E G Wrigley & Co Limited was a British tool maker, car component, and mechanical parts

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

, located at Foundry Lane,

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

active from 1897 to 1923.

Foundation

Edward Greenwood Wrigley established a tool making business at 232 Aston Road, Birmingham in 1898. He expanded in 1902 by moving some operations to Foundry Lane, Soho, Birmingham. They manufactured high-speed twist drills and made a specialty of milling cutters, taper and adjustable reamers and gear cutters.The Olympia Show, ''The Commercial Motor'', 22 November 1906, page 13

Small tools and Gears

In addition to the small tools mentioned Wrigley's made gears of many types for all mechanisms but the engine and they assembled gears into boxes making a number of products. Their reputation for high quality was excellent though Dr Lanchester went on record as saying the one use for a Wrigley Worm was for fishing.

Transmission sets

A range of three speed gearboxes and worm-driven back axles with propellor shaft and torque mechanism and transmission brakes and front axles with steering gear. In 1906 Wrigley's showed a complete car

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

at that year's Olympia Show and were manufacturing front and live-rear axles.

Developments

In 1912 at the opening of a new building at Soho Foundry Lane core activities were: * Manufacture of twist drills, cutters and small tools of all kinds * the machining of toothed gearing * assembly of gearboxes and other complete units Other special tools made in large numbers were: hobs, metal-splitting saws and all kinds of special cutters and gauges. At that time it was reported there were now eighteen draughtsmen, 47 staff and 280 men in the workshops. After the war, due to ill health, Wrigley handed over the running of his business to F G Woollard. Wrigley died in January 1941.

Cars

Wrigley cars were only made during 1913. In 1913 they began experimenting with a

cyclecar A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. A key ...

with a two-cylinder, air- or water-cooled

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

and two-speed gearbox. Very few were built before the business was involved in war work, including making

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

parts.L P Jarman and R I Barraclough, ''The Bullnose and Flatnose Morris'', David & Charles, Newton Abbott, UK 1976

Morris Commercial Cars

Wrigley's continued building, among other products, axles and gearboxes. In early 1920 they issued shares to take control of engine-maker J. Tylor and Sons who were supplying engines to Angus-Sanderson which was intending to move to large scale production. However Angus-Sanderson overstretched themselves, and Wrigley stopped supplying them in November 1920. Angus-Sanderson failed in 1921, this forced Tylor into receivership. Wrigley's had to write off its shareholding in both companies and for the year ending April 1921 reported a loss of £548,300.E.G. Wrigley out of gear, Pall Mall Gazette, 21 October 1921, p10 Wrigley's was not able to recover and was placed in receivership at the end of 1923. Although Angus-Sanderson was resurrected as Angus Sanderson (1921) Ltd (with control of J Tylor and Sons) it made relatively few cars, and failed in 1927. The failure of Angus-Sanderson was in part due to being undercut by Morris, and on 1 January 1924

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

bought from the receiver the complete assets of Wrigley, including the buildings, and on 4 February of that year, the former Wrigley business, now incorporated as Morris Commercial Cars Limited, began the manufacture of light commercial vehicles with a 1-ton truck. By 1930 trucks of from 10 cwt up to 5 tons capacity were being made and ''Dictator'' and ''Imperial'' single and double-decker buses.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrigley, EG, and Co Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Engineering companies of the United Kingdom Automotive companies of the United Kingdom Cyclecars Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England British companies established in 1898 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1898 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1924 1898 establishments in England 1924 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 1924