Lanchester's Legacy
Lanchester was respected by most fellow engineers as a genius, but he did not have the business acumen to convert his inventiveness to financial gain. Whereas James Watt had found an able business partner in Matthew Boulton, who managed business affairs, Lanchester had no such assistance. He wrote more than sixty technical papers for various institutions and organisations, and received awards from a number of organizations.
During most of his career he lacked financial backing to be able to develop his ideas and perform research, as he would have liked. Few scientists have made so many contributions to so many different topics as Lanchester has done. It is a pity that his name is not better remembered for his many achievements.
An open-air sculpture, the Lanchester Car Monument, in the Bloomsbury, Heartlands, area of Birmingham, designed by Tim Tolkien, is on the site where the Lanchester company built their first four-wheel, petrol car during 1895. It was unveiled by Frank Lanchester's daughter, Mrs Marjorie Bingeman, and the Lanchester historian, Chris Clark at the Centenary Rally during 1995.
During 1970, several colleges in Coventry merged to form Lanchester Polytechnic, so named in memory of Frederick Lanchester.It was renamed Coventry Polytechnic during 1987, and became Coventry University during 1992.
Read more about this topic: Frederick W. Lanchester
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“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)