Early History
The company was founded by James Hutchinson Mann, a native of Leeds. Mann had been apprenticed to J&H McLaren & Co. and also worked for Marshall, Sons & Co. of Gainsborough. In January 1894 he commenced a partnership with Sidney Charlesworth under the title Mann and Charlesworth, and their works was in Canning Street, off Dewsbury Road, Leeds. This company manufactured traction engines, stationary engines and steam rollers. One of their notable inventions was the single-eccentric reversing gear. This compact device allowed the sequence of valve opening of a steam engine to be changed, both in terms of "cut-off and "direction" without the need for link motion and all the associated levers. In 1898 Mann and Charlesworth produced on behalf of Philip Parmiter, an agricultural steam cart using the front end of a conventional traction engine, and a roller at the rear. This was one of the first, practical, self-powered, load-carrying road vehicles. Mann realised the potential for this machine and went on to develop this into his "Patent Steam Cart" – to which the company title referred.
Read more about this topic: Mann's Patent Steam Cart And Wagon Company
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