The British Motor Syndicate Limited (BMS) was a company formed in November 1895 by company promoter and entrepreneur
Harry John Lawson
Henry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, (23 February 1852–12 July 1925) was a British bicycle designer, racing cyclist, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson ...
. Lawson's aim was to use BMS to raise funds from the public to establish a business with a monopoly on
petrol-driven cars by acquiring as many
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s as possible related to such vehicles from Gottlieb Daimler, his business associates, and other sources.
[Miscellaneous Companies. ''The Times'', Monday, Nov 30, 1896; pg. 17; Issue 35061]
![Turrell-Bollée by The Coventry Motor Company Limited](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Turrell-Boll%C3%A9e_by_The_Coventry_Motor_Company_Limited.jpg)
It was never the company's intention to produce motor cars, but rather to exploit the patents it had purchased by charging substantial royalties to automobile manufacturers for the right to manufacture cars using those patents.
__TOC__
Patentees
By the time of the
first public issue, twelve months after incorporation, the following patent holders had committed themselves to BMS:
![Léon Bollée en avril 1898 (premier du Critérium des Motocycles)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/L%C3%A9on_Boll%C3%A9e_en_avril_1898_%28premier_du_Crit%C3%A9rium_des_Motocycles%29.jpg)
*
Henry P Holt of
Crossley Bros, Manchester.
Otto Gas Engine makers.
*
Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (; 17 March 1834 – 6 March 1900) was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf (Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany. He was a ...
, inventor Daimler motor carriage (master patents)
*
W Worby Beaumont (consulting automobile and mechanical engineer and author)
*
M. Bollée, inventor
Bollée voiturette
*
E J Pennington, inventor of the Pennington Motor
*
Count de Dion, inventor de Dion motorcycle
*
Walter O Bersey, inventor electric cab and carriages
*
J J Henry Sturmey, editor
Autocar and many others
and BMS had received more than £200,000 from English motor car manufacturers, leading names were
Lawson's
Daimler
Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to:
People
* Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies
* Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler
* Paul Da ...
and
Great Horseless.
[
]
Directors
Directors at the time of flotation, November 1896:
* Harry John Lawson
Henry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, (23 February 1852–12 July 1925) was a British bicycle designer, racing cyclist, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson ...
, President Motor Car Club, Founder Safety Bicycle Industry, Chairman of directors Beeston Pneumatic Tyre Company Limited
* Prince Ranjitsinhji
Colonel H. H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, (10 September 1872 – 2 April 1933), often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as Mah ...
, Owner Indian Patents
* Herbert H Mulliner, Director of: Coupé and Dunlop Brougham Company Limited, London Electrical Cab Company Limited
* Thomas Humber
Thomas Humber (16 October 1841 – 24 November 1910) was a British engineer and cycle manufacturer who developed and patented a safety bicycle (1884) with a diamond-shaped frame and wheels of similar size. It became a pattern for subsequent ...
, Founder Humber Cycle Company
* Thomas Robinson, Director Great Horseless Carriage Company Limited
* Lord Norreys President of the Road and Path Cycling Association[
Brokers: Ernest T Hooley, Chapman & Rowe]
Consulting Engineer: Frederick R. Simms[
]
Educated opinions of the float
''The Economist'' was reported by the ''Coventry Herald'' as saying that the public might judge for themselves if reasonable dividends could be earned on the inflated amount of the syndicate's capital. Furthermore "the publication f the prospectushas been followed by a chorus of repudiations" from those said to be connected with the syndicate, one way or another. In the opinion of ''The Economist'' the syndicate would be unable to bar the way to the industry's progress by insisting on exorbitant royalties.[p6, Coventry Herald December 11, 1896 ''A prospectus of vague generalities, the syndicate tainted in its origin'']
Activities
The British Motor Syndicate was formed when cars still had to be preceded by a man on foot. Lawson could see this restriction would soon be lifted and acquired the British Daimler rights from Gottlieb Daimler's British agent Frederick R. Simms. By this time Hamburg-born London consulting engineer Simms had had these arrangements with his personal friend Gottlieb Daimler for some years. Daimler's engines were used by leading French manufacturers including Panhard-Levassor and Peugeot. Simms also received a licence fee from owners of cars built under Gottlieb Daimler's patents.[
The general public promptly bought all the new capital of the November 1896 flotation despite the financial press's warnings of Lawson's failures with his other recent new flotations. Lawson then sold to embryo subsidiary business, British Daimler, the rights he had just bought from Simms – for near half the capital raised – and asked Simms as BMS consulting engineer to find suitable premises to begin manufacture of engines under the licence and complete cars. Simms found an ideal purpose-built building in Cheltenham belonging to John Henry Knight but Hooley had found a disused four-storey cotton mill in Coventry and despite its unsuitability Lawson bought that from his crony Hooley and so the motor industry developed in Coventry not Cheltenham. The new Coventry premises were shared with Edward Joel Pennington, a confidence trickster who obtained most of the cash BMS raised from the public in exchange for no cars.][
The German Canstatt-Daimler business, later Daimler-Benz, had no financial interest in British Daimler or The British Motor Syndicate.][
]
Collapse
Lawson's plan did indeed have a dampening effect on the fledgling British automobile industry. Herbert Austin
Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...
, for instance, abandoned the development of his first Wolseley because of its too close similarity to a vehicle the patent for which was owned by BMS. But BMS ultimately failed, most obviously because of a 1901 court decision that gutted its business model, by which time rapid improvements in technology had made the company's patents obsolete in any case.
;State of the Art 1896
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{refend
British companies established in 1895
Holding companies established in 1895
1895 establishments in England
Holding companies of the United Kingdom