Burman and Sons Ltd, of Ryland Road,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, manufactured Burman-Douglas

steering Steering is a system of components, linkages, and other parts that allows a driver to control the direction of the vehicle. Introduction The most conventional steering arrangement allows a driver to turn the front wheels of a vehicle using ...

gear. Their worm and nut design of steering gear was fitted to pre-war vehicles such as the

Ford Eight Ford 7Y is a car built by Ford UK from 1938 until 1939. During that time 65,098 cars were produced. The car was officially marketed as a Ford Eight, and was a rebodied and slightly larger version of the Model Y. The car was powered by a 8hp ...

and the

Ford Prefect The Ford Prefect is a line of British cars which was produced by Ford UK between 1938 and 1961 as an upmarket version of the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia small family cars. It was introduced in October 1938 and remained in production until 19 ...

, the

Bedford CA The Bedford CA was a distinctive pug-nosed light commercial vehicle produced between 1952 and 1969 by Bedford in Luton, England. It was manufactured in short-wheelbase and long-wheelbase forms, each form available in either a 10–12 ...

, plus heavy trucks and off-road vehicles - both pre and post-war. In its day, Burman-Douglas steering-gear was regarded as...

''... a "quality" feature of a car chassis specification'',

but the worm and nut design was eventually surpassed by the more direct

rack and pinion A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert rotational motion into linear motion. Rotating the pinion causes the rack to be driven ...

design which dominates today. The company also manufactured motorcycle gearboxes during part of its history.http://www.barkshire.co.uk/bikes/Literature/Generic/Burman1926Sales/Burman1926_01.jpg

References

Automotive companies of England Automotive steering technologies Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Manufacturing companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands {{automotive-part-stub