Science and Invention in Birmingham - 20th Century

20th Century

Bicycles have been manufactured in the Midlands (mainly Birmingham and Coventry) since the mid 19th century. By 1900 Birmingham has the largest number of bicycle makers and component manufacturers in Britain. Several advances in the development of the bicycle take place, one of the longer established and high quality manufacturers being the 'Quadrant Cycle Company' of Sheepcote Street which later manufactures motorbikes (as do many cycle makers).

Other notable firms are Reynolds (still manufacturing in the city), New Hudson, Rudge-Whitworth (also of Coventry), B.S.A., C.W.S., Dawes, Grundle, James Cycle Co, Ariel, Armstrong Cycles, Phillips Cycles, Excelsior (originally of Coventry), Sun Cycle & Fittings Co, Pashley Cycles (now manufactured in Stratford-upon-Avon) and Hercules Cycle and Motor Company.

Through the twentieth century, many of Birmingham's bicycle manufacturers evolve into automobile and motorcycle brands creating one of the busiest and productive engineering hubs in the world.

Motor engineering brands such as Wolseley, Lanchester, Metro Cammell, Austin, Morris, Vickers-Armstrongs, New Hudson, Revere, Beardmore, Sun, Ariel, Norton, Rex-Acme, Alldays & Onions, Velocette, Midland Red and BSA either originate or have substantial factories in Birmingham, manufacturing motorbikes, buses, tractors, cars, tanks and aeroplanes.

Other diverse engineering companies develop to feed the supply chain of the motoring industry such as Webster and Horsfall (pioneering wire for aircraft and cars), Dunlop Rubber (supplying rubber and tyres), Lucas Industries (pioneering electric and lighting), Accles & Pollock (producing tubular sections for aircraft) and Pockley Electric (manufacturing car lights).

1900: Bournville Village Trust is founded by George Cadbury, this is to set many improvements and high standards of living and leisure pastimes for factory workers across Britain. Cadbury's still makes chocolate in the city today and Bourneville remains a sought after area to live.

1900: John Wright invents a much-improved gas fire which uses fretted columns of fire clay, rather than tufted asbestos, to radiate the heat. The Wright design of gas fire heating endures throughout the century, however, electric fires improve at a similar pace.

1902: The first caliper-type automobile disc brake is patented by Frederick William Lanchester in his Birmingham factory in and used successfully on Lanchester cars. However, the limited choice of metals in this period, means that he has to use copper as the braking medium acting on the disc. The poor state of the roads at this time, no more than dusty, rough tracks, means that the copper wears quickly making the disc brake system non-viable. It is not until 1929, in the same city that manufacturers Girling and New Hudson further develop disc brakes, which are very successful on racing cars from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Girling brakes have the quirk of using natural rubber (later nitrile) seals. Girling still manufacture disc brakes in Birmingham today.

1902: George Andrew Darby patents the first electrical Heat detector and Smoke detector.

1903: Birmingham born Patent Lawyer 'Bertram Hopkinson' is elected to the Cambridge chair in mechanism and applied mechanics where he carries out early research on tank armour plating.

Hopkinson builds a team of researchers, one of whom is Harry Ricardo, the engineer who makes his name for his pioneering work on internal combustion engines. Hopkinson encourages Ricardo to work on engines.

1903: Brummie Francis William Aston wins a scholarship to the University of Birmingham and in his studies of electronic discharge tubes he discovered the phenomenon now known as the Aston Dark Space. He later moves to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where he uses a method of electromagnetic focusing to invent the mass spectrograph, which rapidly allows him to identify no fewer than 212 of the 287 naturally occurring isotopes. His work on isotopes also leads to his formulation of the Whole Number Rule which is later used extensively in the development of nuclear energy. In 1922 he wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of the mass spectrometer.

1905: A manually powered domestic vacuum cleaner is invented by manufacturer Walter Griffiths of 72, Conybere Street, Highgate. It is originally patented as 'Griffiths' Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets'. Although an electric cleaner is patented in 1901 by H. Cecil Booth, Griffiths' design is more similar to modern portable cleaners than Booth's cart-mounted device.

1905: Herbert Austin begins making cars at Longbridge, many improvements in mass car manufacture and production later arise from these car works. Seventeen years later the Austin 7 goes into production, it becomes one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, its effect on the British market is similar to that of the Model T Ford in the USA. Austin's designs and production help set up other car brands around the world which later become famous in their own right such as BMW, Nissan and Lotus.

1905: Accles & Pollock Produces the first tubular box spanners.

1906: The earliest work on the parkerizing processes is developed by British inventors William Alexander Ross, in 1869, and by Thomas Watts Coslett, in 1906. Coslett, of Birmingham, subsequently files a patent based on this same process in America in 1907. It essentially provides an iron phosphating process, using phosphoric acid. Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear. Parkerizing is commonly used on firearms.

1907: Accles & Pollock produce the first tubular sections for aircraft and the first tubular furniture.

1908: Pockley Automobile Electric Lighting Syndicate, markets the worlds first electric car lights to be sold as a set, which consist of headlights, sidelights and tail lights and are powered by an 8 volt battery.

Birmingham's ingenuity and expertise in metal working aids the early production of lightweight tubing used in the construction of successful airplanes. Engineering firms pioneer advances in aircraft engines also such as Austin and Wolseley Motors Limited who later build hundreds of early aircraft for the British Air force such as the S.E.5 biplane fighter. Wolseley help to set Vickers on their path to motor and engine development for aircraft at Adderly Park, with a new engine ready for production by 1909. The Wolseley Viper engine is applied to many aircraft around this time and is developed out of the Hispano-Suiza 8. Several other small engineering firms design and build early aircraft engines such as Maxfield & Co who test an early mono plane in 1909 at Castle Bromwich, the Butterfield Brothers also make an experimental aircraft engine in 1911. Birmingham engineering works later diversify with all manner of industries relating to the development and manufacture of aircraft components including assembly of whole planes during war years such as Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes, Fairey Battle light bombers, Mercury and Pegasus aero engines, Short Stirling four-engined heavy bombers and Avro Lancasters (towards the end of World War II).

1910: J. R. R. Tolkien begins to construct his first Elfin tongue while he is at the King Edward's School, Birmingham. He later calls it Qenya (c. 1915). Tolkien is already familiar with Latin, Greek, Spanish, and several ancient Germanic languages, Gothic, Old Norse and Old English. Tolkien's parents are from Birmingham and he himself grows up, and studies in and around Birmingham (Tolkien also meets his wife in the town and considers himself a 'West Midlander'). The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings later leads to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. The Lord of the Rings has continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, and subsequent literature including reference in the Oxford English Dictionary. Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings are later made for radio, theatre, and film.

1910: Oliver Lucas's company design and make an electric car Vehicle horn which becomes industry standard, an electric motorcycle horn is manufactured the following year.

1913: Accles & Pollock is granted a patent for seamless tapered steel golf shafts.

1914: Oliver Lucas and Charles Breeden carry out pioneering work on the design of the Dynamo and electric equipment for motorcycles and by 1914 they are already manufacturing these items.

1914 Birmingham, by now, is supplying the world with 28 million mass-produced pen nibs per week.

1915: William Mills develops the first "safe grenade" meaning it is safe for the soldier throwing it rather than his opponent. It is named the Mills bomb, and is adopted by the British Army as its standard hand grenade in 1915. 75,000,000 grenades are supplied during The Great War.

1918: Much work is carried out by Oliver Lucas's company on the design and improvement of the military search light, he also designs a signalling lamp after experiences at the Somme and the design is later used by the British Army.

1920: Charles Henry Foyle invents the folding carton and is founder of Boxfoldia. However, an American process is developed by accident prior to this.

1921: A British patent for windscreen wipers is registered by Mills Munitions. Several other patents take place for windscreen wipers around the world.

1922: Birmingham rubber manufacturer, Dunlop, invents a tyre with steel rods and a canvas casing which lasts three times longer than any other tyre, this is a mile stone in tyre manufacture. The following year their tyres help Henry Segrave win a Grand Prix title in a Sunbeam racing car, and are then used on a Bentley to help win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

By 1927 Dunlop tyres have already helped Malcom Campbell reach a British land speed record and in this year, they help Henry Segrave achieve the world land speed record in a Sunbeam 1000 hp at Daytona Beach Road Course, USA.

In 1931 Dunlop tyres help Malcolm Campbell achieve a new land speed record in a Blue Bird at Daytona Beach Road Course, USA. In 1935 Dunlop helps Malcolm Campbell achieve yet another new land speed record in the USA. Foam rubber is also invented at the Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories, Fort Dunlop in 1929. Dunlop continues to pioneer advances in tyre manufacture and becomes industry standard for many prestigious car makers and it's tyres have been, and continue, to be used on cars achieving victory in motor rallies and racing championships such as Formula 1 and touring. 1923: Arthur L. Large, invents the immersed heating resistor, a major advancement in the electric kettle (A safety valve is introduced by kettle maker Walter H. Bullpitt, also from Birmingham, in 1931.

These two advances in electrical water heating are to have profound effects on water heating and the become the basis of the modern day electric kettle.

1926: Cameras have been made in Birmingham since 1880, by companies such as J. Lancaster & Son and in 1926 Coronet begin manufacturing cameras in the city. Coronett eventually mass-produce cheap, but affordable cameras. Coronet have close links with other Birmingham camera makers such as Standard Cameras Ltd (featured in the National Media Museum) and E Elliott Ltd who manufacture the unique and now collectible V. P. Twin (featured in the Museum of early consumer electronics and 1st achievements).

1928: Brummie, Oscar Deutsch opens his first Odeon Cinema in nearby Brierly Hill. By 1930, "Odeon" is a household name and the cinemas are known for their maritime-inspired Art Deco architecture. This style is first used in 1930 on the cinema at Perry Barr in Birmingham, which is bought by Deutsch to expand the chain. He likes the style so much that he commissions the architect, Harry Weedon, to design his future buildings. The Odeon cinema chain later becomes one of the largest cinema chains in Europe.

1929: Brylcreem (made famous by the Teddy Boy) is invented in the city and later gives rise to other hair styling products.

First production run of Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company buses takes place during the 1920s - one of the first British buses to have pneumatic tyres. BMMO later develop petrol and diesel engines during the 1930s, with experimental rear-engined buses being built. By the 1940s experiments with, and production of under-floor engined single-deck buses take place. Experiments and developments of independent front suspension, air suspension, rubber suspension, glass fibre construction and disc brakes take place during the 1950s. 1959 sees the introduction of a turbocharged coach capable of almost 100 mph, for non-stop motorway services. High speed (Motorway) buses are developed with passenger toilets. During the 1960s Midland Red becomes the first British bus company to make wide-scale use of computers in compiling bus schedules and staff rosters.

1932: The Birmingham Sound Reproducers company is set up in the West Midlands. In the early 1950s, Samuel Margolin begins buying auto-changing turntables from BSR, using them as the basis of his Dansette record player. Over the next twenty years, "Dansette" becomes a household word in Britain. By 1957, BSR, has grown to employ 2,600 workers. In addition to manufacturing their own brand of player—the Monarch Automatic Record Changer that could select and play 7", 10" and 12" records at 33-1/3, 45 or 78 rpm, changing between the various settings automatically—BSR McDonald supplied turntables and autochangers to most of the world's record player manufacturers, eventually gaining 87% of the market. By 1977, BSR's various factories produced over 250,000 units a week.

1932: Leonard Parsons is the first to use synthetic vitamin C as treatment for scurvy in children.

1933: Credenda Conduit Co. Ltd of Birmingham patent a Credastat automatic oven thermostat which is fitted to Creda electric cookers. This is an early advancement in electric cookers and a feature which eventually becomes standard on all electric cookers. An example of this cooker is on display at the London Science Museum.

1944: Anthony Ernest Pratt takes out his first patent for a board game named 'Murder', this is to later become the world renowned murder mystery game 'Cluedo'.1934: The Reynolds Tube Company introduces the double-butted tube-set 531 for high strength but lightweight bicycle frames. Reynolds 531 remains for many years at the forefront of alloy steel tubing technology and is used to form the front subframes on the Jaguar E-Type during the 1960s. Before the introduction of more exotic materials such as aluminium, titanium or composites, Reynolds is considered the dominant maker of high end materials for bicycle frames. According to the company, 27 winners of the Tour de France have won riding on Reynolds tubing.

1935: Birmingham has a long history of Toy and trinket manufacture and in 1935 the biggest toy makers in England, Chad Valley, are appointed Toy Makers to the Queen of the United Kingdom. During their existence Chad Valley carry out several improvements and practices in manufacturing of Toys during their production between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, constantly striving to develop new board games, jigsaws and toys.

1937: Professor Norman Haworth is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pioneering work on carbohydrates and synthetic vitamin C.

1939: Dr Mary Evans and Dr Wilfred Gaisford begin trials of the world's first antibiotic M&B (sulfapyridine) as treatment for lobar pneumonia.

Birmingham becomes the major British manufacturer of the phenolic plastic Bakelite.

The magnetron, the core component in the development of radar, and the first microwave power oscillators are developed at the University of Birmingham during World War II (the microwave oven owes its existence to these developments).

1940: After initial teething problems with management, Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, started production of the Spitfire fighter plane. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4,489 Mk Vs, 5,665 Mk IXs, and 1,054 Mk XVIs) had been built. CBAF went on to become the largest and most successful plant of its type during the 1939-45 conflict. As the largest Spitfire factory in the UK, by producing a maximum of 320 aircraft per month, it built over half of the approximately 20,000 aircraft of this type.

1940: The Frisch-Peierls memorandum is finalised by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while both working at Birmingham University - this is the first document to set out a process by which an atomic explosion could be generated.

1944: Anthony Ernest Pratt takes out his first patent for a board game named 'Murder', this is to later become the world renowned murder mystery game 'Cluedo'.

1946: Chance Brothers produce the first all-glass syringe with interchangeable barrel and plunger, thereby allowing mass-sterilisation of components without the need for matching them.

1947: Dunlop tyres help John Cobb raise the world land speed record to 630,km/h in the Railton Special which is now displayed in Birmingham's Think Tank museum.

Between 1947 and 1951 Professor Peter Medawar pioneer research on skin graft rejection at Birmingham University, this leads to the discovery of a substance which aids nerves to reunite and the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance, Medawar is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960 for his work during this time.

1950: In February, the first operation in England for 'hole-in-the-heart' (congenital atrial septal defect) is performed at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Conway Berners-Lee, a mathematician and computer scientist from Birmingham works in the team that develops the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial stored program electronic computer. Berners-Lees-Lee is demobilized from the British Army in 1947 with the rank of Major. By the late 1960s Berners-Lee leads the Medical Development Team of ICT and then ICL and is involved in some of the earliest developments in the applications of computers in medicine, and his text compression ideas are taken up by an early electronic patient record system. Berners-Lee later marries Mary Lee Woods (also from Birmingham). Woods studies at Birmingham University and works in the team that develop programs for the Manchester Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers. In 1955 the Lees' become parents to Tim Berners-Lee who is credited for his invention of the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989.

1952: Professor Charlotte Anderson (Leonard Parsons Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health) is one of the team who prove that the glutens in wheat cause coeliac disease, from this gluten-free diets are introduced.

1954: The Stewart platform (a parallel robot) first comes into use. Stewart platforms have applications in machine tool technology, crane technology, underwater research, air-to-sea rescue, satellite dish positioning, telescopes and orthopedic surgery but are better known for Flight Simulation.

1950-1959: Essential research and development on heart pacemakers and plastic heart valves is carried out by Leon Abrams at Birmingham University.

1962: Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand born and Birmingham raised, receives the Nobel Prize for his work on DNA structure, he is one of three who become known as the Code Breakers. Wilkins is educated at King Edward's School (and St John's College, Cambridge), he receives a PhD for the study of phosphors at the University of Birmingham, where he works on radar display screens and uranium isotope separation before moving to the Manhattan Project.

1959: The Mini car begins production at Birmingham's Longbridge plant. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (which allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T.

.1962: Bill Fransen of American company 'Chamberlins', brings two of their musical instruments to England to search for someone who could manufacture 70 matching tape heads for future Chamberlin keyboards. Fransen approaches a UK company that is skilled enough to develop the idea further and a deal is struck with Bradmatic Ltd. The first Mellotron sample keyboards are manufactured in Aston and are to enjoy great longevity in the music industry. Alongside the Hammond Organ, the Mellotron later becomes a seminal musical instrument for music genres such as rock and psychedelia, it is also crucial to shaping the sound of the progressive rock and hard rock groups of the 1970s as well as inspiring further development of the sample keyboard most notably the Fairlight which, in turn, inspired sample modules such as the Akai Sampler range; synonymous with hip hop and dance music.

Some of the more notable songs which make use of the signature Mellotron sound include Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues, Tomorrow Never Knows and Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles, 2000 Light Years from Home and We Love You by The Rolling Stones, Hole In My Shoe by Traffic, Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye, Days by The Kinks, Space Oddity by David Bowie, Stairway to Heaven, The Rain Song and Kashmir by Led Zeppelin.

1965: The Birmingham Press and Mail installs the GEC PABX 4 ACD which is the earliest example of a call centre in the UK. Already the hallmarks of the call centre can be seen in the rows of agents with individual phone terminals, taking and making calls.

1969-1970: Heavy metal music begins to take shape in Britain and America. Of the earliest influential bands that are later to be described as Heavy Metal, several of the most notable artists arise from the mid to late 1960s Brum Beat music scene, such as: Robert Plant and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest.

During the later half of the 20th century the first trials of the combined oral contraceptive pill outside the USA take place at Birmingham University and extensive research into advanced allergy vaccines and the synthesis of artificial blood take place. 1975: Birmingham inventor Michael Gerzon co-invents the Soundfield microphone. Gerzon studies at the University of Oxford, and is inspired by Alan Blumlein's landmark 1933 development of stereophonic recording and reproduction. The SoundField range of microphones are now considered the ultimate microphones for recording both stereophonic and multichannel surround formats.

[Gerzon later plays a large role in the invention of Ambisonics which is a series of recording and replay techniques using multichannel mixing technology that can be used live or in the studio 5.

Balti cuisine becomes nationally renowned, after initial growth in the city during the late 1980s. Today Balti restaurants are extremely popular throughout Britain and abroad.

Sir John Robert Vane, winner of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for his work on aspirin, is educated at King Edward's School and studies Chemistry at the University of Birmingham.

1991: Derek McMinn begins the first successful modern metal-on-metal hip resurfacing operations and the instrumentation and surgical technique to implant it.