latter used by the London GPO. From 1904 to 1906 they built Wilson Pilcher cars (Major Wilson, their designer, was the gearbox genius of the century inventing both the synchromesh and epicyclic versions. From 1902 to 1914 they also manufactured the Armstrong-Whitworth which was in the same class as the Rolls Royce in those days (the picture is of the one in the Discovery centre in Newcastle). The engines were made of battleship gunmetal and ran with legendary lack of wear or trouble. Mr Fred Turvey (whose father ran the first North garage in 1890) remembers them as "strong, sturdy and reliable". His father formed a consortium with J. Newton of Manchester and George Cox of Southsea to produce Lanchester cars which (surprisingly) were built in Paris. The Great War put an end to civilian manufacturing by Armstrongs, the name being transferred to Siddeley's of Coventry in 1918. 
Marat in Newcastle
The French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat lived in Newcastle between 1770 and 1775, practising medicine (on humans and animals) on the basis of several false or imagined qualifications, and hanging around political clubs and bookshops. In 1774 he published 'The Chains of Slavery' (there's a copy in the Lit and Phil) in which he argued that "the dark projects , crafty proceedings, secret plots, fatal policy and deceitful arts of royal despots" had corrupted English politics, and that Parliament had become " a band of disguised traitors who . . . traffic away the national interests and the rights of a free-born people". He said he only slept a couple of hours a night, and lived on black coffee, while writing it, then slept for a fortnight on its completion.
During the French Revolution he became a radical journalist and orator, often attacking the more hesitant 'Girondist' faction' - one of whose sypathisers, Charlotte Corday, murdered him in his bath on 13 July 1793. He was treated as a martyr by the radicals and immortalized in the painting The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. The bath (and the knife) are today in the Musée Grévin (waxworks) in Paris.
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