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Associated Equipment Company
Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was a British vehicle manufacturer that built buses, motorcoaches and trucks from 1912 until 1979. The name Associated Equipment Company was hardly ever used; instead, it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands. During World War One, AEC was the most prolific British lorry manufacturer, after building London's buses before the war. History Inception The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn Coach (carriage), omnibus services then operating in London. The company began producing motor omnibuses for its own use in 1909 with the LGOC X-type, X-type designed by its chief motor engineer, Frank Searle (businessman), Frank Searle, at works in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow. The X-type was followed by Searle's LGOC B-type, B-type design, considered to be one of the first mass-produced commercial vehicles. In 1912, LGOC was taken over by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, Unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Leyland
British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the British government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40% share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar Cars, Jaguar, Rover (marque), Rover, and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, BLMC had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation. After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, BL was renamed the Rover Group in 1986, becoming a subsidiary of British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, then was subsequently bought by BMW. The fina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in New York City, an India publishing office in New Delhi, an Australian sales office in Sydney CBD, and other publishing offices in the UK, including in Oxford. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The company was founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton, who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books. A rights issue of shares in 1998 further raised £6.1 million, which was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Read ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deacon (artillery)
The AEC Mk I Gun Carrier, known as Deacon, was a British armoured fighting vehicle of the Second World War. It was an attempt to make the QF 6 pounder anti-tank gun into a self-propelled artillery piece. It was employed only during the North African Campaign from 1942 to 1943. History The Deacon was developed in 1942 to provide British Army units in North Africa with a mobile anti-tank weapon. It can be seen as a development of the practice of carrying smaller artillery pieces '' en portee'' (sitting on the back of trucks). This meant that the artillery could quickly move albeit with some loss of traverse. The basis of the Deacon Gun Carrier was an AEC Matador truck chassis. A 6-pounder gun with enclosed armoured shield was mounted on the flat bed at the rear of the chassis. The gunner and loader operated the gun from behind the shield. The conventional cab was replaced with a boxy armoured construction that covered the engine and the driver's position. Production started in De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artillery Tractor
An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked. Traction There are two main types of artillery tractors, depending on the type of traction: wheeled and tracked. * Wheeled tractors are usually variations of lorries adapted for military service. * Tracked tractors run on continuous track; in some cases are built on a modified tank chassis with the superstructure replaced with a compartment for the gun crew or ammunition. In addition, half-track tractors were used in the interwar period and in World War II, especially by the Wehrmacht. This type of tractor was mostly discontinued postwar. History World War I The first artillery tractors were designed prior to the outbreak of World War I, often based on agricultural machines such as the Holt tractor. Such vehicles allowed the tactical use of heavier guns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AEC Matador
The AEC Matador was a heavy 4×4 truck and medium artillery tractor built by the Associated Equipment Company for British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. AEC had already built a 4×2 lorry, also known as the Matador (all AEC lorries received 'M' names) in 1931. Description The Matador was distinctive with its flat fronted cab with gently curved roof, wheels at the corners and a flat load carrying area covered by a canvas or tarpaulin tilt. As an artillery tractor, rather than a cargo vehicle, the wooden sides were fixed in place without folding down, but did have a narrow crew door on each side. Two transverse bench seats were provided for the gun crew, reached through the side doors, at the 1st side bay on the left and the 2nd on the right. The cab was framed in ash and clad in steel. It was equipped with a winch (7-ton load in its case) like all artillery tractors. The O853 provided the basis for the 'Dorchester' armoured command vehicle. AEC also produced a la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AEC 850
The FWD R.6.T, later and more widely known as the AEC 850, was a British 6×6 military vehicle of the interwar period that was used in the early part of World War Two. Development FWD The R.6.T began as an :en:artillery tractor, artillery tractor developed by the British Four Wheel Drive Lorry Company (FWD England) of :en:Slough Trading Estate, Slough. FWD began in 1921 as a British subsidiary of the US :en:Four Wheel Drive, Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, refurbishing and reselling war-surplus FWD Model B trucks, nearly three thousand of which had been purchased by the British Army during the First World War. Thousands more had been purchased by the US Army, but these were mostly redistributed within the US. By 1926 the British operation was increasingly independent and began to produce new designs. The directors were Henry Nyberg, an American from FWD, and Charles Cleaver a pre-war designer of bus chassis with the :en:LGOC, London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), later :en:A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Wheel Drive
The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive (FWD), was a pioneering American company that developed and produced all-wheel drive vehicles. It was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Drive Auto Company by Otto Zachow and William Besserdich.Borth, Christy. ''Masters of Mass Production''. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1945, pp. 210-14. The first production facility was built in 1911 and was designed by architect Wallace W. DeLong of Appleton, Wisconsin. FWD renamed FWD Corporation and its associates Seagrave, Baker Aerialscope, and Almonte Fire Trucks were sold in 2003 to an investment group headed by former American LaFrance executive James Hebe. Today, the Seagrave Fire Apparatus group is a flagship company of ELB Capital Management. History Zachow and Besserdich developed and built their first successful four-wheel drive (4x4) car, the "Battleship", in 1908. Its success led to the founding of the company. " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trolleyDunbar, Charles S. (1967). ''Buses, Trolleys & Trams''. Paul Hamlyn Ltd. (UK). Republished 2004 with or 9780753709702.) is an electric bus that draws power from dual overhead wires (generally suspended from roadside posts) using spring-loaded or pneumatically raised trolley poles. Overhead line#Parallel overhead lines, Two wires, and two trolley poles, are required to complete the electrical circuit. This differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole (or pantograph (transport), pantograph). They are also distinct from other kinds of Battery electric bus, electric buses, which usually rely on Automotive battery, batteries. Power is most commonly supplied as 600-volt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Electric
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers, locomotives and railway electric traction, traction equipment, diesel engine, diesel motors and steam turbines. Its products were later expanded to include consumer electronics, nuclear reactors, guided missiles, military aircraft and mainframe computers. Two English Electric aircraft designs became landmarks in British aeronautical engineering; the English Electric Canberra, Canberra and the English Electric Lightning, Lightning. In 1960, English Electric Aircraft (40%) merged with Vickers Armstrongs, Vickers (40%) and Bristol Aeroplane Company, Bristol (20%) to form British Aircraft Corporation. In 1968 English Electric's operations were merged with General Electric Company#Further expansion (1961–83), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Engine
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compression (physics), compression; thus, the diesel engine is called a compression-ignition engine (CI engine). This contrasts with engines using spark plug-ignition of the air-fuel mixture, such as a petrol engine (gasoline engine) or a gas engine (using a gaseous fuel like natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas). Introduction Diesel engines work by compressing only air, or air combined with residual combustion gases from the exhaust (known as exhaust gas recirculation, "EGR"). Air is inducted into the chamber during the intake stroke, and compressed during the compression stroke. This increases air temperature inside the Cylinder (engine), cylinder so that atomised diesel fuel injected into the combustion chamber ignites. The torque a dies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
